Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
Today, let’s explore the concept of a story's essence. While it may initially seem like a vague, elusive idea, it's a powerful tool for writers at all stages of the storytelling process.
A story’s essence is the distillation of what's most important to you about your story, captured in a clear, pithy statement. It’s not the story itself, just as an essential oil isn’t the plant it comes from. Rather, it’s a fractal of the entire narrative, encapsulating its meaning to you as the writer.
This essence serves as your narrative North Star, guiding you through the journey from initial idea to coherent story. It helps you understand the experience you want to create for your reader, informing the countless decisions you'll make along the way. By getting clear on what the story means to you, you can then make it relevant to your audience through your storytelling choices.
The story essence becomes your definition of success—it’s what you truly want to communicate. If you execute it faithfully, providing readers with the intended experience, you've reached your goal. It’s your line in the sand, the one thing on which you should never compromise.
While your story’s essence is deeply meaningful to you, the challenge lies in making it resonate with readers. You do this by weaving the threads of your essence into a narrative fabric that readers recognize as a story of a particular kind, embedding universal storytelling patterns along the way.
Identifying your story’s essence can be challenging. Many writers, even successful ones, may not be consciously aware of this concept. They follow their instincts, often possessing unconscious competencies that guide their writing process.
To uncover your story’s essence, consider why you feel compelled to tell this particular story. But don't stop at the first answer. Borrowing from Sakichi Toyoda's problem-solving technique at Toyota Motor Corporation, ask “why” five times. This process helps you dig beneath the surface, moving past initial ideas to find what's truly essential to your story.
There are countless ways to spin an essence into a fully-fledged story. The key is to constrain your specific narrative in a way that enables you to write it effectively, while staying true to your core intention.
In tomorrow’s post, I'll share a practical example of how I used this process for a story idea. Stay tuned to see the concept in action!
This post is part of a 75-day writing challenge and experiment. From September 9 through November 22, I'll be posting daily thoughts on writing, storytelling, and creativity based on recent readings or reflections. While my intention was to keep them very short—250 to 400 words—I've found that this range doesn't give me enough space to cover these topics adequately. I aim to keep them brief enough to be read quickly, but they will typically be longer than 400 words.