July 25, 2023 • 20 mins
There are a handful of ways that story formulas don’t match up with life experience. Our stories don’t always tie up with a perfect resolution, for example. But when it comes to problems, life and storytelling have this in common: no shortage of obstacles in the way of getting to where we are trying to go. On this week’s episode, I unpack how we use this to our advantage.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pick up the pieces of your life, pulled them back
together with the words you write, all the beauty and
peace and the magic that you'll start too fun. When
you write your story, you get the words and said,
don't you think it's time to let them out and
write them down and cover what it's all about and
(00:24):
write your story. Write you, write your story.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hi, and welcome back to the Write Your Story Podcast.
I'm your host Ali Fallon. Last week we talked about
how to build a narrative arc for your story. We
talked about what a narrative arc is, and I helped
you to define that you are the hero of your story, which,
as I mentioned last week, can be a little bit
complicated for people. So I hope you had some time
(00:49):
to marinate with that and really land on the fact
that you are the hero of your story. You're the
only one who can be the hero. You're the one
who drives the action forward. You're the one who who
the reader is following, and it's your transformation that defines
the beginning and the end of that arc. This week,
I want to talk about what I call the one
big problem to the story, which is going to be
(01:11):
very central to your story because as I've discussed on
an episode previously, the problem is typically the place where
we enter the story. The problem is going to exist
from the beginning of the story to the end of
the story, or at least the one big problem is
and the problem is the thing that needs to get
resolved in order for the story to feel complete. So
(01:33):
two things have to happen in order for the story
to feel complete. Number one, the hero needs to transform
and become someone different, and to the one big problem
needs to be solved. A lot of times these two
things happen simultaneously. It's almost like the one big problem
is the external thing that gets solved in that big
climactic scene at the end of the story, and the
transformation is more of the internal thing that happens inside
(01:56):
of the hero. Both of those things are going to
have to happen in a climactic scene in order for
the story to feel complete for your reader. Now, I
want to just do a really quick review because we've
covered a lot so far, and the more repetition that
you can have with this formula and framework, the more
helpful it's going to be. So let's just go over
what we've covered in the podcast. So far. So far,
(02:17):
we've talked about how storytelling is incredibly formulaic. I'm teaching
you one of many formulas that are out there. It's
just one interpretation of this way that stories operate. And
it's my feeling that the simpler I can be with
this formula, the easier it's going to be for you
to engage with it and play with it. But obviously
storytelling is also very complex. So if you feel like
(02:39):
you're a little bit further along, or if you're doing
more reading, you're reading maybe Blake Snyder or another storytelling expert,
or maybe you're familiar with Donald Miller and his work
and you've already learned a lot about storytelling, know that
there can be many, many layers to this and it
can be incredibly complex. But sometimes starting simple is the
best way to go so that you don't feel overwhelmed
by learning the framework and you can just kind of
(02:59):
play with the simple pieces. The other thing we did
is we helped to define what your story is about.
Defining what your story is about is called defining the
controlling idea of the story, and we talked about how
the controlling idea is a decision filter for your story
I also help you choose a story from your life
that you want to tell for the purposes of listening
to this show. It'll be helpful for you to have
(03:20):
one story that you're working with, so you can practice
and play with the framework. And then, of course, you
can take the framework and move on and tell hundreds
or thousands of stories from your life if you'd like to.
In fact, you could tell dozens of stories from your
life and line them all up together and call it
a manuscript and publish a book if you wanted to.
So we've defined what the story is about. That's your
controlling idea of the story. I talked about how that's
(03:41):
going to be a decision filter for you that'll help
you determine what belongs in the story, what should be
left out, where the story starts, where it finishes, etc. Etc.
We also talked about how this story is about a hero,
and that hero is you, and we need to define
what that person wants, what's the physical, tangible thing that
that person is. After we talked about how a narrative
(04:02):
arc is shaped around the transformation of the main character
of the story. So if you're the main character of
the story, we need to know who are you at
the beginning of a story, and who are you at
the end of the story, and what happens in the
middle that causes you to transform, So that whole what
happens in the middle part is what I want to
start to get into today. Today we're going to talk
about what I call the one Big Problem. And what
(04:24):
I love about talking about problems in stories is that
this is one of the ways that life and storytelling
really do line up. One of the biggest pieces of
pushback that I get when I'm working with authors one
on one or when I'm teaching workshops on this topic
is people will say things like, well, you know, life
doesn't really work like a story, or life doesn't always
tie up in a perfect bow at the end. You know,
(04:46):
sometimes when we're working on resolutions or morals of stories,
life can feel so much more complicated and so much
more nuanced and so much more complex than a story formula.
And I get that there is a tension there, But
when it comes to talking about the problem, this, in
my experience, is one of the ways where life and
storytelling really do parallel one another. So stories need problems
(05:08):
in order to work. The minute that you resolve. The
one big problem in a story is the minute that
your reader disengages and walks away from the story, they're
just going to simply lose interest. My friend Donald Miller,
who teaches the Write Your Story workshops with me, always
shares the example that if you're watching a romantic comedy
and twenty minutes into the movie the couple went to
the mall to go shopping together, you'd get up and
(05:30):
leave the theater. You just wouldn't be that interested in
watching two people go shopping together. What you're interested in
watching is the tension, the problem between the two of them,
the obstacles that are getting in the way of them
being together. That's what keeps you engaged in that story,
and it's what's going to keep a reader engaged in
your story as well. Now, the thing I love about
this is the parallel that this has to real life.
(05:52):
In my experience of life, and I would imagine yours
as similar, there's never a shortage of problems. There's always
obstacles that are getting in the world way of what
we're after. And what I like to think about is
that because problems are such a central part of a story,
that problems are also a central part of our life.
And when we encounter a problem in our life, rather
(06:13):
than thinking like, oh gosh, another problem, this is always
happening to me, what if we can instead think of
this like awesome, the start of a story, the beginning
of something amazing, an obstacle that's going to teach me
more about myself or help me to overcome some old
wound or something like that. So when we encounter a
problem in our lives, we can either think of this
as a problem, which it is a problem, but we
(06:35):
can also think of this as an opportunity. And in fact,
one of the things that I love that my friend
Don Miller says about seeing our lives through the lens
of storytelling is he says, when you encounter a problem,
you can ask yourself the question, what does this make possible?
Because what we know is that inside of the framework
of a story, problems make a lot of things possible.
(06:58):
For the hero. Without a problem, there would be no
story without a problem, there would be no transformation of
the main character of the story, that hero that we're
talking about. Without a problem, there would be nothing interesting,
nothing engaging to stay in tune for. And if problems
are this central to storytelling. Maybe we can look at
our life through the lens of storytelling and see them
(07:19):
as this central to our lives as well. Problems are
inevitable and they're going to pop up. There's no way
to get around that. So we can ask ourselves about
the problems we face in our lives. What does this
make possible? And I know I haven't done as much
of this on this podcast, but I want to just
stop and linger here for a second and talk about
how this is one of the many ways that storytelling
(07:41):
can heal us in our lives. For me, writing my
story has saved my life. I say that over and
over and over again. It's really true. Being able to
see my life through the lens of storytelling has shifted
my perspective on such deep and foundational things. It's helped
me to mine the truth and the wisdom that's inside
(08:01):
of my life that I never would have been able
to see or discover if I hadn't stopped and observed
and paid attention and really looked there. And this is
one of those things I am embarrassed to say. I
guess that ten years ago, if you would have talked
to me, I probably would have sounded like I was
playing the victim on a bunch of different things. I
(08:22):
would have talked about my life as if it was
nothing but problems and I was never going to overcome them,
and I was trapped inside of this reality that I
didn't want to be in. And when I started to
see my life through the lens of storytelling, I began
to see how much agency I actually had to overcome
these problems for myself. I began to see myself as
the hero of the story. I began to ask myself
this question about the problems in my life. If a
(08:44):
problem pops up, what does this make possible for me?
Does this make possible that I could transform into a
more elevated version of myself? Does this create a possibility
for carving out some character that wasn't there before. Does
this allow me to learn a new skill that I
didn't have before. Does this open up a new solution
(09:05):
for me that I never would have considered if I
hadn't faced this problem. So I want you to think
about this as it relates to your story. I am
going to teach you in this episode how to define
the one big problem that's present in your story and
how to amplify that problem, because those two skills are
what you need in order to get to the next
phase of the formula. But I would feel like I
(09:26):
was doing you a disservice if I didn't also pause
and ask you to think about, inside of your life story,
what are the problems that you're facing. What's the one
big problem that you're facing right now? If you could
solve one problem in your life, what would that one
big problem be? And ask yourself about that problem, what
does this make possible for me? How could this problem
(09:48):
actually be to my great benefit? How could this problem
be so central to the story that's being written in
my life that if it were gone, the story would
be over, story would be uninteresting, the story would have
no engagement, and I would have no reason to keep
putting one foot in front of the other. Problems are
(10:09):
incredibly purposeful inside of stories, But let's talk about some
of the things that problems do. Problems are incredibly purposeful
inside of stories, but let's talk about some of the
things that problems do. Problems create tension, which keep us
(10:30):
engaged from the beginning of a story to the end.
I talked about on a previous episode how you almost
always enter into a story at the point of the
biggest problem. Problems challenge the hero to change in some
kind of positive way. The transformation that I've been talking
about over and over and over again would not be
possible without the problems that the hero has to overcome.
(10:52):
The problems show the hero what he or she is
made of. They help that sort of internal angst or
internal problem to be visible on the outside. So there's
always like an external thing that's happening, an obstacle that
the hero has to overcome, which reflects an internal environment,
and that internal environment can't be healed until the hero
(11:13):
is able to see the external problem. Problems also make
stories seem very realistic, because again this is a way
that life and stories parallel one another. There are very
few lives that I know of that have no problems.
I've never met anyone actually who has no problems. So
life and storytelling both have problems inherent inside of them,
(11:36):
and we can either look at that as a big
issue that needs to be overcome, or we can look
at it as an opportunity. Problems build suspense and momentum
inside of the story toward the ending, so it propels
the reader from the beginning of a story to the end.
It speaks to a transformation that's coming. And problems also
(11:57):
make a resolution inside of a story very satis fine.
Isn't this true in life too? When you have to
overcome a big obstacle in order to get to your resolution,
doesn't the resolution mean more to you than it would
if that resolution was just handed to you. The image
that just popped into my brain was me running a marathon.
I've only run one marathon in my life, but I
(12:18):
had to try twice in order to get there. I
had a stress fracture when I was training for my
first marathon and had to try a second time. And
let me tell you, when I crossed the finish line
of that marathon, it was like I was on top
of the world. I've never felt such a high like
that feeling, knowing that I overcame that physical limitation I
(12:39):
thought I had. I never believed that I could run
that far, and to be able to train and follow
a framework and take those baby steps and then actually
cross the finish line was such an amazing feeling. And
isn't that always the case in our lives and in
our stories. So those problems are incredibly important. They're going
to make the resolution even more satisfying for your reader
(13:01):
and for you. So let's get into defining the one
big problem for the story that you're working on inside
of this process. So think for a minute about the
story that you've selected, about what that story is about,
about who the hero is in that story, how that
hero transforms, about the arc that you built in the
last couple of episodes, and I want to help you
(13:23):
define the one big problem that's taking place in this story. Now.
That one big problem is really important because it's going
to take up most of the space between the beginning
of the story and the end of the story. So
remember how we set the arc by talking about who
the hero was before all of this happened, and then
who the hero becomes at the end. That's setting the arc.
But there's a lot of space in between point A
(13:45):
and point B that we need to fill up, and
defining this one big problem is going to help us
fill up that space. Obviously, inside of your story, you're
going to have dozens of problems, probably I don't know,
twelve to fifteen problems inside of a story that is
three to five pages long. So what we need to
define is what's the one big problem that encompasses all
(14:07):
of those smaller problems. Sometimes when you're working on a story,
the one big problem comes to very quickly and you
know exactly what it is. Like if you're going through
a divorce, for example, it's the divorce that's the one
big problem. But maybe you're dealing with something a little
bit more nebulous or a little bit harder to pin down,
and you're not sure exactly what the one big problem is.
What we want to do is maybe list out the
(14:29):
smaller problems first, and then ask ourselves, what do these
smaller problems have in common? So what's the one umbrella
problem that can hold all of those smaller problems inside
of it? I will say too, it helps if this
one big problem is a physical, tangible problem. So let
me give you a quick example of what that would mean.
I worked with an author once who was writing a
(14:49):
book about having chronic anxiety, and anxiety is a big
problem and definitely warrants having stories and books written about it.
And yet anxiety is not a physical problem. So what
I encouraged him to do is to think about how
this problem becomes physical. We had a long conversation about
(15:10):
it that I don't need to recount all the details here,
but essentially what we determined is that he was having
these panic attacks, and he could describe to me the
physical things that would happen to him when he would
have these panic attacks, and I really encouraged him to
lean toward using those panic attacks as his one big
problem because they're just much easier to define on the page.
(15:34):
This is just the writer in me thinking ahead about
what's going to make your job easiest when you sit
down to write this story, and also what's going to
be most engaging for a reader. It's going to be
much easier to write about a physical, tangible problem that
you're facing then it would to be writing about something
that's more ethereal, like anxiety. And in fact, we could
(15:55):
even push this example further. One of the things that
I asked him is what these panic attacks were keeping
him from. I wanted to really define why these panic
attacks were such a big problem in his life, and
as we talked about it, he started telling me how
these panic attacks were threatening his job, they were threatening
his connection to his children, they were threatening his relationship
(16:17):
with his wife. And we kept unpacking that more and more.
But what I want you to see is that there's
more than one physical tangible problem there. But using the
panic attacks as the physical tangible problem, and then using
all of these other concerns that he had about his
job and his relationships, his marriage, et cetera, is a
way that we can build that narrative arc and fill
(16:40):
in the blanks about what happens from the beginning of
a story to the end. Let me give you one
more example, just to make sure this is really crystal clear.
Maybe for you, you feel like your one big problem
is something like insecurity, or maybe it's imposter syndrome or
something like that. If that's your one big problem, I
would challenge you to go a step further and ask yourself,
(17:01):
how does this manifest itself physically? So one way you
could do this is by showing your audience inside of
the story. You standing on a stage, maybe you're supposed
to deliver a keynote presentation and you completely freeze and
stand there stuttering on stage for three minutes or something
like that. Or maybe you're just inside of a work
(17:22):
meeting and there's something that you really want to contribute
to the conversation. But every time you open your mouth,
nothing comes out. Do you see how I'm taking a
more internal problem and I'm making it physical and tangible
so that it just makes it easier to show your
reader the problem that you're facing and they can really
see it show up on the page. So what is
the one big problem that your hero is facing inside
(17:45):
of your story that they're going to spend the entire
story trying to resolve? Now, of course you have that
one big problem that's a physical tangible problem, but I
also want to talk about how we can do what's
called amplify the problem. You want there to be one
big problem, and you also want to take that problem
a step further and amplify it. Now, this is the
part of the storytelling process where you get to really
(18:08):
move internal. So, if the panic attacks are the physical
tangible problem, let's talk about how that makes the hero feel.
Let's amplify the problem by talking about what it's keeping
him from. It's keeping him from his job, it's keeping
him from his family, it's keeping him from having an
intimate relationship with his wife, it's keeping him from really
feeling sturdy on his two feet. If we're talking about
(18:30):
a physical, tangible problem of a divorce. Then let's look
internal and ask how this problem makes the hero feel.
We can amplify the problem by showing the reader the
interior environment of the hero. So does this make the
hero feel unlovable? Does this make the hero feel broken?
Does this make the hero feel alone or lonely? I
(18:53):
like to think of the physical tangible problem as being
like a handhold for the reader, so they can really
almost see that problem on a screen. And then when
we amplify the problem and we go interior, this actually
helps your reader to connect with the problem on a
deeper level. So even if you're writing about a divorce
and your reader has never been through a divorce, they
have for sure in their lives felt lonely. They've felt depressed,
(19:15):
they've felt unlovable, they've felt abandoned, they've felt forgotten. So
when you can show the reader that interior environment of
the hero, you help to connect with the reader in
an even deeper way. So what I want you to
do with your story is to define the one big problem,
what's the physical tangible thing that your hero is trying
to overcome, and then amplify that problem by demonstrating how
(19:40):
that makes the hero feel what's the interior environment of
the hero based on that problem. On next week's episode
of the podcast, I'm going to introduce you to a
character in the story that I know you're going to love.
This is one of the favorite parts of the storytelling framework,
so I'm excited to talk about that, But until then,
I want to hear from you. What is the one
big problem that your hero's facing and how does make
(20:00):
the hero feel
Pick up the pieces of your life, pulled them back
together with the words you write, all the beauty and
peace and the magic that you'll start too fun. When
you write your story, you get the words and said,
don't you think it's time to let them out and
write them down and cover what it's all about and
(00:24):
write your story. Write you, write your story.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hi, and welcome back to the Write Your Story Podcast.
I'm your host Ali Fallon. Last week we talked about
how to build a narrative arc for your story. We
talked about what a narrative arc is, and I helped
you to define that you are the hero of your story, which,
as I mentioned last week, can be a little bit
complicated for people. So I hope you had some time
(00:49):
to marinate with that and really land on the fact
that you are the hero of your story. You're the
only one who can be the hero. You're the one
who drives the action forward. You're the one who who
the reader is following, and it's your transformation that defines
the beginning and the end of that arc. This week,
I want to talk about what I call the one
big problem to the story, which is going to be
(01:11):
very central to your story because as I've discussed on
an episode previously, the problem is typically the place where
we enter the story. The problem is going to exist
from the beginning of the story to the end of
the story, or at least the one big problem is
and the problem is the thing that needs to get
resolved in order for the story to feel complete. So
(01:33):
two things have to happen in order for the story
to feel complete. Number one, the hero needs to transform
and become someone different, and to the one big problem
needs to be solved. A lot of times these two
things happen simultaneously. It's almost like the one big problem
is the external thing that gets solved in that big
climactic scene at the end of the story, and the
transformation is more of the internal thing that happens inside
(01:56):
of the hero. Both of those things are going to
have to happen in a climactic scene in order for
the story to feel complete for your reader. Now, I
want to just do a really quick review because we've
covered a lot so far, and the more repetition that
you can have with this formula and framework, the more
helpful it's going to be. So let's just go over
what we've covered in the podcast. So far. So far,
(02:17):
we've talked about how storytelling is incredibly formulaic. I'm teaching
you one of many formulas that are out there. It's
just one interpretation of this way that stories operate. And
it's my feeling that the simpler I can be with
this formula, the easier it's going to be for you
to engage with it and play with it. But obviously
storytelling is also very complex. So if you feel like
(02:39):
you're a little bit further along, or if you're doing
more reading, you're reading maybe Blake Snyder or another storytelling expert,
or maybe you're familiar with Donald Miller and his work
and you've already learned a lot about storytelling, know that
there can be many, many layers to this and it
can be incredibly complex. But sometimes starting simple is the
best way to go so that you don't feel overwhelmed
by learning the framework and you can just kind of
(02:59):
play with the simple pieces. The other thing we did
is we helped to define what your story is about.
Defining what your story is about is called defining the
controlling idea of the story, and we talked about how
the controlling idea is a decision filter for your story
I also help you choose a story from your life
that you want to tell for the purposes of listening
to this show. It'll be helpful for you to have
(03:20):
one story that you're working with, so you can practice
and play with the framework. And then, of course, you
can take the framework and move on and tell hundreds
or thousands of stories from your life if you'd like to.
In fact, you could tell dozens of stories from your
life and line them all up together and call it
a manuscript and publish a book if you wanted to.
So we've defined what the story is about. That's your
controlling idea of the story. I talked about how that's
(03:41):
going to be a decision filter for you that'll help
you determine what belongs in the story, what should be
left out, where the story starts, where it finishes, etc. Etc.
We also talked about how this story is about a hero,
and that hero is you, and we need to define
what that person wants, what's the physical, tangible thing that
that person is. After we talked about how a narrative
(04:02):
arc is shaped around the transformation of the main character
of the story. So if you're the main character of
the story, we need to know who are you at
the beginning of a story, and who are you at
the end of the story, and what happens in the
middle that causes you to transform, So that whole what
happens in the middle part is what I want to
start to get into today. Today we're going to talk
about what I call the one Big Problem. And what
(04:24):
I love about talking about problems in stories is that
this is one of the ways that life and storytelling
really do line up. One of the biggest pieces of
pushback that I get when I'm working with authors one
on one or when I'm teaching workshops on this topic
is people will say things like, well, you know, life
doesn't really work like a story, or life doesn't always
tie up in a perfect bow at the end. You know,
(04:46):
sometimes when we're working on resolutions or morals of stories,
life can feel so much more complicated and so much
more nuanced and so much more complex than a story formula.
And I get that there is a tension there, But
when it comes to talking about the problem, this, in
my experience, is one of the ways where life and
storytelling really do parallel one another. So stories need problems
(05:08):
in order to work. The minute that you resolve. The
one big problem in a story is the minute that
your reader disengages and walks away from the story, they're
just going to simply lose interest. My friend Donald Miller,
who teaches the Write Your Story workshops with me, always
shares the example that if you're watching a romantic comedy
and twenty minutes into the movie the couple went to
the mall to go shopping together, you'd get up and
(05:30):
leave the theater. You just wouldn't be that interested in
watching two people go shopping together. What you're interested in
watching is the tension, the problem between the two of them,
the obstacles that are getting in the way of them
being together. That's what keeps you engaged in that story,
and it's what's going to keep a reader engaged in
your story as well. Now, the thing I love about
this is the parallel that this has to real life.
(05:52):
In my experience of life, and I would imagine yours
as similar, there's never a shortage of problems. There's always
obstacles that are getting in the world way of what
we're after. And what I like to think about is
that because problems are such a central part of a story,
that problems are also a central part of our life.
And when we encounter a problem in our life, rather
(06:13):
than thinking like, oh gosh, another problem, this is always
happening to me, what if we can instead think of
this like awesome, the start of a story, the beginning
of something amazing, an obstacle that's going to teach me
more about myself or help me to overcome some old
wound or something like that. So when we encounter a
problem in our lives, we can either think of this
as a problem, which it is a problem, but we
(06:35):
can also think of this as an opportunity. And in fact,
one of the things that I love that my friend
Don Miller says about seeing our lives through the lens
of storytelling is he says, when you encounter a problem,
you can ask yourself the question, what does this make possible?
Because what we know is that inside of the framework
of a story, problems make a lot of things possible.
(06:58):
For the hero. Without a problem, there would be no
story without a problem, there would be no transformation of
the main character of the story, that hero that we're
talking about. Without a problem, there would be nothing interesting,
nothing engaging to stay in tune for. And if problems
are this central to storytelling. Maybe we can look at
our life through the lens of storytelling and see them
(07:19):
as this central to our lives as well. Problems are
inevitable and they're going to pop up. There's no way
to get around that. So we can ask ourselves about
the problems we face in our lives. What does this
make possible? And I know I haven't done as much
of this on this podcast, but I want to just
stop and linger here for a second and talk about
how this is one of the many ways that storytelling
(07:41):
can heal us in our lives. For me, writing my
story has saved my life. I say that over and
over and over again. It's really true. Being able to
see my life through the lens of storytelling has shifted
my perspective on such deep and foundational things. It's helped
me to mine the truth and the wisdom that's inside
(08:01):
of my life that I never would have been able
to see or discover if I hadn't stopped and observed
and paid attention and really looked there. And this is
one of those things I am embarrassed to say. I
guess that ten years ago, if you would have talked
to me, I probably would have sounded like I was
playing the victim on a bunch of different things. I
(08:22):
would have talked about my life as if it was
nothing but problems and I was never going to overcome them,
and I was trapped inside of this reality that I
didn't want to be in. And when I started to
see my life through the lens of storytelling, I began
to see how much agency I actually had to overcome
these problems for myself. I began to see myself as
the hero of the story. I began to ask myself
this question about the problems in my life. If a
(08:44):
problem pops up, what does this make possible for me?
Does this make possible that I could transform into a
more elevated version of myself? Does this create a possibility
for carving out some character that wasn't there before. Does
this allow me to learn a new skill that I
didn't have before. Does this open up a new solution
(09:05):
for me that I never would have considered if I
hadn't faced this problem. So I want you to think
about this as it relates to your story. I am
going to teach you in this episode how to define
the one big problem that's present in your story and
how to amplify that problem, because those two skills are
what you need in order to get to the next
phase of the formula. But I would feel like I
(09:26):
was doing you a disservice if I didn't also pause
and ask you to think about, inside of your life story,
what are the problems that you're facing. What's the one
big problem that you're facing right now? If you could
solve one problem in your life, what would that one
big problem be? And ask yourself about that problem, what
does this make possible for me? How could this problem
(09:48):
actually be to my great benefit? How could this problem
be so central to the story that's being written in
my life that if it were gone, the story would
be over, story would be uninteresting, the story would have
no engagement, and I would have no reason to keep
putting one foot in front of the other. Problems are
(10:09):
incredibly purposeful inside of stories, But let's talk about some
of the things that problems do. Problems are incredibly purposeful
inside of stories, but let's talk about some of the
things that problems do. Problems create tension, which keep us
(10:30):
engaged from the beginning of a story to the end.
I talked about on a previous episode how you almost
always enter into a story at the point of the
biggest problem. Problems challenge the hero to change in some
kind of positive way. The transformation that I've been talking
about over and over and over again would not be
possible without the problems that the hero has to overcome.
(10:52):
The problems show the hero what he or she is
made of. They help that sort of internal angst or
internal problem to be visible on the outside. So there's
always like an external thing that's happening, an obstacle that
the hero has to overcome, which reflects an internal environment,
and that internal environment can't be healed until the hero
(11:13):
is able to see the external problem. Problems also make
stories seem very realistic, because again this is a way
that life and stories parallel one another. There are very
few lives that I know of that have no problems.
I've never met anyone actually who has no problems. So
life and storytelling both have problems inherent inside of them,
(11:36):
and we can either look at that as a big
issue that needs to be overcome, or we can look
at it as an opportunity. Problems build suspense and momentum
inside of the story toward the ending, so it propels
the reader from the beginning of a story to the end.
It speaks to a transformation that's coming. And problems also
(11:57):
make a resolution inside of a story very satis fine.
Isn't this true in life too? When you have to
overcome a big obstacle in order to get to your resolution,
doesn't the resolution mean more to you than it would
if that resolution was just handed to you. The image
that just popped into my brain was me running a marathon.
I've only run one marathon in my life, but I
(12:18):
had to try twice in order to get there. I
had a stress fracture when I was training for my
first marathon and had to try a second time. And
let me tell you, when I crossed the finish line
of that marathon, it was like I was on top
of the world. I've never felt such a high like
that feeling, knowing that I overcame that physical limitation I
(12:39):
thought I had. I never believed that I could run
that far, and to be able to train and follow
a framework and take those baby steps and then actually
cross the finish line was such an amazing feeling. And
isn't that always the case in our lives and in
our stories. So those problems are incredibly important. They're going
to make the resolution even more satisfying for your reader
(13:01):
and for you. So let's get into defining the one
big problem for the story that you're working on inside
of this process. So think for a minute about the
story that you've selected, about what that story is about,
about who the hero is in that story, how that
hero transforms, about the arc that you built in the
last couple of episodes, and I want to help you
(13:23):
define the one big problem that's taking place in this story. Now.
That one big problem is really important because it's going
to take up most of the space between the beginning
of the story and the end of the story. So
remember how we set the arc by talking about who
the hero was before all of this happened, and then
who the hero becomes at the end. That's setting the arc.
But there's a lot of space in between point A
(13:45):
and point B that we need to fill up, and
defining this one big problem is going to help us
fill up that space. Obviously, inside of your story, you're
going to have dozens of problems, probably I don't know,
twelve to fifteen problems inside of a story that is
three to five pages long. So what we need to
define is what's the one big problem that encompasses all
(14:07):
of those smaller problems. Sometimes when you're working on a story,
the one big problem comes to very quickly and you
know exactly what it is. Like if you're going through
a divorce, for example, it's the divorce that's the one
big problem. But maybe you're dealing with something a little
bit more nebulous or a little bit harder to pin down,
and you're not sure exactly what the one big problem is.
What we want to do is maybe list out the
(14:29):
smaller problems first, and then ask ourselves, what do these
smaller problems have in common? So what's the one umbrella
problem that can hold all of those smaller problems inside
of it? I will say too, it helps if this
one big problem is a physical, tangible problem. So let
me give you a quick example of what that would mean.
I worked with an author once who was writing a
(14:49):
book about having chronic anxiety, and anxiety is a big
problem and definitely warrants having stories and books written about it.
And yet anxiety is not a physical problem. So what
I encouraged him to do is to think about how
this problem becomes physical. We had a long conversation about
(15:10):
it that I don't need to recount all the details here,
but essentially what we determined is that he was having
these panic attacks, and he could describe to me the
physical things that would happen to him when he would
have these panic attacks, and I really encouraged him to
lean toward using those panic attacks as his one big
problem because they're just much easier to define on the page.
(15:34):
This is just the writer in me thinking ahead about
what's going to make your job easiest when you sit
down to write this story, and also what's going to
be most engaging for a reader. It's going to be
much easier to write about a physical, tangible problem that
you're facing then it would to be writing about something
that's more ethereal, like anxiety. And in fact, we could
(15:55):
even push this example further. One of the things that
I asked him is what these panic attacks were keeping
him from. I wanted to really define why these panic
attacks were such a big problem in his life, and
as we talked about it, he started telling me how
these panic attacks were threatening his job, they were threatening
his connection to his children, they were threatening his relationship
(16:17):
with his wife. And we kept unpacking that more and more.
But what I want you to see is that there's
more than one physical tangible problem there. But using the
panic attacks as the physical tangible problem, and then using
all of these other concerns that he had about his
job and his relationships, his marriage, et cetera, is a
way that we can build that narrative arc and fill
(16:40):
in the blanks about what happens from the beginning of
a story to the end. Let me give you one
more example, just to make sure this is really crystal clear.
Maybe for you, you feel like your one big problem
is something like insecurity, or maybe it's imposter syndrome or
something like that. If that's your one big problem, I
would challenge you to go a step further and ask yourself,
(17:01):
how does this manifest itself physically? So one way you
could do this is by showing your audience inside of
the story. You standing on a stage, maybe you're supposed
to deliver a keynote presentation and you completely freeze and
stand there stuttering on stage for three minutes or something
like that. Or maybe you're just inside of a work
(17:22):
meeting and there's something that you really want to contribute
to the conversation. But every time you open your mouth,
nothing comes out. Do you see how I'm taking a
more internal problem and I'm making it physical and tangible
so that it just makes it easier to show your
reader the problem that you're facing and they can really
see it show up on the page. So what is
the one big problem that your hero is facing inside
(17:45):
of your story that they're going to spend the entire
story trying to resolve? Now, of course you have that
one big problem that's a physical tangible problem, but I
also want to talk about how we can do what's
called amplify the problem. You want there to be one
big problem, and you also want to take that problem
a step further and amplify it. Now, this is the
part of the storytelling process where you get to really
(18:08):
move internal. So, if the panic attacks are the physical
tangible problem, let's talk about how that makes the hero feel.
Let's amplify the problem by talking about what it's keeping
him from. It's keeping him from his job, it's keeping
him from his family, it's keeping him from having an
intimate relationship with his wife, it's keeping him from really
feeling sturdy on his two feet. If we're talking about
(18:30):
a physical, tangible problem of a divorce. Then let's look
internal and ask how this problem makes the hero feel.
We can amplify the problem by showing the reader the
interior environment of the hero. So does this make the
hero feel unlovable? Does this make the hero feel broken?
Does this make the hero feel alone or lonely? I
(18:53):
like to think of the physical tangible problem as being
like a handhold for the reader, so they can really
almost see that problem on a screen. And then when
we amplify the problem and we go interior, this actually
helps your reader to connect with the problem on a
deeper level. So even if you're writing about a divorce
and your reader has never been through a divorce, they
have for sure in their lives felt lonely. They've felt depressed,
(19:15):
they've felt unlovable, they've felt abandoned, they've felt forgotten. So
when you can show the reader that interior environment of
the hero, you help to connect with the reader in
an even deeper way. So what I want you to
do with your story is to define the one big problem,
what's the physical tangible thing that your hero is trying
to overcome, and then amplify that problem by demonstrating how
(19:40):
that makes the hero feel what's the interior environment of
the hero based on that problem. On next week's episode
of the podcast, I'm going to introduce you to a
character in the story that I know you're going to love.
This is one of the favorite parts of the storytelling framework,
so I'm excited to talk about that, But until then,
I want to hear from you. What is the one
big problem that your hero's facing and how does make
(20:00):
the hero feel
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