Explore every episode of the podcast The Beemgee Guide to How Stories Work

Five ways to cut your manuscript or screenplay down to size. 

What to do if your story is simply too long. How to you shorten a manuscript or screenplay. Here are five suggestions to help you.

An author we know was offered a contract for her novel on the condition that she reduce the length from 600 manuscript pages down to 450. Most manuscripts can do with a little pruning. But shortening the text by a quarter is a tall order. Here's the advice we gave her.

In this special episode, we ask:

- You think you know world literature? Let's test you on some world classics.

- Are the principles of storytelling really universal across cultures?

- How does classical Chinese literature differ from the western storytelling tradition?

We go into two of the main differences between the western and eastern storytelling traditions:

• Antagonism, to see that baddies exist primarily in the West

• Structure, and find out about billiard balls, among other things

Storytelling in the News
- “Our top story tonight: …”
- Why is it important to read the newspaper?
- It's complicated
- “Just the facts, ma’am”
- Neutrality
- Free Press
- Editorial

How to make the factual memorable.

The Two Basic Structures of Non-Fiction Books:

1. Reference and articles

2. Step by step from beginning to end

What both non-fiction approaches have in common.

An Invitation.

The STETS rule.

Caveats:

The Evolution of Stories – Are humans the only storytelling animals?

Cautionary Tale – In our dystopian world, what are we learning from the stories we tell each other?

In this episode, we look back on the season to summarise what we've learnt so far:

• Unwritten "laws" of dramaturgy?

• Something to do with emotionally engaging an audience?

• WHO is the story about?

• WHAT are stories really about?

• Characters, change, learning – what else?

• A list of ingredients.

• Symmetry.

• Cause and effect.

• The twin layers of plot and transformation.

• 5 things stories should do in order to engage audiences emotionally.

How long is a piece of string?

Norms and carrier media.

Feature films.

Short stories.

Novellas.

Novels.

Meaning – and not letting the audience get restless.

Dialog as action.

• How the words are spoken.

• The emotion behind the words.

• Conflict.

• Action and Reaction.

• Cause and Effect.

• Theme.

• Meaning.

Or: Who is telling the story to whom under which circumstances?

• The discrepancy between author and narrator.

• The standard narrator types.

• Close or Distant.

• The Act of Telling as Part of the Fiction.

• Coding and Decoding.

• The “people” involved in the act of producing and consuming a story.

One of the most important choices an author must make.

Four definitions:

- The overall perspective from which a story is told.

- The scene by scene perspective of a story.

• Including the test: Who is the point of view character?

• Story events don’t happen in a vacuum.

- The narrator’s point of view.

- Attitude or belief of the author.

• Awareness and control while writing.

• Relevance and universality.

• Surprise and pre-interpretation.

• Recognition – the truth about life.

• "It’s the way you tell it."

• Narrative as representation of story.

• Story information.

• The paradox of narrative – telling the truth by hiding it.

• Story-Basics.

• The Components of Story.

• Text Types That Describe A Story.

• Author Choices: Genre and Point of View.

• Causality in Narrative.

• Story as illusion created by narrative.

• Or: Syuzhet and Fabula.

• "And then" vs "Because of that".

• Explanation vs interpretation.

• The linear convention and backstory or flashbacks.

• Units of information: ordering and shuffling events into a narrative structure (in other words, outlining).

• Techniques such as the narrative frame and surprise effects.

• A popular genre.

• Every scene is justified, even (especially) the misleading ones.

• Cause and Effect (again).

• Agency (again).

• The Whydunnit.

• The Narrative Principle (surface structure).

• Why some people don't like crime stories.

• The search for truth, or gaining awareness.

• How crime is like comedy.

The Rustle In The Bushes.

• A built-in predisposition to expect agency.

• We look for the causes of events or phenomena we perceive.

• Creaky floorboards.

• In stories, there are no actions without agents.

• A source of perennial insecurity. A need to understand cause and effect.

• A story in which events occur at random does not work.

• Comfort and escapism.

• Causality due to character motivation.

• Making assumptions about what others want.

• Gossip has a purpose.

• Murders.

Fiction as Life-Simulation.

Brain patterns while we are immersed in a story.

Storytelling as an evolutionary adaptation.

Binge-watching our favourite series actually helps us to survive.

The Dao of storytelling – story-practice makes life-perfect.

Safety in numbers.

The three ways characters can interact.

Problem-solving.

Works cited:

• Brian Boyd, On The Origin of Stories, Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction (2009, Harvard University Press)

• Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal, How Stories Make Us Human (2012, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• Problem-solving.

• Cause and effect in stories and in life.

• "Because of that ..."

• The Roman bridge.

• What do we learn?

• Why the cooperative principle.

• Is 'plot' a dirty word?

• The pillars that hold up a story.

• Famous attempts to shun plot.

• Characters and plot events make story.

• The reactions of characters to events.

• Growing a narrative out of an idea.

How to achieve meaning in stories.

What does 'meaning' mean? When is a tale meaningful?

Subtext.

Meaning is that which is intended or understood.

The standpoint of the storyteller or the recipient.

Academic Approaches to Meaning:

The author’s intention.

The work itself.

The broader context.

Accessibility and '-isms'.

Industry Approaches to Meaning:

Encoding vs spelling things out.

Individual Approaches to Meaning:

Connections in your brain, cultural and personal.

Meaning is emotional.

Meaning in Narrative:

Precise control of language.

Theme.

Causality.

Meaning as all-pervasive.

Meaning - in the mind of the beholder.

Or should we say 'seven' components? Though our list doesn't even include 'conflict'. Either way, some things we talk about in today's episode:

• Character as Core

• Characters' Actions as Plot

• The Interplay of Character and Plot as Dramaturgy

• "It's all about the execution!"

• Style

• More on Meaning

• "Commercial" or "mainstream" vs. "arthouse" or "literary"

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• Knowing the direction.

• Story as experience – from which one learns.

• The Basis: Character-Building.

• But what about language? The language of the medium.

• But what about meaning? Story as the vehicle for meaning, to an extent conveyed through the execution.

• The process of fabrication – grow not plants but stories.

• Flow.

• Plotting and Pantsing.

• Foreshadowing – “Every detail is a prophecy”

• Scenes and Arguments

• Text versus Story

Act one – Telling Stories

• Where literature and writing meant "pattern"

• "Trunk of a tree"

• The Interface between content and audience

• Index cards vs. the typewriter

• Characters make plot

• Pantser or plotter?

Authors and works mentioned:

• Lu Chi

• Cyril Birch's Anthology of Chinese Literature

• Two processes: architecture and bricklaying

• Motivated characters + a strong plot = a satisfied audience

• Story Development

• Outlining

• Developing Characters

• Stories are like air: just there;

• About the author;

• Manipulating the emotions of the audience;

• Who is on the story journey: hero, author, and audience.

The Beemgee Guide to Story Development: The Audience' Journey - Manipulating Emotions is about storytelling techniques, dramaturgy, plotting and outlining, narrative structure, and creating characters based on dramaturgical principles. It is for authors and screenwriters, storytellers and anyone who writes novels, short stories, even memoirs, dramas, TV shows or movies, or narrative video games. It’s also good for story professionals such as publishers, fiction editors, film producers or directors. We focus on the audience' journey rather than the hero's journey.