![[Realness makes stories great - Ippolito Caffi, The Eclipse of the Sun in Venice, 1842.jpg]] <p class="caption">Ippolito Caffi, <em>The Eclipse of the Sun in Venice</em>, 1842</p> There are so many approaches to storytelling that it can be difficult to understand [[How to give notes to a writer|what elevates a story]] beyond the sum of its parts. Do a neat set of requirements have to be met for a story to be great? Or do you know it when you see it? The answer always lies in the eye of the beholder, but I’ve found that the stories that become deeply [[Meaninglessness never lasts when you create|meaningful]] to us tend to do similar things. **Start from here.** Culture is always changing, and with it our shared values, understanding of the world, and sense of identity. Stories can take us to incredible places, but the most impactful ones start where we currently are — they speak our cultural language. Not by miming the sensibility of other successful stories, but by considering our daily experiences and the shape of the lens through which we see our lives. If your viewer, reader, or listener can’t see themselves in your story, they can’t see your story. The greatest ones launch us into the sky by starting on the ground. **Grip us tightly.** A story can’t do anything else if it doesn’t first engage the person to whom it’s being told. There must be a propulsion that carries the audience from one moment to the next and creates a genuine desire to know what’s going to happen. It can help to take a hint from vaudeville and throw a mix of entertaining delights and developments into the plot, but nothing beats high and urgent stakes — what there is to lose if the main character doesn’t get their way. Stakes are what get football fans glued to the screen and poker players fixated on the table. A story is no different, a game board drawn up by the storyteller that gets more compelling when more is on the line. **Lead with characters.** For stakes to be engaging, we have to first want the main character to win. (Or need to see what happens if they lose.) Whether hero or antihero, bonding with a story’s lead is vital. They’re someone we see ourselves in, want to spend time with, and whose deep commitment to their goal makes us committed to it, too. While graspable through some combination of archetypes we’re already familiar with, they feel real, contending with the plot rather than serving it. The decisions they make in the face of challenges reveal who they are, always driven by a deep need that grounds them and pulls us in. And the same goes for supporting characters. **Reveal genuine change.** The logic behind the ways people and circumstances change can feel like a great mystery, and stories are vital because [[Stories reveal how people change|they allow us to glimpse how these changes really happen]]. The most resonant stories ring true to us — there’s nothing like the insight a story can give us about changes we’ve experienced that we never knew someone else could understand. How can we become who we’ve always dreamed of becoming? What can stop us from getting there? Why do we grow distant? Closer? How can we move on? If you can access the alchemy by which A becomes Z, you can elevate your story into a cultural compass that helps people chart the course of their lives. **Pick a side.** Life is messy, counterintuitive, and self-contradictory — but there are still universal truths that we all feel deeply. Your perspective as a storyteller is your power, and conceiving of your story as a heartfelt proof that [argues the existence of one of those truths](https://johnaugust.com/2019/scriptnotes-ep-403-how-to-write-a-movie-transcript) can move people greatly. You’re getting people to agree with you about some fundamental aspect of life — [_faith will always triumph over tyranny_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_(film)), [_we can overcome anything when we understand each other_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film)), [_a system of exploitation has only losers_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite_(2019_film)). Story is not the place to beat around the bush. When you double and triple down on what’s really true, that unwavering clarity will strike a chord. **Make authentic choices.** What makes a story distinctive is what makes it special. This is why trying to recreate other stories never truly works. It might feel pointless to go against the grain with a story that feels different from what’s currently popular, but this is actually the defining quality of most of the stories that have ever had a meaningful impact on people’s lives. They just have to also be authentic. Incredible things happen when storytellers trust their intuition and show us things we’ve never seen before — “Step into my world. You won’t believe what you’ll find.” Stories that are boldly different and driven by a unique perspective cut through the noise. **Stay simple.** Certain elements of a story can be fun when complex — the worldbuilding, the twists and turns of the plot, the intricacies of an action sequence. But stories that break through to people [[Use what you have|keep their fundamental dynamics graspable]]. The heart of the work — the reason we’re sitting here in the theater, who we’re rooting for, how close they are to getting what they want — is kept at the forefront of our minds and drives our connection to these flashing lights and streams of words. And the most alluring stories immerse themselves in a single through-line. You can only play one game at a time, after all. **Dramatize physically.** If a story is a board game (and it really is), it won’t work without pieces being placed on that board. Every advancement, setback, snake, ladder, and Get Out of Jail Free card must play out in a physical space where you can see the differences at a glance. Nothing is merely implied, mulled over, or mentioned — the most absorbing stories understand that this is an arena where meaningful change only happens when push comes to shove. Hamlet doesn’t start on a journey to avenge his father’s death by sitting there thinking to himself — he does this because a physical encounter with his father’s ghost compels him to. Marlin doesn’t set off to find Nemo because he receives a letter stating that he’s missing — Nemo is kidnapped before his eyes. **Serve a full meal.** Great stories give us the sense that [[Completion is a sacred spot|a delectable cycle has been completed]]. We’ve witnessed an incredible transformation — traveled from A to Z along a single thematic through-line. It’s taking that through-line as far as it can go that makes all the difference. _The Hunger Games_ introduces the theme, _freedom is only possible through sacrifice_, when Katniss relinquishes her freedom to save her sister. But it doesn’t stop there, building to a moment when she must make the greatest sacrifice possible — _her life_. Wouldn’t that story be so much less impactful if she just won the Hunger Games and went home? **Create catharsis.** We all want release. And by release, I mean we want the world to make sense, to feel good about ourselves, to air out our frustrations and vanquish them. We want to feel seen and heard, especially about things that seem too taboo to talk about in our daily lives. That’s where story comes in. You might watch a movie surrounded by other people, but the experience is immensely personal. Story is a place where our deepest spiritual discontents can be accessed and resolved. This happens at the end of meaningful stories — a moment of clarity is reached where the things that once overwhelmed us feel faceable and small, and we can return to ourselves again. A core idea that runs through the above is _realness_. Following real journeys about real people with real desires, challenges, and beliefs. Real as in relevant, even vital, to help us navigate the day-to-day here on the surface. Because though [[Never leave the Zone|stories transport us into other lives]], the greatest ones make the life we return to so much more worth living to the fullest. *written listening to [“lei sogna di noi” by Zeppi](https://open.spotify.com/track/7IYHaeSwnHOsQuaAOeaZTr)*