On Volvos

Donald Miller (author of one of my fave books, and I've posted about him) spoke at Mars Hill a couple of weeks ago and I've been reflecting on what he said. He related the elements of a great story with the elements of a great life, i.e. think about your favorite stories, narratives, movies, etc. and pick out lessons of a life worth living. It's an unusual twist, if you think about it. Typically it's the other way around: to write a great story, you need to be a keen observer of life. Art imitates life. But on second thought, it totally works. This reminds me of CS Lewis' insistence that the stories we create (specifically myths) - across the ages and cross cultures - have a consistency to them; they point to certain and universal longings. There's also Joseph Campbell's book about the universal hero. And speaking of the universe, it sometimes aligns: Mosaic's sermon series have been about an original life, which I suspect take cues from this notion of a great story (titles of the sermons: the call, the crisis, the conflict, etc.). But, I digress. Okay, back to Don.

Don was convincing and helpful. If you're interested take a listen here. It's fun and worthwhile. He lists out a bunch of story-telling techniques and citing examples like Rocky, Joseph in the book of Genesis, Friday Night Lights, etc.

He said something interesting about the protagonist. The protagonist should be flawed, she maybe an addict or have low self-esteem, no one will like or relate to the perfect person. But there is one thing the protagonist cannot be. She cannot think of herself as better than other people. If she does, she is the villain.

He also said that writers often start with writing/knowing/plotting out the climactic scene of the story. They don't start at the beginning, they start near the end. Once they know what that scene is about, then they figure out the rest. What struggles and turning points will take him/her there? Who will help or deter him/her? Is there another way for these characters to meet? What difficult choices will they make? What we want dictates how we live our life.

And oh, the Volvo refers to an objective. Don uses it to illustrate a goal: the character wants to buy a Volvo. And at the end of the movie he gets it. "Now, are you weeping at the end of this movie?"

It needs to be more than a Volvo. A great story needs to be really risky, like, it needs to scare you. "The best stories are the ones where you might lose your life."