Document created: 21.01.2023 at 3:30 AM.

Original title: Learning how to Build & tell a story.

WHAT IS A STORY
Following what Aristotle said, something that has a beginning, middle and end. Beyond
this, to say in a non-metaphorical way that something is a story this [something] need to
contain the stories’ elements.
An image can communicate messages and it alone become history, but to be a story
you need more than one image.
HOW TO BUILD A STORY
First you need to understand that storytelling are divided in two different parts. You have
the moment where you create what is going to be the story
The storyteller will pass three different phases.
BUILDING SESSION
 Elements of the story
o Character,
 Traits, personality, name, backstory biography… (I’m going to put
here what else exist about characters)
o Plot/Events,
 What happened how and why the reason it occurred. At this
moment you can only fill a sheet with random events. Also the
people who was involved in it – but it isn’t required in this session.
o setting,
 Where, when. (I don’t if there is any more to add).
PUTTING EVERYTHING TOGETHER
 Story
o The sequence of events as it occurred. What happened and how
happened (PS: and who us involved in it) at a chronological order. - What
happened, how it happened and who was involved in it. All of this in at a
chronological order.
o Here is the moment that you going to create the connections between the
events that was defined at the plot session. Also is here that you going to
define/present who did what and how. The famous cause and effect.
BEFORE IT GOES PUBLIC
 The telling
o This is where you decide how the reader/viewer will experience your story
– what they going to feel while is learning about what happened in the life
 of your characters. Remember, the attention they give to you must to be
payed (in the case of story) with a pleasurable emotional state feelings.
Even if they crying it will be for a good reason, they going to feel good.
Even the scenes that will make them angry must to do it in a way that they
feel good about being angry because of the reason you gave them – I
hate injustice! This villain must to pay! If they get angry by the wrong
reasons (that stupid character don’t did nothing?) they not going to have a
great experience and worst, maybe, they’ll put down your story before
finish it.
Alert: if you are having trouble to create a great experience, the problem maybe in the
development section. You must to go back and analyze the elements of stories and the
story in itself to see what is wrong. Usually the problem will be there.
TYPE OF STORIES
MICE Quotient.
 Idea - a thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action.
 Character – someone’s life craves for inner change.
 Event – something happened and someone is reacting to it.
The milieu is part of all stories.
IDEA
A problem/question is posed at the beginning. The middle is the main character or
characters devising a plan to solve/answer it - invariably something goes wrong and the
characters have to improvise (this is what make this type of story interesting/engage).
The story is over when the problem is solved or the question is answered.

An example of this is the TV show “money heist”.

CHARACTER

The story begin with a character who need/want to change internally (his way of see
things/life/others, his moral…) and it finishes when the character either change or fail to
do it. The middle is the character living the situations that was set to help him change.
Characters can decide change or be forced to do it. If he decided it, his attempts can fail
or succeed – he also can accept who he is and this be what the story is about (self-
acceptance); once he is being forced by life, he can stick even more with who he
already are or open up to become this new person.
Above you have your story possibilities. The outcome depends of the situation he is
facing - here is where your story will become unique. For example, in a story that he is
being forced, he could die because stuck with who he are - Jesus is one of this guys
(his story is inspiring).
This and the other methods can be used in the building session to develop the life of all
characters - their stories. In my process, I sometimes create all of this then I seat to
think about how the reader will navigate through those stories - what show/tell and how.
I come from the school that says: the more you have the better. Fernando Palacios
taught me that the story must be bigger than the cut you presented - is just like a
photography.
An example of this is the Greek mythology story of Sisyphus.
EVENT
The character is motivate to act because of something that happened or happens in his
milieu. For example: someone killed the one he loved (this represents a disturbance on
his life) then to avoid the pain that it provoked or because of it: he is going do something
to put things in order again or he will become an alcoholic – in both cases, the story is
about the way he reacted to the event. If the character don’t cares about what
happened there is no reason to act, thus, there is no story. The better is the reason to
act the better will be the story.

An example of this is the movie “dead silence” (or practically any other horror story).

HOW USE THIS TO CREATE STORIES

To create a story you can stick with only one element or combine them to create a more
complex story. For example: when an event creates a problem/question we have a
hybrid story because involve elements of two different story types.
Idea for an event: what if a person get trapped in a room? This alone is dull. What if this
person have only 30 minutes to escape it? They will have is some clues, if they don’t
figure it out in time they going to die.  This is a seed for a story.
To understand how improve the quality of your ideas read “Writing for emotional impact”
by Karl Iglesias. A seed that have the potential to create a great story is the one that
implies conflicts, challenges to overcome, difficult problems to solve…
Credit: I took this idea from the book “Character & Viewpoint” by Orson Scott Card. *this
chapter is based on the idea of him, but I only presented my interpretation of what he
said and how I use this to create my stories.
PS: I’m also using Mary Robinette Kowal interpretation of this theory.
HOW TO CREATE A GREAT STORY
 What engages people? Conflict. That can be present in the form of dilemmas,
challenges to overcome, problems to solve, battles to fight, enemies to defeat,
personal need for change/improvement and the sequence of events to make it
happen…
  Who are the interesting people? Those who does interesting things.
 In case of a book you need to learn how to write well, but beyond this you have
to execute well other thing as the layout, illustrations, font text (the design thing).
Even the market counts, after wall people will buy because of the promise you
did. Make sure you will provide what was promised.
 If you going to create a screenplay this will be more difficult. Not only the story
must to be great, but the performance of the actors, the shots, the audio design,
this, among other things.
I experienced stories before and many of them made me respond emotionally to what I
was seeing/hearing. As a story developer, I want to make my audience have an
emotional experience as well. My hypotheses of how you create this effect are:
HOW TO CREATE A GREAT EXPERIENCE FOR THE READER
 Cut what is boring according to the audience perspective out.
When you are developing the readers experience you need to have in mind what will
please them. All your decisions must to taken considering the taste of your audience.
We’re doing it for them, don’t forget that once you’re in this part.
Above are the absolute rule. Bellow isn’t a rules, but they can improve your story.
 Make sure that all you showing/telling is necessary to create the impact
emotional you want to create in the reader – this are the reward they receive by
giving your story a chance.
 All stories can teach one thing or two, but have in mind that you’re creating a
story not a lecture. The goal here is create an emotional experience that is
satisfactory.
 You story most to be capable of create an emotional shift on your readers. They
start neutral/negative and in the end of your story they must to be in the state that
was set by your story. This mean that they may now feeling nostalgic, in love,
angry, sad, depressed, happy, mad… you job is decide what it is going to be.
 Make sure they will understand what your story is about. Before laugh we must to
understand the joke. This is also true to any other emotion we may feel. By the
way, if we laughed it means that we feel that the joke was funny.
CREATING SATISFATORY ENDS
The more difficult something is to achieve the bigger is the satisfaction once achieve it
(In the case of stories remember that: is about what is difficult to the character do –
once you set a character as shy, this guying saying hello for the girl he likes it is a great
effort /*for some it will be inspiring…*/). In other words, make your character break a
sweat. Another thing, you need put meaning behind all effort they doing, they need to
have a great reason to do all that. Why? Because isn’t satisfactory see someone doing
the right thing because of the wrong means. If someone kill to protect his family, this
guy is a hero; case his do it because he didn’t like the now dead body on the floor, the
audience will want to see this guy in jail or dead as well.
Generally people likes when the evil is defeated and the hero wins. However, this may
not be the type of story you telling. As a storyteller you can make the audience desire a
final X, Y or Z – you do this by presenting the facts in a way that will create this effect.
That being said, if you don’t want manipulate the public, your job is set the tone that will
make them understand why things turned out the way they did and thus they going to
be ok with the end of the story.
In order to create great stories you need master human’s mind. The more you
know about humans, the better will be your stories. Why? Because you going to take
decisions based on the effect it will have on the audience’s mind. If you still don’t get it:
your job is create a pleasurable experience according to the human definition of what is
pleasurable. All experiences that us humans have lays on how the brain interprets life.
My goal is satisfy my audience in a way that no one did before. I’ll do what it takes to
learn how to do that. Now my hypotheses is that I’m going to achieve this my learning
how the human’s mind work.
 To achieve the goal of create experiences that will please my audience
 To achieve the goal of create
 scenes that for sure will evoke the emotion I pretend to evoke and organize them
in the most pleasurable way
 I want to know exactly how to develop scenes that have the potential of evoke
emotion and I also want to know how to organize that material in a way that will
please the audience the most.
 I guess that I’ll be capable of doing this once I acquire more information about
humans.
 I think that by learning about humans I’ll be capable of predict what is going to be
the people’s reaction to the scene/sequel I created with more accuracy.
ABOUT IDEAS
Anything can be a seed for a story. (Here all explain what is stories’ seed and how
develop it till form a story. But for a better understand I’ll recommend Orson Scott book
“character & viewpoint”).
Trials/Cut out
 Learn how to write well, in case of a book; learn how to create great scenes, in
case of a screenplay.
something or that it metaphorically is telling a story, but according to my definition of
story, it isn't a story.
We can say that an image is communicating a message, but one image alone can be
history
So, all that don't are according this isn't a story.
all stories have
If you telling a joke, if even is the most funny joke on the planet, no one will laugh case
they don’t understand what you is talking about.
 (This is the moment you build the reader/viewer/listener experience)
o This is the moment you build your book, text, lecture, script, movie…

If people achieved what they wanted, this is a great end to the audience once their was
cheering to it happen. As a storyteller you can make the audience desire the end that
your story has, however at least need to understand why things turned out differently of
what they wanted to be – so even not liking it they’ll say “yeah, but makes sense”.