I mentioned in yesterday's post that I'm reading Randy Olson's book, "Don't be Such a Scientist," in which he gives his ideas for how scientists (and others) can appeal to a mass audience. He tells the story of getting stuck when trying to edit a film he'd made about the teaching of evolution vs. intelligent design--and his solution.
He had shot many hours of interviews and other material, but without knowing what shape it would ultimately take. He tried various edits and each time the invited audience of his friends and colleagues said, "Great material, now you just have to make a story out of it."
He kept editing and re-editing. He says, "And, slowly but surely, a very simple (and in retrospect obvious) story began to emerge.
"It was the story of a man who sets out on a journey to save a damsel in distress. He must protect her from the dragon that lives next door. But when he finally confronts the dragon, it turns out to be a teddy bear. He realizes the real threat is not the dragon but an evil empire, and in the third act he goes in search of it."
The film is called Flock of Dodos, and, he says, "I was 'the man,' the 'damsel' was my mother, her 'homeland' was Kansas, the 'dragon' was her neighbor, the lawyer for intelligent design, and the 'evil empire' was the Discovery Institute in Seattle."
That will all make more sense if you read his book and even more if you see the film (which I haven't), but the key point here is that he found his answer by using the metaphor of a simple fairy tale. Fairy tales have universal story patterns that are very powerful.
Reducing your story to such simple elements can be a life-saver, especially at the points at which you're so close to the story that it's hard to have any clarity. I've just done the same thing with a script that I've rewritten several times. And the simple version is not that different from Olson's.
In my case, a woman is about to make a decision that her intuition--but not her head-- knows to be wrong. Her intuition creates a dream character who tries to save her, but she mistakes it for an antagonist and fights it. When the character is willing to sacrifice himself for her, she realizes he's not the enemy and wakes up to the truth. That simple structure has made the final rewrite a lot easier.
By the way, you can use the same method to get clarity in your life, not just in your fiction. If there is a situation troubling you, tell it as a fairy tale with yourself as the main character. Create a positive outcome or ending to the story, then find out what in real life would correlate to the event or character that solves the problem in your story.
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