Definition of a Story

Posted by Jennine Lanouette on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

Let me explain what I mean when I use the word “story.” The ultimate test, as I see it, of whether or not a given chronicle of events constitutes a story is if there is an A to B progression from its beginning to its end. In other words, to feel we have been told a story we need to have a sense that we’ve ended up somewhere different from where we started. That different place can be the triumph over an enemy, the solving of a mystery, the inner transformation of the main character or any number of other such possibilities. But it gives the viewer a sense of purpose in the story, by achieving mastery in conflict, by bringing hidden information to light or by being emotionally and psychologically transformed.

To illustrate, if I asked you to tell me about your average day, you would give me a chronicle of events that describes your day. I would then have a static, but perhaps useful, picture of what your life is like. This is going from A to A. But if I asked you to tell me about the highpoint of your day, you would probably pick a moment in which you accomplished something or learned something or experienced a change of some kind. Then, to help me fully understand its significance to you, in the telling of it you would also give me the events leading up for context and an event or two following for aftermath and I would come away with that satisfying feeling of having heard an interesting story.

Thus, I am not dismissing out of hand any film that goes from A to A. I am only making the distinction that such a film is not telling a story. It is simply describing A. If this is your intention, for example, if you want to present a rumination on the unchanging nature of human behavior or give an unvarnished exposure of a corrupt or tragic situation, that can be a valid purpose. And, in the process, your audience can learn something important about the static situation you have described. But if it is your intention to tell a story, you have to get to B.

By the way, let me just add that, in film as in life, getting to B doesn’t have to be a 180 degree flip, particularly in the arena of character. It’s not that we have to see a major redemption happen. Sometimes I feel like all these I’ve-seen-the-folly-of-my-ways happy endings that get shoved at us have given character transformation a bad name. So young writers get the idea that to be avant garde they have to underplay the change aspect of their ending. I’ve had students ask me questions like, “What if you go from A to A prime?” In response to which I momentarily become a math teacher. “Now, let’s remember back to eighth grade algebra. What is A to A prime mathematically? It’s the same thing as A to B!” Even if the character has only a teeny, weeny little insight, we are still ending up somewhere different from where we started.