Often we think of stories as mere entertainment, but by telling a story we can actually transform a reader:
Identity phase
A story does not begin until you have a character, in a milieu, with a conflict. At this phase of the story, my goal is threefold: 1) Create a character who audiences will identify with so that they can easily slips into the persona of the protagonist. Give the character a problem that the reader will feel personally and respond to, and then create a setting that is so visceral that the audience forgets that they are reading and is transported fully into the story.
Note: the hormones stimulated in this phase of storytelling are cortisol and adrenaline as we introduce dangers, but we also stimulate oxytocin as the reader begins to care about and identify with the protagonist, and we stimulate the release of dopamine as the reader struggles to resolve the mystery of how to resolve the problem.
Transport phase
In this middle of a tale, the reader imagines himself in the role of the protagonist, and is living through the tale. The protagonist struggles to respond to a problem but discovers that it is larger than first imagined. As the protagonist tries to resolve the problem, the tale demonstrates how the problem “broadens,” (so the problem affects many people) and the attempts at resolution show how the problem “deepens” (affecting the protagonist more deeply than he imagined). In short, the audience is awakened to the enormity of the problem. The resolution attempts demonstrate how others have struggled with the problem and been destroyed by it time and again. (For example, we might show how people have been consumed by hate, destroyed by sloth, been gutted by alcoholism, and so on.)
The Transformational Phase
At the climax of the story, the “awakened” protagonist seeks out new resources and has an epiphany, a “revelation,” that lets him solve the problem. This epiphany releases oxytocin into the brain to help the audience remember the lesson they’ve learned.
The Validation
The validation performs three functions: 1) It demonstrates that the problem has been truly resolved by showing what happened after the climax. 2) It creates a powerful emotional response which releases serotonin to “cleanse” the reader from the effects of cortisol and adrenaline. 3) The ending demonstrates to the reader that the story is truly over.
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