What makes a story a story?
Have you ever asked yourself that question?
What I’ve discovered is that there isn’t a lot of agreement or consistency out there on what a story actually is.
Some say it’s a plot with characters. Dictionaries say it’s an account of incidents or events. Others propose it’s a comedic, tragic or dramatic device used for entertainment purposes.
In his book Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story, Kendall Haven argues —with far too few stories over far too many pages — that a story is “a detailed, character-based narration of a character’s struggles to overcome obstacles and reach an important goal.”
Yet one of my favorite films, Lost in Translation, doesn’t fulfill this definition. Nor does flash fiction. And these tell vivid stories.
My working definition of “story” is an account of a being’s struggle against itself, others, a system or nature. The account can be written, spoken and/or visual. And the being can be human, animal, alien or god.
Conflict makes a story a story.
Screenwriters and playwrights get this. Fiction writers and songwriters get this. Journalists and marketers — well, the good ones anyway — get this.
We are drawn to stories in which someone faces conflict. The greater the conflict, the deeper we connect and care.
The most popular reality television shows use profile stories built on conflict to connect viewers with the contestants. Watch an episode of The Voice, American Idol, Chopped, American Ninja Warrior, The Biggest Loser or Shark Tank and study how they package each person’s story with their performance.
Here is an example:
Conflict exists internally (inside our heads and hearts) and externally (in the world around us). It is broken into four types of struggle:
- Man vs. Man
- Man vs. System (or Society)
- Man vs. Nature
- Man vs. Self
Business or Literature?
It was a college football weekend in 1990. My folks were in town for the game and I was being torn apart inside.
That Monday was the deadline for me to declare my major. And I didn’t know what to do.
I had gone to college to study business. I had taken all the prerequisite business courses. But I felt like I was selling my soul. The things that made me come alive were literature, psychology and creative writing.
It was clear that not pursuing a business education would greatly disappoint my parents. Especially my dad, who thought I should be positioning myself for employment.
What would you have advised me to do?
Conflict is an essential ingredient in storytelling.
It reveals the incompatibility between two forces. And revels in our innate need for resolution.
Even though I didn’t invest a lot effort in connecting you emotionally with my college story, I did introduce conflict — me having to choose between my head and my heart, myself and my parents.
What makes businesses and brands so boring and one-dimensional is the lack of conflict in their manufactured marketing stories.
Their case studies pose plastic problems with predictable solutions (using their proprietary process or product, of course). Their testimonials shine like a blurb on a book cover — “Riveting,” says J. Williams Dunkin, founder of AmeriCopy Technologies. Their products are cost-effective, innovative solutions using next generation, real-time technology guaranteed to increase profit and market share.
Where’s the conflict? Where’s the care?
So what does this mean for you? How can you inject conflict into the narrative of your company, cause or career? And how can you accomplish this in a genuine way?
1. Start with how you answer the questions, “Who are you, what do you do and why?” Tell a story that pits you, your company or product/service against a system or others out there doing something wrong.
2. Tell stories that show you understand those you serve. Show how your clients or customers are up against others, a system, nature or themselves. And how others like them have overcome it.
Let’s imagine you’re company provides massage services to local businesses.
You might start your story with the adverse impacts working all day in a cube has on associates — tension, fatigue, distraction, mistakes. Then tell the story of a skeptical cube warrior who decides to try a 15-minute onsite massage. And how much better they felt the rest of the day. You might even tell how it impacted how they felt about their job and employer.
And here’s the catch. This story doesn’t have to be about your services. Maybe it was the story that inspired you to start your massage business. You do what you do because you want companies in your region to be better at what they do.
Do you embrace conflict in your stories? Or do you feel stuck telling one-dimensional success stories?
For a story to change us in some way, it must engage us in a deep, emotional way.
Stories that embrace conflict — stories in which people like us overcome others, nature, a system or themselves — are connective agents for our businesses and brands.
I still remember that crisp Autumn Monday during college, when I walked into the administrative offices and signed my intention to major in English (with an emphasis in Literature) and minor in psychology.
That decision changed my life.
I spent the next two years learning about what makes people tick as well as how the world’s greatest stories are designed.
Following college, I learned business and marketing in the real world, working under the mentorship of some amazing entrepreneurs. One even turned out to be an English major like me.
And I’ve found myself at a time and place — in today’s digital, post-modern world — where I possess a combination of skills very few professionals have. I am a writer and storyteller with deep experience aligning stories with business strategies that grow companies and launch careers.
These days, I’m up against a system that values facts, figures, features and fear over stories. Even though the evidence is crystal clear that stories are scientifically proven to engage people and move them to action.
What about you? Where is the conflict in your story? In your customers’ stories?
Are you up against others? Nature? A system? Or yourself?
I would love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to email me, comment or reach out on Twitter or Google+.
Photo by World T.E.A.M. Sports on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
