One of my favorite quotes is from a writer named Michael Margolis. He’s left-handed and color blind, so he basically has everything going against him. Anyway, here’s the quote:
“If you want to learn about a culture, listen to their stories. If you want to change a culture, change the stories.”
Soooo true. And it’s a reminder for any subculture. Want to change the culture of parks and trails design? Or the culture of restaurant regulations? Or the culture of education? Or any culture of conformity? Change the stories.
And here’s where people get stuck. How do you tell a decent first story about a subculture — a boring industry, for example — let alone change the existing stories?
Thousands of books have been written about how to write. You could spend the rest of your days on earth learning about story formats, language, sentence structure, and so on. But I want to give you an easy way to get started.
Storytelling in 3 words: Hero. Conflict. Resolution.
It’s the 3-act structure that’s worked in movies for 100 years. And it’s the 3-act structure that worked for cavemen gathered around the campfire. The human brain loves it: Hero. Conflict. Resolution.
First, the Hero is your sympathetic focal point.
It’s a crystal clear subject that people care about. The hero can be a person or an inanimate object like a new bridge over the river.
Describe your Hero so clearly that the audience can picture the Hero even without giving a specific name. We should also be able to understand the motivations and relate in some way. Make the audience care about the Hero, and they’ll stick around to find out how the story ends.
Next, the Conflict. If something can go wrong, it will.
Tell us about it. What trouble has your Hero fallen into? What threat is looming over them? This is the bulk of your story, no matter how long or short it is.
Finally, the Resolution. Figure out a way to make things better in the end.
If your story documents something that already happened and it has a happy ending, great. If not, then what would make the situation improve? How could the project or policy be changed to better serve the public interest?
Here’s a quick example of a story using Hero, Conflict, and Resolution.
Write about a woman who was laid off from her accounting job during the Coronavirus shutdown. She started a backyard garden as a form of therapy, and quickly realized she could supplement her family’s income by selling fresh produce to neighbors.
But just as she was gaining momentum, the county administration sent notice that she was violating local law. Stop work and pay the fines.
It turns out regulations prohibit selling fresh produce from one backyard to the next.
Take it from there. Bring the audience to the Resolution.
Remember, if you want to learn about a culture, listen to their stories. If you want to change a culture, change the stories.