Storytelling is not a new concept. It's been around since the beginning of humanity. But it's a topic that often gets undervalued and underappreciated in today's world. We have so many different mediums to tell our stories...books, blogs, magazines, social networking, television, films, podcasts, etc. Each medium has their own set of devices to employ more effective storytelling, but at the heart of each one, is still just a story. And a good story can have a profound impact on our lives. A good number of successful people are great storytellers.
Recently, I was listening to the Glenn Beck interview on The Tim Ferriss Podcast and Glenn Beck's advice to people was to tell more stories. He said that we should look for the people who are making a difference in the world and tell their story. This bit of advice resonated with me because my desire to tell stories is the reason I became an editor. I want to tell stories that touch people and inspire them. I want to show the different sides of humanity.
But as an editor I don’t always get to choose the story I’m telling. The writer has already made that choice. What the editor has to do is find the most compelling story from the footage that has been shot. Compelling stories come from complex characters. And the stories behind these characters are what make us relate to them. Ever wonder why we can empathize with some of the worst villians? Often times when we see where these characters have come from and we learn their history, we have a context on which to base their behavior. It may not excuse bad behavior but it makes us understand it, thereby, at the very least providing us a new lens to view the character from.
Take for example, this opening scene from one of my episodes of Smallville, called Descent.
The story being told here is more than a son killing his father. Lex feels betrayed and belittled by Lionel. Even someone who has never seen the show before would understand that there is a long complicated history of abuse and neglect and that neither of these characters are without their flaws. But if we had chosen to start the episode with Lex throwing his dad out the window, we would lose any context of backstory and we would likely conclude that Lex is an evil, cold hearted killer. Of course, some fans of the show may argue that conclusion anyway, but the point is that stories give us a basis for understanding.
The best told stories are the ones where even the worst villains illicit our compassion. Good stories illuminate the humanity inside all of us. Stories don't always have a happy ending but if they are told well, they leave us with something more than we had before. So while we should heed Glenn Beck’s advice to tell more stories, we should take care to preserve the heart of those stories. Because without the heart, we lose who our characters are and the story fails. As storytellers, we have a responsibility not only to continue telling our stories but to also evolve our humanity through these stories. That is the true challenge of storytelling and when we achieve that we have found the essence of our humanity.