Nov 6, 2022
Answer these 6 six questions while telling your story, and you will have a story worth sharing.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
“
Charly has always been shy. He is settling in Pandora city with his parents. His parents work for a big aircraft company. They are called field services representatives. They rotate between stations around the world as field services representatives.
Charly just turned 15 years old.
Each time Charly sees her, he freezes. He has always been shy. As a single child, he only interacts with his parents and the people who take care of him because they are top executives in the company. Nevertheless, Charly is in love with her.
Emily has been living in Pandora city her entire life. Her family owns a very prosperous restaurant chain business in the town. She is the oldest of three girls in the family. She goes to the same school as Charly. The two of them are in the same piano class. His shyness is sitting in his way of speaking to Emily. And he is still recovering from the breakup with her previous girlfriend when they left the last station. He is not ready to get his heart broken again when they will move again to another station, somewhere, anywhere.
Emily works in one of her parents’ restaurants every Wednesday afternoon. So Charly is sure to go there to have dinner with his parents. Each time, the story is always the same. They go. Emily recognizes him. But she is so busy serving other customers that she barely has time to speak to him.
Each week, Charly returns home devastated that Emily is not paying attention to him.
Emily just broke up with Jonathan Walter. The Walters have been governing Pandora City for generations. Currently, John Walter is the acting Mayor. The Jones hoped that Emily and Jonathan would be the perfect match. The two families have been very close for generations. Unfortunately, Emily was broken by Jonathan’s cheating on her. She is taking music classes because she wants to be a pianist like her grandmother. She wants to travel the world, not live her whole life in Pandora City. She is not ready mentally to get back into a relationship that could break her heart again. Charly and Emily have many things in common: they are trapped in their family business and have broken hearts. Yet there is one difference: as Charly just wants to settle in Pandora City, Emily wants to escape that prison for her.
It was raining in Pandora city. Charly was sitting in the restaurant waiting for his parents to pick him up. Emily was always the last person to leave the restaurant. She wanted to show that she was not taking a shortcut.
As she finished cleaning the counter, all the restaurant lights were off except Charly’s.
She washes her hand. She looks in Charly’s direction. He looks away. Charly was crying. He was crying. He looked away. He was crying. He started walking to his table.
She sits in front of him. She takes a napkin from the table and wipes away the tears in his eyes.
He looks at him. “I see you, you know!” Emily says. Charly smiles for the first time today. She smiles back at him and hugs him.
”
I love stories. I’ve been around stories. Some have faded away. Others stick with me.
If a story is a pie, each slice is a scene. If we combine some of those slices, we call it an act. Often there is the well-known three acts structure: beginning, middle, and end.
We all have been there. Next, we must prepare a presentation of our project and convince some people to invest their time, money, or energy into it.
We all have been there. We are at the funeral of a friend, a family member, or a colleague. And we are tasked to say a few words about their life.
We all dream about being on stage at a TED or TEDx event to tell our story.
At some point in our lives, we must tell a story to inspire others.
There are as many ways to tell stories as stars in the universe. However, we can still create a framework to help us tell stories worth remembering.
A story, at its core, is just answering a series of questions. Each act and each scene is also answering the same set of questions.
Here are six questions that can help us write better stories:
- Who is it about?
- What do they want?
- Why can’t they get it?
- What do they do about that?
- Why doesn’t that work?
- How does it end?
Now, this article is unique. Indeed I don’t want you to take my word for it. I encourage you to go through this writing exercise with me.
The rule is simple: Take a paper, pen, or pencil. Write down the six questions above. Then, think about the story that has been knocking at the door of your soul for so long, or imagine that you want to tell your next story.
Please do the exercise until the end, and feel free to share the result with me or your friends and family.
If your story is complex, imagine a scene happening at a specific location or time. And try to answer those six questions for that particular scene. Remember: you can eat the whole pie if you want, just cut it into slices and have one daily.
Tell me when you are ready. I am waiting.
Ten seconds later: Ok, let’s go.
I will improvise a story as we go through those questions, and I will compile the story and put it at the top of this article. You usually have already read it by now.
1. WHO IS IT ABOUT? — Charly has always been shy. He is settling in Pandora city with his parents. His parents work for a big aircraft company. They are called field services representatives. They rotate between stations around the world as field services representatives.
Charly just turned 15 years old.
2. WHAT DO THEY WANT — Each time Charly sees her, he freezes. He has always been shy. As a single child, he only interacts with his parents and the people who take care of him because they are top executives in the company. Nevertheless, Charly is in love with her.
3. WHY CAN’T THEY GET IT? — Emily has been living in Pandora city her entire life. Her family owns a very prosperous restaurant chain business in the town. She is the oldest of three girls in the family. She goes to the same school as Charly. The two of them are in the same piano class. His shyness is sitting in his way of speaking to Emily. And he is still recovering from the breakup with her previous girlfriend when they left the last station. He is not ready to get his heart broken again when they will move again to another station, somewhere, anywhere.
4. WHAT DO THEY DO ABOUT THAT? — Emily works in one of her parents’ restaurants every Wednesday afternoon. So Charly is sure to go there to have dinner with his parents. Each time, the story is always the same. They go. Emily recognizes him. But she is so busy serving other customers that she barely has time to speak to him.
Each week, Charly returns home devastated that Emily is not paying attention to him.
5. WHY DOESN’T THAT WORK? — Emily just broke up with Jonathan Walter. The Walters have been governing Pandora City for generations. Currently, John Walter is the acting Mayor. The Jones hoped that Emily and Jonathan would be the perfect match. The two families have been very close for generations. Unfortunately, Emily was broken by Jonathan’s cheating on her. She is taking music classes because she wants to be a pianist like her grandmother. She wants to travel the world, not live her whole life in Pandora City. She is not ready mentally to get back into a relationship that could break her heart again. Charly and Emily have many things in common: they are trapped in their family business and have broken hearts. Yet there is one difference: as Charly just wants to settle in Pandora City, Emily wants to escape that prison for her.
6. HOW DOES IT END? — It was raining in Pandora city. Charly was sitting in the restaurant waiting for his parents to pick him up. Emily was always the last person to leave the restaurant. She wanted to show that she was not taking a shortcut.
As she finished cleaning the counter, all the restaurant lights were off except Charly’s.
She washes her hand. She looks in Charly’s direction. He looks away. Charly was crying. He was crying. He looked away. He was crying. He started walking to his table.
She sits in front of him. She takes a napkin from the table and wipes away the tears in his eyes.
He looks at him. “I see you, you know!” Emily says. Charly smiles for the first time today. She smiles back at him and hugs him.
The END!
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You can read my previous article on Is D always for Destiny? Or is it for something else? (Friendly link)
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