People get so worried that too much structure will make their stories boring. But let me show you how the right framework can actually help you get weird! I'll prove it with a story about how structure gave me the confidence to try something WAY outside my comfort zone. Hint: this story has a tear-away skirt in it.
People get so worried that too much structure will make their stories boring. But let me show you how the right framework can actually help you get weird! I'll prove it with a story about how structure gave me the confidence to try something WAY outside my comfort zone. Hint: this story has a tear-away skirt in it.
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(00:01):
If you've ever secretly wanted to wear nipple tassels, glitter, lipstick, and a tear off shirt, this episode will give you the confidence to go wild. I'm Micaela Blei and welcome to the Story Letter, the podcast about telling better stories. I'm so glad you're here. Let's talk about story structure. I hope when we're done today, you will maybe see that story structure is simpler than it seems and it can really transform your storytelling. What I mean by story structure is just very simply how a story gets put together. Any story has it, and there are tons of theories and books and courses about putting your story together the best. I think that story structure can either feel like an unsolvable puzzle or it can feel like the solution to all of your problems. There are lots of structures, but the most common one in English speaking countries is a very western story arc.
(01:00):
If you've taken writing classes or English classes, you might be really familiar with this, but it might be new to you. So the shape is always pretty much the same. There's a beginning and then it builds up, builds up, builds up, and then there's a climax and a resolution. That's the general shape, and within that, there are lots of little details and requirements depending on which template you're looking at, because there's many versions. The three act structure or the five act structure, Freytag’s pyramid, Aristotelian Arc, Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, there's also a heroine's journey. There's Dan Harmon who wrote the TV show Community, he has a story circle that's actually very cool. There are so many versions of the template for how Western stories go, and people have a very complicated relationship with story structure because it's easy to get really lost trying to master it.
(01:47):
A lot of writers think it's too constricting or they think it's too Western or too prescriptive. They want to break out of the narrative chains, and there's also a fear of being formulaic. If you follow a template, people will know where you're going and you'll go the same places everybody else does. No one wants to be predictable, and a lot of people see the story structure itself as what makes a story predictable. I see their point, but I don't agree. I'm such a fan of structure. The thing is, there are some very powerful arguments in favor of using a story framework or a shape to plan and tell a story of any kind. First, there's a case for story structure in the natural world because story arc patterns show up in nature: that arc, that build up and blow off, that's like the in and out of our breath, right?
(02:36):
I think we're in a little bit of a symbiotic relationship with that natural hill shape of a story. Our life cycle is a story. We move forward, we move from small to old. Now, what this means for storytelling is that we are used to this shape of question, answer, breathe in, breathe out, tension, resolution. So as listeners, we respond to it. Telling a story in this shape just feels satisfying to the people who hear the story. Second, yes, it is very Western, but this story structure is what so many of us grew up with at this point. We're all steeped in Disney movies and television procedurals and all these things that are highly, highly structured in this way, so it makes sense to us. So if your purpose is to connect to the people that you're talking to– if you want to be experimental, okay, that's fantastic, but that's going to make it more challenging for listeners to hear you, because if you're telling a story in a way that is really innovative but also counterintuitive, then you just risk people focusing more on that and less on what you're saying.
(03:43):
If you're using something that everyone kind of understands and could be satisfied by, then you're more likely to let people in more easily to what you're describing. This does not mean you need to be formulaic. I want to introduce you to the very simplest version of this story arc. It's a version that does not require a 900 page book to master. I'm thinking of the book Story by Robert McKee. It's not how to build a whole story, it's just the spine, but it can really help you know that you're on track. My favorite version of the Western Arc is called the Story Spine. The Story Spine was created by a playwright named Kenn Adams, with two N’s. He used it to teach long form improvisers to make plays. He even used it when he taught in elementary schools, and a couple of people who used it with him went on to work at Pixar and they made this structure part of the rules of storytelling at Pixar.
(04:35):
Let me describe it. It's five sentences that you fill in, so it's once upon a time, and then one day, and then because of that, because of that, because of that like a series, and then until finally and at the very end ever since then. This might be easier to understand visually. So I'm going to link that in the show notes, and I'll illustrate it with an example. Let's use the Disney version of The Little Mermaid. I should say, I have many problems with the Little Mermaid as a narrative in 2024, but I have a soft spot for it because it was my favorite one when I was little and my sixth grade science teacher looked and sounded exactly like Ursula the Sea Witch. We were very impressed with her, we felt like she was a movie star. And also it's a good one to use since a lot of us know the story already.
(05:25):
So okay, once upon a time there was a mermaid who was obsessed with humans. One day she went to the surface and ended up saving a human prince and she fell madly in love with him. Because of that, she made a deal with the Sea Witch to trade her voice for legs. Because of that, she ended up living in that Prince's palace. Because of that, the crabs sang, Kiss the Girl, so on and so on, until finally there was a giant battle and they finally defeated the Sea Witch and the Prince figured out he loved her, and ever since then, she's happily married to the Prince and somehow her husband gets along with her dad. That part always seemed very unlikely to me. Again, this is the Disney version of Little Mermaid, not the dark Hands Christian Anderson version obviously, but the Story Spine works for the dark one also.
(06:10):
Once you know the spine, you will see it everywhere. TV, movies, novels you read, anecdotes you hear from friends; because we actually use this shape without even knowing it. Anyone raised on Western media or literature has kind of absorbed this story shape, because it's so present in our stories. So I'm a fan of the Story Spine because it's actually quite open and flexible. Unlike Hero's Journey and all of those, in the Story Spine, there's no requirement for an individual or a journey or even a conflict. All there is change and causality, right? Because it's just this happened and then it changed because of that, because of that, because of that, and I would argue those are the only two things you really need to tell a compelling story. You need change and you need one thing to lead from the next. Besides that, you can do what you want to do.
(07:06):
So you could tell it about a group of people, you could tell it in second person. You could tell a really cozy, calm story. You could do all kinds of things within that. But keeping yourself inside of the because of that, because of that as you plan your story can be really effective to take your listeners along on your ride and to make sure you've got all the details you need, and none of the details you don't. So this is just the spine of your story. This is how you get from place to place, and then you can start to add on. You can figure out where your details go and flesh it out. You can change the order of those sentences, and some parts might be bigger than others. Each moment of that spine doesn't have to be equal. There's lots of ways to play around with it and you can use it as a way to make sure you're on some kind of journey.
(07:49):
You're not just spinning out into a 45 minute story about mermaids. Obviously there is a lot of nuance here that you can explore and have fun with, but for now, think of this as a safe and simple framework to use on whatever narrative you're working on. So the story I want to tell you this week is about that idea, feeling safe inside a framework and using a structure as a way to get weird rather than feel constricted, because it's not just in storytelling that frameworks can be very helpful. So you'll remember from a previous episode that the original title of my audible memoir was Times I Have Been Naked in Public, and I'm going to tell you another story about that. This is actually a story from the memoir that ended up getting cut for length. So this is another Director's Cut exclusive and I'm going to use the Story Spine to tell you this story. See if you can spot each of the points.
(08:47):
This was 13 years ago. I was in that same transition time that I mentioned in an earlier episode. I'd left teaching and I was embarking on this new part of life in the world, and I was kind of drunk on trying new things I have to say. I was trying so many new things at once, grad school and storytelling and making all these new friends who I just really wanted to impress, and I was trying all these new kinds of performance also. And one day this friend invited me to do a show where it was storytellers doing burlesque and burlesque dancers telling stories. And A, I really wanted to impress him, and B, I figured that I can do it because everyone would know I was a beginner so I wouldn't have to be a pro at burlesque. The expectations would be very low, and I was also very in character as my new “I will try anything” persona.
(09:39):
So I said yes, and then immediately was like, holy shit, why did I say yes? I had no problem with the idea of taking my clothes off on stage. The big problem was I did not think I was hot enough or sexy enough to do burlesque, but I didn't want to tell him I was too nervous. I wanted him to think I was this brave try anything person, and so I did the thing that I do whenever I'm nervous about anything, which is read a book about it because that's who I am. And so I found a book by a woman named Joe Boobs all about burlesque, and I loved this book. Her philosophy was, burlesque is different from stripping because you're not taking off your clothes for other people, you're not being sexy for other people. You're enjoying yourself, you're appreciating your own body and you're allowing other people to see you enjoy your body.
(10:31):
This is really all about you having fun. And she laid out all these sorts of ideas, and then I found out she was offering a class that month in New York City where I was, and so of course I signed up for her class because the only thing better than a book is a class. In this class she taught us the structure and rules of burlesque, and there are very specific moves you do and very specific ways to do these moves, and then within that you can sort of mix them up and make up a character and all this kind of stuff, but there are very, very specific things you do. You don't just go up there and wing it, you plan it out. This was feeling safer and safer the more I learned. By the third week, I was happily in this room with 20 other women and we all had our shirts off practicing tassel twirls on our nipples.
(11:25):
And so I designed this act for the show using all the rules she taught us. It was kind of a cross between burlesque and clowning, and the whole idea of the act was this kind of mousy administrator discovering her own body because the burlesque music starts playing. It was basically a comedy act where I took my clothes off. Now, I'm not going to try to describe the whole act. That's kind of like describing your prom dress, but that was the idea, and I will tell you, I choreographed the shit out of this act. I edited my own music. I designed this very specific costume. I knew exactly when I was undoing which snap on my shirt, moment to moment. This thing was planned out. It was the only way I could imagine getting up there and doing this brave thing, and I would practice it all the time. Once I was riding the bus to work and I was listening to the music in my headphones and sort of doing the moves to myself with my hands, just running through it in my head and a nun put her hand on my shoulder and asked me if I was okay.
(12:21):
So anyway, a really interesting thing happened. The more I practiced and the more structured I made it, the better I felt about my body, and the better I felt about doing the show. Until finally it was the night of this show, and I've never felt that much adrenaline, but I've also never felt that much support from an audience. The crowd was people I knew and didn't know, but it was just so much cheering and really warmhearted, and I did what Jo Boobs said. I enjoyed myself, and I let them go along for the ride. And I felt sexy, but I felt my version of sexy, like the silly version of sexy, because I also did what Jo Boobs said, I gave it a structure and I felt safe enough inside that structure to really have fun. So what's my end? Ever since then, I've never done burlesque again. It felt great, but I never wanted to. I think I just got what I needed from that moment, but I still use structure all the time. Sometimes the weirder you want things to get the more structured you need them to be.
(13:31):
My final thought for you is this. Using a story structure helps you make the story. It can help you feel more confident that you're telling the parts of the story you want to tell, that you're hitting the beats to connect to your listener. I think of using story structure as the bumpers in bowling. You don't need the bumpers. You can bowl anyway, so you don't need story structure to tell a story, but it can just make you feel a little more confident that you're telling all the parts you need to tell for someone else to understand your narrative. Okay, here's your homework. Listen, I don't mind if you use the Story Spine or not. I'm not one of those people who thinks this is the one true way, but I do encourage you to find a framework that will make you feel secure, whatever that is, and whatever you're working on.
(14:16):
If that means write an outline first or make yourself a template that you're working from, and then figure out how to innovate inside that template. My homework for you is: find your template as you're finding your framework. I have one more thing that might help. I offer story audits. Here's how they work. You send me your story and I send you my feedback. It's like drive-through coaching. I'll put a link to that in the show notes, or you can always sign up on Micaelablei.com. Next week we're talking about endings, so that at the end of your narrative, you don't trail off like I'm doing right now. Anyway, okay, this is the end of the episode.
(15:00):
This episode was written and hosted by me, Micaela Blei, produced by Laura Boach, and theme music was the Duke of New York by Adrian D Walther. I'm Micaela Blei, and this has been the Story Letter podcast. I'm so glad we're doing this.
OUTTAKES:
I love if the blooper was like, the rest of them are kick ass except for episode seven. Oh, skip that one. Was that okay? That was a good one take wonder. Great. All right. Thank you for giving me verbal feedback, it’s very helpful. By the way, when you go good after every paragraph, it's really working.