Principles of Storytelling
Ancient Principles as Understood Today
Fear = Suspense
Pity = Empathy
Catharsis = Release
Where do Stories Take us?
Stories work in the realm
of our emotions
Storytellers manipulate
our feelings
through compelling
images and sounds
Story Selection
Where the emotional interests of
the storyteller and audience meet
A compelling character to explore
High stakes or highly humorous
situation
Where a story will yield a
succession of incidents
Basic Dramatic Format
A compelling “what if?”
situation
A character in action
with a goal
A series of obstacles
embodied by a
compelling antagonist
An outcome dependent
on testing the character
with tough choices.
Characters
Identifiable (empathetic)
Believable (recognizable)
Under stress
Multidimensional and surprising
Revealed by actions
Forced to make choices
Changed by central conflict of the story
Character Growth
Characters moved by events and their
own choices …
Rick in Casablanca goes
from complacency and self-pity
to heroic sacrifice
Charley in Citizen Kane goes
from confidence
to crushed pride
Crises, Climax and Resolution
Series of conflicts and surprises
Test and prove the
central premise
Has a catharsis or emotional payoff
for the audience
Dialogue (Aristotle’s principle of diction)
Observant and authentic
Concise, loaded words
Strong (out of the ordinary)
In comedy: ironic, playful, and revealing of character flaws
Visual Kinetics (Aristotle’s “spectacle”)
… must serve the story
Scenes built around movement
objects, people, camera, edits
Gestures – smiles, hugs, facial
expressions, body language
Costumes, production design,
visual effects
Movement paced by musical score
Premise
Lajos Egri called moral theme the “premise”
Romeo & Juliet: Love surpasses death
Othello: Jealousy destroys love
Citizen Kane: Pride leads to isolation
Law & Order, CI: Intellect defies evil
Seinfeld: If every instinct you have is wrong then
the opposite would have to be right
The Dramatic Center
Former NBC executive
Dona Cooper says a work’s
“dramatic center” is linked
to its pivotal moment of change
She identifies a story’s
dramatic structure as the
emotional rollercoaster
ride of its audience.
Character Growth
Character tests lead to character growth
Is the character …
Courageous or reckless?
Confident or too cocky?
Great or grandiose?
In control, or inflexible?
Charming or manipulative?
Thrifty or miserly?
Advice from David Milch
Engage a passion, and follow it
Identify the locus of tension in a story
Scenes come from the emotional
dynamic of the story, not plot points
Satisfying personal (affectionate) moments
set off from the drama of incident
reduce expectations for tight plotting
Juxtapositions and modulations of tone weave meanings
between stories
Argument of theme is indirect, so the viewer will find
significance in small moments
Advice from David Milch (continued)
Render behavior that seems credible,
get all the people right,
and trust that things will connect
Respect the humanity of characters
and you make all stories one story
The sources of good storytelling are in the heart
The pressures of the present story
force the past out of the unconscious
Respect the people, respect the situation, turn the screws.
Romance = high stakes
When love is at stake,
so is happiness
Obstacles to love
are great plot drivers
Nora Ephron
Obstacles to Love
Age, class, or cultural differences
Ambition (love vs. work)
Annoying habits
Envy, lust, pride, etc.
Reversal of circumstances
Greed, haste, mistrust, rivalry
Commitment and prior commitments
Comedy
Characters often embody the “flaws of the day”
Opposites attract
Rivals and relatives
often deliver insult humor
In farce, misunderstandings
and false inferences accompany
wit and physical comedy
Include an unconventional character
Great Writers – a very partial list
Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard)
Carl Reiner (Caesar’s Hour, The Dick Van Dyke Show,
David Milch (NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, Deadwood)
James L. Brooks (Broadcast News, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Simpsons)
Steven Bochco (NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law)
Joe Keenan, Christopher Lloyd (Frasier)
Larry Gelbart (Tootsie, M*A*S*H (TV), Your Show of Shows, Barbarians at the Gate)
Madelyn David, Bob Carroll Jr., Jess Oppenheimer (I Love Lucy)
Donald Ogden Stewart (The Philadelphia Story, Holiday)
Herman J. Mankiewicz (Citizen Kane, Dinner at Eight)
Norman Lear (All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude)
Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve, Sullivan’s Travels, Easy Living)
Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, Silkwood)
Anthony Horowitz (Foyle’s War, Agatha Christie: Poirot)
Frank Pierson (Dog Day Afternoon, Cool Hand Luke)
Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm)
Robert Bolt (Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago)
I.A.L. Diamond (Some Like it Hot, The Apartment)
Julius J. and Phillip G. Epstein (Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy)
Mel Brooks (Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles)
Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark)
Carl Foreman (High Noon, The Bride on the River Kwai)
Ernest Lehman (North by Northwest, The Sweet Smell of Success)
William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men)
Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil)
Robert Towne (Chinatown, The Last Detail)
Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman (Annie Hall, Manhattan)
Samson Raphaelson (Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner)
Matthew Weiner (Mad Men, The Sopranos)
Sally Wainwright (Scott & Bailey)
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