A Framework for Good, Great, And Timeless Stories
Also: Washed Out and Sora AI, Moving Bogs, and Fish Stories
There are many ways to think about storytelling. I want to present another; one of many. This framework disregards things like the meaningful characters, interesting arcs, and the style of writing. Instead it focuses on a macro framework for storytelling: the interplay between setting and theme.
Theme
The theme of a story is the core question it poses to the reader. The primary drive of the story comes from approaching the theme from different angles to an eventual resolution.
In Jurassic Park, it asks whether humanity should play God.
In Little Miss Sunshine, it asks whether winning is more important than enjoying life.
In a typical love story, we might ask whether love is worth the cost of a career.
Great themes are universal and speaks to the human condition. They deal with love, death, coming-of-age, loyalty, justice, power, sex, the individual, the collective, freedom, redemption, destiny, fate, family, friendship, and all the thousands of questions in between.
Not all successful stories have clear themes and questions, but they know what they are about. There is a point to it. Another way to frame a theme is to ask the why. Why is this story being told at all?
The why of the story might be an answer of: “I wanted to explore the tension between leaving family behind and chasing your dreams…”
The what of the story might be answer of: “…through a character that gets an unexpected opportunity to move overseas in pursuit of becoming a sport star.”
The Setting
A setting is the venue of the story. It’s the world. It’s the plot. It’s where the theme is played out in. The rules of the setting informs how the theme is treated. A setting can be literal: a small seaside town for a love story, or a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away for a space opera. But, the setting can also be more intangible as a set of rules and structures that define *how* the theme aims to answer its core question. It’s the handwaving for the sake of the story. In Altered Carbon, taking place in a futuristic cyberpunk setting, it’s not explained how its possible to store your consciousness in a chip in your spine. It just is.
A theme without a setting is a philosophical debate. A theme with a setting is a story. It does not exist in a vacuum and is played out like a baseball game taking place in a baseball field. You can probably play baseball elsewhere, but the best place for it is where the setting results in the best game being played.
Themes and settings can be interchangeable. Jurassic Park asking the question of whether humanity should play God does *not* have to take place in the setting of scientists resurrecting dinosaurs. The question of whether winning is more important than enjoying life does not have to take place in the setting of a little girl entering a beauty competition (Little Miss Sunshine). Some settings are better matches to themes. For example, loyalty as a theme is well catered to be answered by the setting of war. The setting can create constraints that serve the untangling and interrogation of the theme.
Disclaimer on Quality
When I reason about the quality of a story (bad to timeless), it’s ultimately subjective. We do see stories that might be bad go on to be successful. We also know of amazing stories that just didn’t see the success we feel they deserved. In defining the quality here, I see it as a way to probabilistically think about breakout success. A simpler way to think about it: if you write another romance novel, what are the odds that this specific story will be successful versus another romance novel? In other words, a bad story will be the case more likely than not. But exceptions always happen. I also haven’t watched or read all media that ever exists and so my examples might not be correct. Take it with a pinch of salt (as with any framework).
The quality of a story in this framework is a simple multiplier between setting and theme.
Bad to Okay Stories
In bad or okay stories, settings are less important as to the quality of the theme. Amazingly wonderful settings will have to do a lot of work to carry a poor theme.
A poor theme is a theme that doesn’t know what it is about. It doesn’t ask the reader any question, and glides in a shallow manner through stakes and emotional connections. It’s thinking that a great action film comes from the amount of blasts and gun fire. Or a great love story comes from how attractive the people are. They do matter, but these effects *add* to the theme as opposed to being defined by it. Fast and Furious is about found family on the backdrop of crazy car racing action.
Something that I think is also possible is that a writer might be really close to a theme, but unaware that they are writing about it. It’s then like walking through life with fog-filled glasses. Some might see the underlying theme, but more struggle to do so.
One might think that you can have a poor setting for a theme, but I think this is where quite interesting stories are told. A cyberpunk setting does not have to deal with a story about body mods + high-tech-low-lifes. A war setting does not have to deal with grief, loyalty, or pride. It’s not tossing away the entire backdrop, but to look beyond the accustomed stories in those settings. Rather, if there is something such as a poor setting, it’s probably that the setting is tired or irrelevant.
Still, a poor theme and a tired setting can still carry some stories. But, maybe for a small niche of lovers that want to extend their connection to it from prior stories. If you’ve read great fantasy, reading a poor fantasy book might still give you a cheap buzz from the residual energy of spending time in a fantasy world.
Good Story
A good story is when a familiar setting is married with a clear and established theme, told well. Its power comes from familiarity and seeing the same theme told through the lens of different writers. Think of good stories as great remixes and covers of established formulas.
Examples:
A well-told western taking place in the old wild west that deals with the theme of justice, revenge, and redemption (such as The Unforgiven (1992)). Or, True Grit (2010).
A well-told love story that asks what life is worth living for: a slow life of being with the one you love or the life full of people, ambition, and success (a great example of which is La La Land (2016)). Or The Notebook (2004).
A well-told crime thriller where as crimes are chased, the characters uncover questions about the concept of justice (such as Se7en (1995)). Or The Wire (2002-2008).
The stories know what they are about even though they retread familiar paths. There can be variations on these formulas, but it doesn’t wander off the well-trodden path as to become unfamiliar in either setting and theme. If told well (like La La Land), they can reach great heights and success.
To write a good story means to understand why the story needs to exist and why the familiar setting is so well-suited for a well-trodden re-evaluation. There’s a reason why some paths are so worn out. They are a pleasure to walk by many.
Great Story
A great story rises above the rest by innovating in either setting or theme. Sometimes the themes might exist in general, but it can be new and under-explored for its setting. These combinations are perhaps my favourite because it’s usually easier to introduce (and market). There’s some familiarity, which is perfectly normal to crave.
New Setting + Established Theme
Blade Runner
Blade Runner brought the established theme of film noir to a dystopian, futuristic cyberpunk setting.
Dune
The established theme of war over resources, religion, and power was brought to a far future sci-fi world.
Snowpiercer
The established themes of social justice, inequality, and revolution was brought to a train that constantly traverses the globe.
Familiar Setting + New Theme
Black Panther
In the backdrop of superhero films, Black Panther explores new themes of power, colonialism, and the questions of revenge, justice, and heritage of a modern diaspora.
Get Out
In the backdrop of horror/thriller, the film introduced novel re-imagination of racial exploitation and deeper social issues.
District 9
In the backdrop of a sci-fi, aliens are treated as poor refugees, dealing with themes of segregation, xenophobia, and social apartheid.
What’s makes these stories generally more likely to be “great” is that they are fresh and familiar at the same time which makes for particularly engaging storytelling.
To write a great story is to ask and look for circumstances where themes and settings have not been intermingled as much. For example, how many film noir crime thrillers are written in high fantasy worlds, asking the question of how new magic impacts an imbalance of power and justice? How many sci-fi horror stories contain themes of forgiveness? Sometimes these combinations can reveal novel answers to age old questions and the human condition.
Timeless Story
A holy grail story. The most important part of a timeless story is that it asks an under-explored question and brings it to light through a novel setting that informs and nurtures this question. Often, the setting reveals these new themes in the way that a higher-fidelity map does. Sometimes these stories leave lasting societal memes. It’s very rare and sometimes happen at the turns of societal change. Timeless stories can capture the underlying zeitgeist before it is apparent and understood by broader society.
Examples include:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818).
The novel setting of a scientific laboratory in a gothic novel that explores novel themes of the ethics and responsibility of scientific exploration and creation.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)
Going down the rabbit hole is a phrase we still use today to denote the concept of diving into an unfamiliar new setting. It changed the concept of children’s literature by moving towards delighting and entertaining children. Its themes of arbitrariness of social rules and norms, existential themes of reality, and the challenges of growing up were novel for its time for children’s literature.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
In a novel utopian dystopian setting where humanity is seemingly happy and content to be ruled by a World State, the story explored new themes speaking to the loss of individuality, using science as a form of control, and pacification through consumerism. It’s oft-cited counterpart, 1984 by George Orwell similarly introduced new dystopian themes in surveillance and totalitarian power. Terms such as Orwellian and Big Brother comes from the latter story.
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1982)
A story that introduced the world to the settings of cyberpunk and cyberspace, predating the popularity of the internet and virtual reality. It contemplated themes of where humans begin and end with their technology, AI, and corporate control.
It’s Just Another Framework
If you still neglect good characters, good writing style, good narrative structure, good editing, and all the rest of what goes into a good story, then the macro framework above matters less. There’s many ways to think about storytelling. This is just another one. The value from this macro framework is to aid creative pollination and hopefully help one imagine novel combinations of themes and settings. Truly timeless stories require us to not fall into the habit of what’s in front of us.
Bonus Content!
Feeling good. I’ve been working on my new novel for more than a year now and this week, it finally felt like it all is hanging together from beginning to end. Currently, my writing style includes a back-and-forth between outlining and filling in the details. Sometimes, it feels like I have it figured out when I draw the map, but once I start adding the details, it feels like I missed key parts. So, then I go back to outlining, and then back into details. So, the book is usually filled in at different parts, instead of just being something that is written from start to finish. Sometimes when I write the details, I get inspired by potential changes and then take that back to the outline. It’s a mix between the classic “pantser” (improv writing) and “plotter”.
So, if the book is a map, I feel that I can now mostly see the thread from the start to the end without too much fog of war. It’s all here and seeing the canvas in its rough entirety has made me even more excited. It’s going to be great and look forward to eventually sharing it with you all!
Also. Hi to new subscribers coming in from VGR’s review on qntm’s “There is No Anti-Memetics Division”. Hope you stay around and enjoy the scenes. What are you interested in lately?
How To Think In Writing
Speaking of writing. I definitely resonated with
on why I write.
Part of the reason I’m writing every week is to distill my thoughts and a part of that comes from the process of writing itself. Formalising it into sentences either untangles the ideas or solidifies them.
When I sit down to write, the meadow is still sunk in darkness, and above it, satellites pass by, one after the other. My thoughts are flighty and shapeless; they morph as I approach them. But when I type, it is as if I pin my thoughts to the table. I can examine them.
But it is hard to do it right. Not all writing helps me think. Most kinds of writing are rather weak, or even counterproductive, in this regard. You have to approach it in the right way.
Lovely way to describe it.
Fish Stories
I’ve written about pirate and boat stories before.
wrote about fish stories.
My friend says fish stories1 are tragic because the ocean is our lost home2. It's where all life came from. I think fish are symbolic of a journey into an impotent subconscious. In both the above stories, the fish are the physical manifestation of an inner desire that is ultimately unfulfilled.
I like that perspective.
Bog Islands
What happens if you fill in a swamp? Turns out that the peat eventually floats, forms rudimentary islands and moves around a lake.
Lake Chippewa, aka the Chippewa Flowage, was created in 1923, by flooding a large swamp. Soon after that, many of the peat bogs started rising to the surface and became perfect growing spots for plant seeds carried by wind and wild birds. As the years passed, plants from grasses to trees began to grow and their roots actually caused these floating bogs to grow. Today, they vary from the size of a parking space to several acres, with the largest of them, the so-called “Forty Acre Bog” on the west side of the lake featuring mature trees. Almost every year, dozens of local boat owners team up to push it away from a bridge connecting the East and West sides of the lake.
Pretty wild. Here’s them moving the bog.
Just looks so surreal.
Sora and Washed Out
I love Washed Out. The dreamy hazy lo-fi music was a cornerstone of my 20’s. It always felt so warm and euphoric.
Feel It All Around is probably a top 10 song ever for me.
Using OpenAI’s Sora, Paul Trillo made a new music video for Washed Out.
Honestly, it’s great. The surrealism of it fits Washed Out’s style very well. Iconic even. I think music videos are probably the lowest hanging fruit for AI video because it’s mostly vibes. As I’ve written before on Sora + AI:
It’s the same for most of the text-to-image applications: it’s vibes media. Vibes, as in: the direction is not particularly specific. Details matter less over tone/feeling. In most of these films, the story can be sufficiently told if the directors don’t require highly specific directing. For example, none of these films that were shared have specific blocking shots with actors and actresses talking to each other. It’s not about the subtle body language of a person.
Vibes media is perfect for a lot of music videos.
Berlioz - Joycelyn’s Dance
This week’s track is Berlioz’s Joycelyn’s Dance. It’s such a dreamy jazz/house mix. Feels like summer nights, cities, and friends.
That’s it for this week, friends. As always. Hope you get to enjoy a lovely sunset.
If you enjoyed this weekly edition, please share it.
See you next week!
Simon