Keys to a good story

Seems like everyone who works in the media business has a theory on which elements make up a good story. There certainly is no shortage of resources. A quick search on Google will reveal countess books, videos and seminars on script writing, story structure, and story concepts. You can find everything from the heroes journey to the moral premise. But who’s right?

Who offers the best advice on story structure? Is it Robert McKee and his book, Story? Or is it Christopher Vogler and his book, The Writer’s Journey? Or maybe Joseph Campbell and his book, The Power of Myth? You pick it. I’m not sure there’s a right or wrong answer. 

To be honest, one of my personal favorites is The Moral Premise, harnessing virtue and vice for Hollywood success from Stanley D. Williams. His principle states that “some psychological vice leads to some psychological detriment”. But, some physical virtue leads to some physical betterment. He makes the case that whenever this principle is used, it results in substantially better box office results. In other words, it resonates with audiences. 

I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on script writing. However, as a moviegoer and someone who has been teaching media for years, here’s are the elements I want to see in a screenplay that ultimately have the potential to be a great movie.

1. A killer concept. It all starts with a great idea. Is your idea big enough to fill the big screen for two hours and hold the audience captive? It must be compelling and filled with big themes. Now a great concept will not necessarily translate into a great movie. There are many other elements that have to be taken into consideration. However, it is essential in building a strong foundation. Examples of a killer concept are Inception and District 9. 

2. Story Structure. I’m not talking about the three-act structure. The best way to describe it would be more like story design. It’s how you tell your story. Most screenplays start at the beginning in a linear fashion. But let’s make it interesting? What if we start at the end and move backwards or start in the middle? And it’s always important whose point-of-view the story is being told from. Some good examples are Pulp Fiction and One Hour Photo.

3. Strong visual elements. Obviously, movies are meant to be visual. If it’s not on the page, it’s certainly not going to be on the screen. Make it visual. Give your audience something to look at. Even good low-budget movies will find a way to make it visual. Examples of small stories that make it visually interesting are Get Low and Northfork.

4. Conflict. Hey, I realize this is a given. There isn’t one book or seminar that doesn’t preach the merits of conflict. If there’s no conflict, there’s no story. Even the Bible is based on the stories of conflict.

Building a Better Mouse Trap - Part 1

Are things as bad as they seem? Are we living in the worst of times? According to radio host and political commentator, Laura Ingraham, America is experiencing a total cultural and moral collapse. She highlights this in her new book, Of Thee I Zing. She believes the media is the source of America's decline. Of course, she’s not the only one who is pointing this out. Many social commentators believe morals and values are at an all-time low. Is this true?

Is there something different about today’s culture? Just like all complex issues, you’ll find no simple answer. How you address these issues will depend on your worldview. If you are a Christ follower, you have reasons for concern. On the other hand, if you identify yourself as a secular humanist, you probable believe we are living in the age of enlightenment.

Getting back to the question, what’s different today? Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new (NLT) and in Ecclesiastes 1:13, “I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.” NLT

The Bible makes it clear that we’ve seen it all before, and we’ll see it in the future. Human activity and the human condition have not changed over the years. Since the dawn of time, we’ve seen murder, jealousy, greed, corruption, sexual impurity, lust, etc.—the same things we see today.

Laura Ingraham and other commentators would have you believe that sin and bad behavior all started somewhere in the 1960s with the counter culture revolution. I’ve heard many argue that America in the 1950s was something like a utopian society. Most people went to church, believed in God, prayed, and always did the right thing. We believed in morals and values and expressed them in our daily lives. Does anybody really believe this? Perhaps, Ingraham’s concept of America is based on TV shows from the 1950s and 1960s and movies from the 1940s and 1950s that depicted America as a wholesome, family-friendly, and God-centered nation. I somehow doubt we were ever the society that Leave It to Beaver or Father Knows Best would have us to believe. It’s a nice myth.

Sin didn’t just pop up out of nowhere; it’s been with us a long, long time. But Laura is right about one thing in her new book. The media is playing a significant role in helping to advance the moral and cultural decline of mankind. What’s different today is sin in increasing and becoming more public and more acceptable. Laura points to the media as the source of the problem and blames Hollywood elitists for polluting American culture.

But it’s more than just the media. Media is no longer just media, and entertainment is no longer just entertainment. They have become something greater than their sum. That something is difficult to express in thought or words. The best way I can describe it is as a media culture or a force where media and culture have combined as one. This force is now capable of creating, shaping and defining a reality that we all accept as normal. In other words, what we see and heard in the media, we accept as truth and thus becomes important in our lives. The things that we don’t see become unimportant even though they could hold the greater value.

We no longer think about faith, Christianity, and belief as important and valuable because they are no longer reflected in any significant form in our media. The mass media acts as a giant amplifier helping to increase the effects of sin. It communicates the importance of wealth, power, sex, influence, materialism and consumerism as the things to desire and aspire to. Mass media therefore is the perfect vehicle or delivery system to highlight the human condition. That’s what’s fundamentally different today. Media is only a conduit. I believe in the power of media and that it can be used in a positive fashion to lead people to the truth. Unfortunately, in our society, it’s primarily being used in a destructive manner.