{"id":95654,"date":"2023-03-06T22:03:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T02:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=95654"},"modified":"2023-03-16T10:48:18","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T14:48:18","slug":"five-elements-of-a-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Elements of a Story That Provide &#038; Intensify Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What quality is a must for your protagonist? What&#8217;s &#8220;subversion of expectation&#8221;? How can you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-craft-a-story\/\">create a story<\/a> that involves high stakes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Screenwriter and storytelling expert Robert McKee says that humans are obsessed with stories because they fill a core human need: We need to find meaning\u2014truth about the world that influences how we live our lives. The best stories are rich in meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more to learn the five <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-are-the-elements-of-a-story\/\">elements of a story<\/a> that provide and intensify meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-five-elements-of-a-story\">Five Elements of a Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>McKee discusses five elements of a story, and he puts them into two related categories that distinguish their function: elements that <em>provide<\/em> meaning and elements that <em>intensify<\/em> meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The purpose of story is to give the audience the satisfying feeling of discovering meaning about the world. But how exactly does a story accomplish this? According to McKee, to engage an audience\u2019s sense of meaning, a story needs three things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>An active protagonist to empathize with<\/li><li>Constant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/subversion-of-expectation\/\">subversion of expectation<\/a><\/li><li>Positive or negative change<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s the specific storytelling structure that gives any given event in your story meaning and emotion for your audience: A protagonist pursues a goal, encounters a series of unexpected obstacles, and causes their life to change. However, to <em>increase<\/em> the meaning and emotional impact of your story, McKee argues that you need to include two additional elements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Escalating risk<\/li><li>Thematic coherence<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s examine all five elements of a story that McKee discusses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-element-1-an-active-protagonist-to-empathize-with\">Element #1: An Active Protagonist to Empathize With<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>First, McKee asserts that <strong>the audience needs at least one protagonist to identify with.<\/strong> When you show the audience that your protagonist has the same universal human desires as they do, they\u2019ll empathize with that character\u2014that is, they\u2019ll recognize themselves in that character and feel emotionally invested in that character\u2019s fate. Additionally, this protagonist must constantly take action toward a goal, as this is necessary to engage the audience (as we\u2019ll see next).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: It\u2019s not just enjoyable to empathize with fictional characters\u2014it\u2019s good for us. Research has shown that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discovermagazine.com\/mind\/how-reading-fiction-increases-empathy-and-encourages-understanding\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stories can strengthen our ability to empathize with others in our lives<\/a>. In particular, books that involve complex, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-write-complex-characters\/\">multidimensional characters<\/a> strengthen our ability to empathize, since they add depth to our flat, superficial understandings of the many strangers in our lives. While most of this research is focused on the empathy-strengthening effects of literary fiction, studies have shown that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yesmagazine.org\/health-happiness\/2015\/10\/14\/researchers-say-watching-movies-helps-you-work-your-empathy-muscle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">movies can promote empathetic behavior, too<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Element #2: Constant Subversion of Expectation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The second <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/components-of-a-story\/\">element of a story<\/a> is the <em>subversion of expectation<\/em>. This element is extremely important\u2014McKee maintains that it\u2019s the source of all energy in a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stories need an active protagonist who constantly makes progress toward a goal. However, if events transpire exactly as the protagonist expects, they would simply achieve that goal, and you wouldn\u2019t have a story. Therefore, <strong>the most basic unit of storytelling is this: The protagonist takes a single action toward a goal, and the world reacts in a way the protagonist doesn\u2019t expect<\/strong>, complicating the protagonist\u2019s plan to achieve their goal. This pair of action and reaction is called a <em>beat<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Subversion of Expectation Impacts the Audience<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>McKee asserts that <strong>beats of action and unexpected reaction need to occur constantly throughout your story <\/strong>because they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/engaging-content\/\">engage your audience<\/a> on both an intellectual and emotional level. <strong>On an intellectual level, subversion of expectation piques the audience\u2019s <em>curiosity<\/em><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since what the audience expected to happen didn\u2019t happen, each beat draws them further into the story as they wonder what\u2019s going to happen next.McKee explains that <strong>subversion of expectation also engages the audience intellectually by giving them <em>insight<\/em><\/strong>: They realize something about the protagonist\u2019s world that they didn\u2019t know before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>On an emotional level, a beat of action and unexpected reaction impacts the audience because of their empathy for the protagonist<\/strong>, McKee explains. When something unexpected happens to the protagonist, they\u2019ll have some kind of emotional reaction, and the audience will feel it just as they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Element #3: Positive or Negative Change<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The third element of a story is positive or negative <em>change<\/em>. It\u2019s not enough for a beat to be surprising, it also has to be <em>meaningful. <\/em>That is, it must feel like it reveals truth about life. Mckee asserts that <strong>you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-create-meaning-in-life\/\">create meaning<\/a> by injecting change\u2014whether positive or negative\u2014into the events of your story.<\/strong> When a protagonist\u2019s action causes their life to change, the writer is saying \u201cWhen someone does <em>this<\/em>, it will cause <em>that<\/em> to happen.\u201d This is the story\u2019s meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With this in mind, McKee argues that every beat in your story must lead toward some kind of change\u2014otherwise, the beat is meaningless. For example, if the aforementioned beat from <em>Finding Nemo<\/em> resulted in Nemo returning safely, and the characters\u2019 lives returned to normal, that beat would serve no purpose in the film. However, because Nemo is kidnapped, creating a devastating change in Marlin\u2019s life, the story offers a meaningful truth: \u201cWhen parents use fear to keep their children safe, they sometimes end up pushing them into more danger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McKee defines positive and negative change in terms of <em>universal human values<\/em>. These are states of being that you can gain or lose, such as love, safety, or social status. <strong>Value changes control your audience\u2019s emotional response<\/strong>: Positive changes cause the audience to feel good for your protagonist, and negative changes cause them to feel bad for your protagonist. For example, a character whose romantic partner leaves them experiences a negative value change (the loss of love) and the audience feels bad. Anything you can imagine caring about reflects a universal human value of some kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, for a value change in your protagonist\u2019s life to be meaningful, McKee explains that <strong>the change must occur <\/strong><strong><em>because of your protagonist\u2019s actions<\/em><\/strong><strong>.<\/strong> A few random events that change your character\u2019s life are fine to include in your story, but they don\u2019t create meaning on their own. To communicate the kind of meaning that resonates with audiences&nbsp;on an intellectual and emotional level, writers must show the cause and effect of their protagonist\u2019s choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-the-heros-journey\/\">Hero\u2019s Journey<\/a>: Finding Meaning Through Transformation<\/strong><br><br>While formulating these ideas, McKee was likely inspired by Joseph Campbell, author of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Hero WIth a Thousand Faces<\/em><\/a>, whose ideas still circulate widely among screenwriters today. Campbell is most famous for popularizing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces#the-heros-journey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the \u201cHero\u2019s Journey,\u201d a universal story structure<\/a> that he asserts is consistent across ancient myths from cultures around the world.<br><br>In <em>The Hero With a Thousand Faces<\/em>,<em> <\/em>Campbell argues that myth-making is a universal phenomenon because myths <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces\/introduction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">give people meaning that helps us understand how to navigate life<\/a> and are thus useful for every culture. <strong>Like McKee, Campbell notes that <em>personally creating change<\/em> is at the core of meaningful myths.<\/strong> In the Hero\u2019s Journey, a hero departs into unknown territory, overcomes obstacles to achieve personal transformation, then returns and shares that change with the world they came from.<br><br>Rather than discussing change in terms of multiple universal human values, as McKee does, Campbell frames the Hero\u2019s Journey as a quest for a <em>single<\/em> universal value: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces\/the-journey-part-two#enlightenment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>enlightenment<\/em>, or the \u201cultimate boon.\u201d<\/a> This is a spiritual condition in which the hero sees through the world\u2019s illusions and becomes godlike, perfecting their moral character and gaining the power to achieve any goal.<br><br>Arguably, McKee\u2019s universal human values serve as more tangible, relatable representations of this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-ultimate-boon-heros-journey\/\">ultimate boon<\/a> of enlightenment. You could call any positive value change a \u201cstep closer to enlightenment,\u201d since enlightenment is a state of perfection. And since the audience directly encounters these specific positive values in their own lives, they\u2019re more emotionally impactful than stories in which characters literally achieve enlightenment. In this way, modern stories are all more approachable versions of the same ancient myth.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Every Scene Ends With a Value Change<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>A series of beats in which a protagonist\u2019s actions eventually cause one or more significant values to change is what McKee calls a <em>scene<\/em>. <strong>The scene is the smallest unit of storytelling that feels like a complete story<\/strong>. In <em>Finding Nemo<\/em>, one scene would be the events in which Marlin finds Nemo on his class trip, accidentally goads Nemo into swimming out to sea, and fails to save Nemo from being captured by a scuba diver. The value change of Marlin losing his son marks the end of the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Alternatively, Pair Scenes With Sequels<\/strong><br><br>As with beats, writers disagree on an exact definition of the word scene. One common and potentially useful definition comes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oupress.com\/9780806111919\/techniques-of-the-selling-writer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Techniques of the Selling Writer<\/em><\/a> by Dwight V. Swain. What Swain calls a scene is closer to what Mckee calls a beat\u2014a protagonist has a goal, an obstacle arises, and something happens to prevent the protagonist from achieving their goal. However, Swain includes an idea that McKee doesn\u2019t, arguing that every scene must be followed by a <em>sequel<\/em>\u2014the protagonist has an emotional reaction to their new obstacle, contemplates their new situation, then decides on their next action.<br><br>While McKee does acknowledge the importance of having your characters react to unexpected obstacles, he doesn\u2019t frame these sequels as an equally important counterpart to scenes themselves, as Swain does. That said, thinking of your story in terms of sequels may <a href=\"https:\/\/writershelpingwriters.net\/2022\/03\/scenes-vs-sequels-whats-a-good-balance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">help you remember to spend more time on your characters\u2019 thoughts and emotions<\/a>. If written well, sequels like this help your audience better empathize with your protagonist (the first element of a story), increasing your story\u2019s emotional impact.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Element #4: Escalating Risk<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To heighten the meaningful impact of your story, McKee explains that <strong>you must force your protagonist to <em>risk losing what they care about most<\/em><\/strong> in the pursuit of a valuable goal<strong>. <\/strong>Why? In life, we judge how valuable something is by how much we\u2019re willing to risk or sacrifice for it. Thus, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-create-a-protagonist\/\">creating a protagonist<\/a> who\u2019s willing to risk everything they care about is the most direct way to make an audience feel like the protagonist\u2019s actions are important and meaningful. In contrast, if your protagonist has nothing to lose, the story will feel boring and inconsequential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, the pacing at which you escalate risk in your story is important: <strong>To make a story continuously interesting, you must incrementally heighten your protagonist\u2019s risk over the course of the story, <\/strong>explains McKee. If you force your protagonist to take progressively riskier and more extreme actions, the audience knows that these actions will have new, interesting consequences, and they\u2019ll be captivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Story Beats Naturally Escalate Risk<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>McKee notes that the need for escalating risk is another reason why the beat is the basic unit of storytelling. <strong>When a protagonist\u2019s action meets an unexpected reaction, it can escalate the risk of the protagonist\u2019s actions in a believable way.<\/strong> It\u2019s a fact of human nature that we want to claim our desires with as little risk or effort as possible. However, when the easiest, most obvious way for a protagonist to reach their goal doesn\u2019t work, they must then try a more effortful, riskier action if they still want to reach it. After this happens enough times in a row, you\u2019ll have believably built a story with high stakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Element #5: Thematic Coherence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to escalating risk, for a story to have the most meaningful impact possible on an audience, <strong>it must feel like every part of the story is conveying the same meaning.<\/strong> This meaning is your story\u2019s <em>theme<\/em>, which McKee calls a \u201ccontrolling idea.\u201d Although some may assume that constraining your story with a single theme limits its meaning, McKee insists that focusing on one central theme gives the audience a multitude of implications to consider. In contrast, trying to include multiple main ideas will muddle your story and hinder the audience in finding meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to McKee, <strong>a theme is always a specific, truthful statement about the world that expresses cause and effect.<\/strong> This cause and effect will typically be the final value change of your story and the reason for that change. For example, the theme of <em>Finding Nemo<\/em> could be expressed as \u201cChildren live fulfilling lives when parents allow them to take risks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">All Value Changes Reflect Theme<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>How do you connect every scene in your story to a cohesive theme? Recall that, to create meaning, every scene in your story ends with a value change of some kind. McKee explains that, to create thematic coherence, <strong>every scene\u2019s climactic value change should either prove the truth of your theme, or the <em>opposite<\/em> of your theme, <\/strong>which we\u2019ll call the anti-theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, McKee claims that your story should alternate between the two, so it seems to prove one idea, then its opposite, over and over until the climax, in which the theme definitively triumphs over the anti-theme. This uncertain tension between two contradictory ideas reflects the complexity of life in a far more believable, meaningful way than if you were to make every scene in your story prove the same point. This allows your story to convey a specific message without ever explicitly telling it to the audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What quality is a must for your protagonist? What&#8217;s &#8220;subversion of expectation&#8221;? How can you create a story that involves high stakes? Screenwriter and storytelling expert Robert McKee says that humans are obsessed with stories because they fill a core human need: We need to find meaning\u2014truth about the world that influences how we live our lives. The best stories are rich in meaning. Read more to learn the five elements of a story that provide and intensify meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":95659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,15],"tags":[938],"class_list":["post-95654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-education","tag-story","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Five Elements of a Story That Provide &amp; Intensify Meaning - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Storytelling guru Robert McKee discusses five elements of a story that provide and intensify meaning. Learn how to create each element.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Elements of a Story That Provide &amp; Intensify Meaning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Storytelling guru Robert McKee discusses five elements of a story that provide and intensify meaning. Learn how to create each element.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-07T02:03:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-16T14:48:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/story-book-piartes-ship.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\"},\"headline\":\"Five Elements of a Story That Provide &#038; Intensify Meaning\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-07T02:03:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-16T14:48:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/\"},\"wordCount\":2225,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/story-book-piartes-ship.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Story\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/\",\"name\":\"Five Elements of a Story That Provide & Intensify Meaning - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/five-elements-of-a-story\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/story-book-piartes-ship.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-07T02:03:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-16T14:48:18+00:00\",\"description\":\"Storytelling guru Robert McKee discusses five elements of a story that provide and intensify meaning. 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