Every 6 months or so, I notice myself wondering again about how this trifecta of story. (my first attempt) Here is my current definition:

A story is simply an obstacle, some problem that needs to be solved.

To solve the external problem, the hero needs to think, explore, and learn. He needs to level up.

When the plot and character work together, the external problems force him to think in a way that forces him to confront some internal flaw of his, some way he’s misunderstanding himself or the world.

If the plot problem is his wife threatening to leave him, the hero must think about his flaw, say working on Sundays instead of spending them with the family. If his marriage wasn’t failing, he would never second guess this. That becomes the topic of the story, work-life balance.

The story is told with all his thoughts and emotions centered around that topic. It becomes a filter for how the story is told. A thought about how much he loves Nike shoes likely is unrelated. This thought wouldn’t pass through the filter.

That filter is what we call Theme, it’s the lens that we tell the story through.

We have an external obstacle or problem that forces our character to think and to level up his thinking, and all of this see seen through a specific lens, where the character’s thinking is most flawed.

That’s what I got for now, Jan 21, 2021. Until next time…