November 22, 2014 1 Comment

Storytelling as Dialectical Argument

 

Today, and continuing throughout November, I am presenting a series of posts I’m calling The Happiness Plot, which will make up a very brief introduction to storytelling structure. A perfect way to stay in the groove for NaNoWriMo2014.

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To find the beginning of The Happiness Plot, click here or “The Happiness Plot” category listing to the right. 

Now, we continue with The Happiness Plot…

Storytelling as Dialectical Argument

17.

But the Controlling Idea is only the conclusion to a story’s argument; it is not the argument itself. Just as the philosopher must supply a set of premises or claims in support of his conclusion, so too the storyteller must supply premises or claims in support of his Controlling Idea.

Yet not even this will be sufficient for the story’s Controlling Idea to be persuasive. For stories, in order to be compelling, must be dramatic, which is to say they must involve conflict viewpoints. The storyteller, therefore, must not only argue for the story protagonist’s Controlling Idea; he must also argue for the Controlling Ideas of those characters who contend with the protagonist.

Philosophers call this type of argument, which takes up various reputable ideas concerning a given topic, dialectical argument. In his Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle pursues an inquiry into the nature of happiness by considering the leading or most reputable opinions about it. In his day as in ours, many people think happiness consists in pleasure, others in wealth or public recognition. Still others think happiness is to be found in philosophical contemplation. Aristotle sifts through these reputable opinions about happiness, weighing them against our commonly held intuitions about what happiness must be, in order to mine the partial truth in these opinions. In illuminating their partial truths, Aristotle gets a clearer idea of what genuine happiness consists in.

A good story works in the same way. A good story sets various characters and their viewpoints (their reputable opinions) in conflict with one another in order to work out a truth. In Sophocles’ Antigone, both Creon and Antigone think they know what justice and the gods demand, but their viewpoints conflict with one another. Sophocles’ play is the working through of these conflicting opinions in order to get at the genuine truth.

Filed Under: The Happiness Plot Tagged: , , ,
June 4, 2014 2 Comments

On Fiction and Philosophy

Do stories tell us truths about life? Is there any relation between fiction and philosophy?

C.S. Lewis, in An Experiment in Criticism, appears to say “no.” In speaking about the differences between tragedy, comedy, and farce he writes: “None of the three kinds [of drama] is making a statement about life in general. They are all constructions: things made out of the stuff of real life; additions to life rather than comments on it.”

Lewis qualifies his point. Any story “will be impregnated with all the wisdom, knowledge, and experience the author has; and even more by something which I can only vaguely describe as the flavor or “feel” that actual life has for him.” However, to regard the story “as primarily a vehicle for that philosophy” is for Lewis an “outrage” to the thing the author has made for us.

What Lewis is keen on stressing here, rightly, is that stories, novels, plays–narrative art in general–should not be taken as mere vehicles for the dissemination of an author’s philosophy. A play, for example, is not just a delivery system for abstract comments about life, more diverting than reading Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason to be sure, but essentially no different from Kant in being a philosophical proclamation. No story can simply be reduced to a statement of whatever wisdom the author may possess. “Don’t be indecisive” (I jest) is not a substitute for Hamlet. A play, in other words, is not a philosophical statement plus some literary qualities that we may dispense with if we choose.

And yet, Lewis fails to do justice to the way in which stories do tell us truths. I like Robert McKee’s formulation: “Storytelling is the creative demonstration of truth. A story is the living proof of an idea, the conversion of idea to action.” A story is not a work of philosophy, but there is at least a perceived wisdom embodied in the decisions the author has his characters make. The “argument” of the story is its plot, which in its climax aspires to conclude something about the way life ought to be lived. But this truth, if it is one, will only be convincing to an audience who attends to the literary qualities of the piece.

So a story is not a mere vehicle for a philosophy, but a philosophy is embedded in every story like the seal of a signet ring is embedded in wax.

Filed Under: The Philosophy of Stories Tagged: , , , ,
May 22, 2014 Leave a Comment

Inciting Incidents, Major Dramatic Questions, & Obligatory Scenes

The Inciting Incident, observes Robert McKee in Story, raises the Major Dramatic Question and projects an image of the Obligatory Scene.

In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the Inciting Incident raises the Question: “Will Walter find missing Negative #25?” In Saving Mr. Banks, the Major Dramatic Question is, “Will P.L. Travers sign over to Walt Disney the rights to the Mary Poppins books?” Explains McKee: “Hunger for the answer to the Major Dramatic Question grips the audience’s interest, holding it to the last act’s climax.”

But the Inciting Incident also creates the expectation in the audience’s mind of the Obligatory Scene: namely, the scene in which the protagonist confronts the final and most imposing obstacle keeping him from his goal. “The Obligatory Scene,” McKee writes, “(a.k.a. Crisis) is an event the audience knows it must see before the story can end. This scene will bring the protagonist into a confrontation with the most powerful forces of antagonism in his quest, forces stirred to life by the Inciting Incident that will gather focus and strength through the course of the story. The scene is called “obligatory” because having teased the audience into anticipating this moment, the writer is obligated to keep his promise and show it to them.”

In Walter Mitty, the Obligatory Scene is Walter’s trek up the mountain in the Himalayas where he finally finds Sean O’Connell. In Saving Mr. Banks, the Obligatory Scene is Mrs. Travers’ final confrontation with Walt Disney in her London home after she leaves Los Angeles in a huff, a confrontation in which Disney helps her exorcise the psychological demons that have been burdening her since childhood and which lie behind her 20-year reluctance to relinquish the rights to Mary Poppins.

Filed Under: The Craft of Screenwriting Tagged: , , , , ,
April 22, 2013 1 Comment

Character Wants and Character Needs

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Create memorable characters for your stories with the help of the distinction between character wants and internal character needs. Our discussion on today’s The Comic Muse Podcast.

In this podcast you will learn about

  • the most basic question a writer needs to answer in order to develop a compelling character
  • why what a character wants is not always exactly what a character needs
  • how a character’s internal need is connected to your story’s Controlling Idea

Works discussed in this podcast:

  1. Flannery O’Connor’s essay “Writing Short Stories” in her collection of essays, Mystery and Manners.
  2. David Corbett’s The Art of Character.

Character Wants and Character Needs 3

 

Filed Under: The Craft of Fiction Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,
April 15, 2013 Leave a Comment

Ideas and Stories

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

 “Storytelling is the creative demonstration of truth. A story is the living proof of an idea, the conversion of an idea to action.”  –Robert McKee, Story

In this edition of The Comic Muse Podcast we talk about the “soul” of story or what Robert McKee calls the Controlling Idea.

In this podcast you will learn about

  • the supreme importance of a strong, clear idea to the success of your story
  • the basic equation of a good story idea: VALUE + CAUSE
  • the necessity of integrating your idea into the “body” of your story

Books discussed in this podcast:

  1. Robert McKee, Story
  2. David Lodge, The Art of Fiction
  3. Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners
  4. Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
  5. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

 

Ideas and Stories

Filed Under: The Craft of Fiction Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,