Writing And Telling Stories: Not Just In Books

Most people think of storytelling as something novelists do, or as a quaint oral folk tradition. But did you know that lawyers today are trained to couch their arguments in the form of a story, with a beginning, middle, and end, and sympathetic characters? Or that reporters are more likely to tell a large story by telling the small story of a single individual?

Storytelling is a part of human nature. Without realizing it, we all seek it out: in the media, on television, at the movies, in our own lives. People will stop and listen to a compelling story, true or not; and a well-told fiction story can take on a life of its own, becoming more real than even reality.

Storytelling As An Art

We are most familiar with stories as art. There is not a person in the world who has not heard a story told in some form. Storytelling is universal to being human. And over the course of time, a few dozen plot cycles have become archetypical: the love story; the man warring with nature, man, or himself; the fish-out-of-water, or character placed in an alien setting; the mistaken-identity; the love triangle. Some of these reflect our real experiences; others primarily imagined ones, or primitive worries and concerns.

Along with the plot cycles, there are character archetypes: the classic hero, the comical sidekick, the maiden in distress, the crone, the king. Each of these characters conjures up a set of behaviors, a certain look, and an emotional response. If the behaviors and look of a character are described, the idea of the archetype is conjured just as easily as if you named it. For example, a man alone against several opponents, fists clenched, face set in preparation for battle – that is clearly the classic hero. This is a powerful tool.

Storytelling is important to us for a surprising reason: truth really is stranger than fiction. Truth does not make sense. It is natural for humans to seek patterns and rationality in even things that don't make sense; that is why we gamble or believe in newspaper horoscopes. But life is rarely wrapped in a tidy plot like a story is, and in what seems like contrary logic, this makes a neat, logical story more believable than untidy life. We seek reason in every action. This, also, is a powerful tool.

What happens when these elements of stories are used as tools to shape or distort the truth? When the underlying framework of stories and characters are used to lead people to a conclusion?

Storytelling As A Means To An End

The best liars use stories and story patterns to make up their own tall tales. So do people like politicians, publicity agents, and even those who supposedly deal with the plain truth, reporters.

By telling a coherent story, advertisers, for instance, can give you a feeling about their product. Think about the beer commercials that run during major sports events. The stories there vary, but they often associate manly success with their products: man with beer gets girl, man with beer bests friends. In others, the trickster character archetype is used: man fools others and gets beer. None of these commercials sell beer directly. Instead, they get customers to associate their beer with a story archetype.

In dozens of industries and professions, the power of stories and archetypes are used in this way to sway an audience: readers, consumers, voters, juries. You are one of the people in these audiences. People are constantly telling you stories to sway the way you feel about things.

Using Stories As A Frame

Stories, as most writers know, are very powerful things. Consider the fairy stories we grew up with: Cinderella, Snow White, or The Three Little Pigs. Then there are other classic stories with ancient, perhaps prehistoric, roots: Romeo and Juliet; the confused-identity stories such as As You Like It, The Prince and the Pauper, or A Tale of Two Cities; or the legends of the roguish Robin Hood.

There is magic in each of these story tales, and the framework of each resonates in most people. The trick is placing new characters in the framework so that the story is unrecognizable at first glance, but the new heroes pick up the magic of the story. It's obvious when you have a girl with a wicked stepmother, for instance, who is the good guy and who should prevail at the end.

This is used all the time by novelists. Shakespeare used it over and over in his plays, not one of which has an original plot; they are all variations on older stories. This is why the really good stories seem to resonate – they are picking up on the rich stories that we have in our past.

But there is a dark side to this as well. Lawyers and politicians have been using it. If you, a trial lawyer, can take a story frame and slip your client into it, you can touch that resonation in the jury. For instance, a younger woman who murders an older woman might be placed in the Cinderella framework – the older woman, who stood in lieu of a mother to this girl, was cruel to her, so the girl killed her to defend her life, honor, or freedom. If this trial lawyer is able to tap into the underlying story, it would be difficult for the jury to resist giving the story the happy ending that belongs with it. They would be caught up in the story.

Lawyers today are being trained in this method. Think about that for a moment.

You may see the same things in some news story formats, particularly stories told in the slick magazines as opposed to newspapers or Reuters online sources. By placing individual in archetypical positions – George Bush as Hitler, for instance, or Princess Diana as the original fairytale princess – their true personalities and intentions are obscured, replaced with those of the archetype. Whether the comparison is fair and true or not, the emotions behind the archetype enter your feelings about the person in the comparison. That is the power of archetype.

It's likely that this is done accidentally or subconsciously at times. But it is also certain that it is sometimes done on purpose. The next time you read about people in the news or see advertisements that tell a story, look for these patterns. It may surprise you when you find them, but once you've learned to identify them, you'll be a much better informed person.