Story Line

by Jennifer Grisanti

  Many writers do struggle with the clear definition of the goal. This is because goals are hard things to set in our own lives. However, if we really think about it, we set small goals for ourselves on a daily basis. So, we really do have a lot to draw from. It’s when we look at our current life goals that we feel like we can’t reflect on them until we do achieve them. However, we do achieve and accomplish every day, every single one of us. No matter how small, we start our day by thinking about what we have to get done. At the end of the day, many of us reflect on what we completed on our “to do” list and what we still need to get done. These are goals, just on a smaller level. These small goals often lead us into larger goals. Whether we do achieve the larger goals in real life or not, the pursuit of them is important. If we don’t pursue, we don’t know what could have been possible. If we don’t know what could have been possible, we regret. Most of us know that feeling regret, more often than not, feels worse than feeling rejection. Rejection signifies that you tried. Since most of us go through rejection on a daily basis, we have a lot to draw from when it comes to the page and our characters facing rejection. I find that, for many writers. this part comes easier than the setting of the goal. Reviewing your thoughts, you will recognize that you do have a lot to draw from in your well in regards to the setting of goals. You can strengthen your story by setting up a clear goal.

  We’ve also discussed the internal goal. I like writers to work on both. Understand the importance of both in the telling of your story. What does your central character want from the achievement on an emotional level? Why is it important that he/she achieve the goal? Some advanced writers run the internal goal alongside the external goal. They also make the internal and external goals opposing to one another. By doing this, you will deepen and clarify your story.

  In television, you can see this done beautifully in the pilot for White Collar. Neal’s internal goal for the episode—which is also his character arc for the season—is to find his love, Kate. In order to have the freedom to find Kate, he has to find “The Dutchman” in the pilot episode. Seeing the two stories parallel throughout adds a lot more depth to the overall experience. Think about how you can do this in your writing.

  Another way to heighten the achievement of the goal in the A story is to have the B story complement, elevate, and inform what is going on in the A story. This is also a more advanced approach, but when done well, it really makes a difference. One of the factors in having this work is having a strong theme tie your stories together so that as we see the pursuit of the goal/dilemma in the A story, we understand how the pursuit of the goal in the B story can heighten and add dimension to the A story.

  Placement-wise, you want to have the achievement of the goal happen very shortly after your “all is lost” sequence. You want to have time with your character or characters in the resolution. I find that when not enough time is spent in the aftermath of the achievement of the goal, you lose some of the resonance of your story. We all want to know what life looks like after the dream is achieved. So, give your audience this slice of life after the change.

  “Resolution” is an interesting word to explore. How do you resolve conflicts in your own life? Start being conscious of how you experience resolution. I remember an exercise I did from the book Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff written by Richard Carlson. It asked you to write a list of five to ten things that you are most worried about in the moment. Then, a week later, check your list. How many of the things that you were worried about the week before came to fruition? It was fascinating to see that we waste so much time worrying about things that never do happen. Well, in the same vein, I would like for you to think about small goals that you set each day. Look at your “to do” list. Then, at the end of each day, think about how you achieved and resolved whatever you set out to do, no matter how small. Be in the moment of achievement. If it started as a problem, be in the moment of the resolution. What does this look like and how does it feel? These are the moments that will build your well. Your well is where you draw your voice. Your voice comes from your ability to fictionalize your truth into your story. The achievement of a goal or the failure to achieve draws up all kinds of emotions. What we experience in real life is a precursor to how strong we are on the page. We have to be willing to jump off cliffs to find our answers. Whether we achieve the goal or not, we grow in having the answer. We build our well.

  Living your life to the fullest and knowing the experiences of success and failure will make you a stronger writer. So, don’t be afraid. Embrace it all and recognize that you are on a mission to know what life looks like after the attainment of a goal, so you want to attain as many goals as possible in this lifetime.

  EXERCISE

  Look at all of your current scripts. Notice if you spend enough time after the attainment of the goal painting a picture of life after the shift. Also, recognize that if you do not fully feel the attainment of the goal in your story line, you can probably trace this back to the setup of your goal, which may not be as strong as it could be.

  One of the most important components of strong story is the knowledge of whether your character does or does not achieve the goal. In TV, your central character almost always achieves the goal. You need to see the achievement of the external goal. Then, you want to build on what life looks like after the goal was reached. Dive into your well. What did your life look like after your attainment of major life goals? In these moments, you will find your voice. Your voice will strengthen your writing. Showing what life looks like after the attainment of a goal is an opportunity for you to connect with your own growth and convey this through the growth of your character.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  WHAT IS A RECURRING MESSAGE IN YOUR OWN LIFE?

  A message prepared in the mind reaches a mind; a message prepared in a life reaches a life.

  ~ Bill Gothard

  Reflect on your life. What messages have come to you through your stories? Wikipedia defines the word “message” as a vessel which provides information. Messages can evolve from how we perceive our reality. Our instinct sends us messages. Our heart sends us messages. Our mind sends us messages. The universe sends us messages. Messages rise through our stories. We feel them, but we don’t always listen. They are sometimes subtle and can be missed. If we are conscious and aware, we know that they are there.

  Messages bring up a romantic notion for many of us. The most romantic visual of a message is a message in a bottle. It portrays a sense of love and deep feeling—the idea that someone cared enough to communicate. It also creates mystery. What is written in the message and what will be the response from the receiver? Will the love be returned? Will it be an expression of love or an ending point? Messages embody life.

  Think about your mission statement and what you want your tombstone to say. These are messages that reflect how we hope to live our lives and the legacy that we leave behind. In our mission statements we think about what personifies the parts of ourselves that we want others to know and that we use to inspire ourselves. On our tombstone, which most of us avoid pondering heavily, the majority of us would like to leave some kind of message to the world about a life that was fulfilled.

  I believe that one of my missions is to stop isolation through the revelation of story. This is a message that I feel I am supposed to get out. I practice this in my seminars when I do the exercise Log Line for Your Life. Before my eyes, I see a room that was at first filled with strangers, yet through the messages that people send out when they write their log lines, the room full of strangers slowly becomes a community. As each person expresses a few lines that reflect their life at this point with a little fiction added in, we learn that our life paths are not that different. We have so many shared experiences that we didn’t even know about. We often bond over our shared pain, as well as our shared joy. We connect through the messages of our story.

  Messages are like a warm breeze. They are there to signify and add depth to portions of our journe
y. They are there to remind us to take care of ourselves. They are reflections of parts of ourselves that we want to see and some that we don’t. They are ways that we express, emote, process, and conceptualize. When they come from the universe, they are often wakeup calls and gentle reminders of how we can do better. If we are in a state to listen to them, they represent growth.

  What are some recurring messages in your life? Think about when a series of significant events occurs and you feel like there’s something you’re supposed to learn. When you think about the themes in your life and the symbolism that you’ve encountered, often there is a message embedded within. Messages come through our subconscious. When we become aware of their presence, it is a gift. Have you ever been driving and you almost went one way but didn’t and soon realized if you had, you would have had an accident? It’s as if we have angels on our shoulders that send us messages and keep us safe. Now, most people have devils on their shoulders as well, but it’s just about which message wins out. In which situation does the good outweigh the bad?

  Self talk is a way that our brain sends messages. We struggle between the positive and the negative of what comes up. It’s interesting to consider whether some of your messages are coming from your ego or your spirit. If you can learn to separate them, you can dilute the power of the negative messages and empower the positive ones. If they are coming from our ego versus our spirit, it helps us to identify this when we are processing the message. Learning to train our thoughts to be more spirit-centered will help us to lead a more positive life. This is not an easy endeavor, by any means, but it is a worthwhile one. Our thoughts control so much in our lives. They can be the difference between whether we succeed or not. If we see things from our core versus our ego, we recognize the gift of positive messages and the effect that they can have on our well-being.

  Messages that we send out about ourselves can be expressed in so many ways. We send messages out when we write our profiles, when we write emails, when we volunteer, when we work, when we choose clothes, when we write books, journals, or letters. In any form of expression, we are sending out a message. If you start to be conscious of the type of message that you want to send out to the universe about yourself, you will see that there are so many messages that are present in your life. Begin to go deeper into these messages. What do you want the world to know about you? Why is it important that they know this? Are you sending out the right messages? When bad things happen, we are forced to re-evaluate and understand what messages we are sending out that are responsible for the negative energy in our lives.

  In my own life, I think about messages every day. When I go to my meetings, I consider what I want to accomplish during the meeting. I go in with this intention. Part of this process is thinking about what message I want to leave behind. When I dress for certain events, I do consider the situation. I think about the message that my clothes are sending out. When you work in a corporate environment, you see just how important what you wear can be. With owning my own business, I love the freedom that I have to just be who I am and not to have to live up to an expectation of who I think I should be in the eyes of other people. Spiritually, I am very in tune with the messages that I like receiving and sending out. I heavily believe in the law of attraction. It is a practice that I implement in my life every day with meditation and yoga. The messages that I get on a spiritual level keep me centered and in balance. When things feel out of alignment, I go back to my core and think about the messages that I am sending out and how I can adjust them.

  All of this has to do with being conscious. Consciousness is something that is shifting in our nation as a result of what we’ve experienced with the economy, 9/11, and natural disasters. Security is something that, for many of us, has been thrown out the window. We need to embrace new ideas and concepts that can build a stronger sense of stability from within. So much of our life is determined by outer events. We cannot control many of these things. What we can control is how we respond to them. So, if you do the work, you will learn that training your mind to send you positive messages, even during some of life’s darkest moments, will have a profound effect on your life.

  Simplicity is definitely a message that has come up in the last few years. By not having as much materially, we learn the truth about how little we need to be happy. Millions lost their jobs over the past few years. Losing your livelihood threatens your well-being. It forces you to make changes. When I read about the changes in Time and Newsweek, I am fascinated to see all the different effects that the economy is having on people’s lives. In some stories, it is bringing families back together. This makes me wonder about the message the universe is sending us. Simplicity is actually something to strive for, versus be afraid of. When we see that if we have a healthy mind and a healthy body everything else falls into place, we learn the true value of this message of simplicity.

  In thinking about your recurring messages, what do you see? What do you feel?

  If you have a recurring message that doesn’t suit you, change it. If you see a pattern that you’ve formed of dating the wrong people or attracting the wrong friends, do not be afraid to make changes. I have found that, as I get older, the energy I surround myself with is something I think about. Life is short and life is precious. As our time in this life is lessening, we value our choice of who we spend it with more and more. This often stems from the messages that we receive from people.

  Think of the messages that you get in your dreams. When you wake up and your mind is still fresh from what you just dreamt about, consider the message that you draw from it. Creatively, this is a great way to be more conscious and better understand the messages that are coming from your subconscious. You have no control of your thoughts during your sleep. So, the idea that messages appear is something to really consider exploring in your writing. The feature writer Susannah Grant said that she finds the best time to write is anytime right after you wake up. She writes at 4:00 a.m. I was inspired by this. I recognized that I often find myself awake at 4:00 a.m. Since I’ve realized that this is a valuable time to write, I’ve embraced my creativity early in the morning and interpreted some of the messages that come up in my dreams.

  Messages add depth to your writing. They cause you to really be conscious of what you’re expressing and why you’re expressing it. Messages can be the first thing you think about when you begin your writing process or they can be the last thing you add because of what organically comes up through your words. I often find that this is the last thing that writers think about. Personally, I think it is more beneficial if it is one of the first things to consider. Think about your audience. What do you want them to walk away with after seeing your story?

  Messages are subjective. They can take on an arc of their own in your story. If you start with a small expression of what your message is and you build on it and escalate it throughout your story, so that by the end, your message is clear, you will have a greater connection with your audience and add a deeper meaning to your story.

  EXERCISE

  When you watch or read story think about what type of messages you are experiencing. Think about ways you can implement stronger messages in your story lines.

  A way to further think about messages is to ask the following question after experiencing story: “How did I interpret the message in connection with my own life?”

  In looking at your own story lines, ask yourself the same question. You will find your message if it’s not already there.

  CONCLUSION

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  WHAT IS THE MESSAGE IN YOUR STORY?

  My life is my message.

  ~ Mahatma Gandhi

  In closing, I would like to go over one of the last, yet most important, parts of the construction of story: What is the message of your story? When your audience walks out of the theater, turns off the television set, or finishes your book, what is the message you want them to remember?

  Some of the goals of a storyteller are to re
ach, connect, emote, fulfill, intrigue, inspire, empower, and impress. What do you want to impress upon your audience? What is the message in your story? Think about weaving it throughout and building us up to the point of recognition. Intoxicate us with the journey and, before the end, expose us to the story beneath your words. Let us into your mind and heart. Connect us to your breath.

  The message that you embed in your story line lets the audience access your vision. While constructing your journey, think about how you utilize theme and symbolism. When you add a message to these two components, you complete your story. It is your icing. It is what will make your script stand out if you express and weave it well. As an analyst, when I see all of these parts working together, I feel totally fulfilled because I see your vision and understand your completeness. Understanding how to weave this all into your masterpiece takes a willingness to dig deep into the reasons behind why you are telling your story and the maturity to know what you want to leave your audience with. This is your imprint. What do you want imprinted?

  We leave tracks behind with our words. Messages are a revealing way of guiding your audience in the direction you want them to go. You are giving them answers. The interpretation of messages is a totally subjective experience for the reader. When executed well by the creator, messages universally connect us to you. I believe that we all seek a deeper meaning in life. We want to experience life to its fullest. We want to connect more with the human experience. As artists, you want to take us there. If you write using all three components, you greatly increase the chance of having a shared experience with your audience. You pull them into what it is you want to say and why you want to say it.