Story First
This is maybe the most important lesson of all. Whether you’re a writer, an entrepreneur, a speaker, a therapist…story must come first. Always.
We don’t talk about current events a ton here but part of why this feels timely is how this topic has come up in recent conversations several times. Including with the announcement of Bob Iger’s return to the Walt Disney Company as CEO. In his statement, Iger said, “I am deeply honored to be asked to again lead this remarkable team, with a clear mission focused on creative excellence to inspire generations through unrivaled, bold storytelling.”
Notice how the central, driving thought here is Story. Most fans of Disney (myself included) would venture to say the company has lost sight of story over the past couple of years—at least in terms of how the company was being run, not necessarily in the content being released. Though my two cents is it’s dropped off a bit there, too.
When companies (and people) lose sight of putting Story First, they end up losing their way. There are too many examples to put here—and chances are, you can think of how this has happened in your own life and writing. When writers lose sight of putting Story First, then they quickly find they don’t have anyone reading their work. If we’re honest, we’ve all failed at this time and time again, so let’s talk about some strategies you can use to make sure to keep Story First…
#1 PUT PEOPLE FIRST
One of the reasons I’m a fan of character-driven storytelling is it’s become one of my own strategies for keeping Story First. Am I putting people first in my work? This includes not only the characters themselves, but to some extent, my audience too. More on that in a bit.
The same concept can be applied to business, too. Are decisions made thinking only about the bottom line? Or are decisions made thinking about people? I’ll let you guess which company ends up doing better.
But in the context of writing, I keep the characters central. What do I want them to do? What is the journey they are going on? By focusing on a character’s motivations and evolutions, it becomes a bit easier to keep Story first.
In addition to this, your job is to also think about your audience before yourself—what are they going to get out of the Story? We writers (myself included) are often guilty of writing for ourselves instead of for our audience. While it’s true we should write the kind of things we ourselves would want to read, that doesn’t mean we can neglect readers. Otherwise, they’ll go somewhere else—and then what’s the point of your writing if no one is reading it?
These aren’t conflicting ideas. If we put readers first, the end result is we also end up writing something we ourselves would enjoy reading. But if we only write something for ourselves, we could end up alienating our potential reader.
The last thing I’ll mention here dovetails with the next big point. A common mistake by many writers (myself included) is putting a theme or ideology first. This happens when someone says, “I want to write a story with the theme of rags to riches,” or “I want to write a story with an environmental theme,” or whatever you want to fill the blank with. There’s nothing wrong with a rags-to-riches story or an environmental story…but when the theme becomes the most important part of the writing, it ends up hijacking the story and you end up making some pretty bizarre characters choices which don’t fit in the long run.
In his book On Writing, Stephen King offers the tip that he doesn’t think about themes at all in his first draft. He purely focuses on getting the story out. Then, during the rewrite, he looks for the natural themes that emerge and then enhances them where it adds to the character’s journey—rather than force-fitting characters into the pre-determined theme.
The end result is not only a stronger Story, but stronger themes which enhance the journey rather than distract from it. Audiences don’t like to be lectured to, which is what typically happens when theme or ideology makes the decisions in the story. But audiences love a satisfying character arc, even when that character represents themes and ideologies they may not personally adhere to. You’re allowed—and even encouraged—to have themes and ideology in your writing, but it has to come second to Story.
On that note…
when the theme becomes the most important part of the writing, it ends up hijacking the story
#2 MISSION BEFORE MANDATE
There comes a time in any project, especially when you’ve been hired by someone else, where a mandate is going to come down. This happens often in Hollywood with the studio mandating specific script changes—maybe a huge star was just hired for the script and so there are some necessary tweaks to the character’s description or age, etc. Even in nonfiction books this can happen when at the 11th hour, the client says, “I want to make sure we cover X topic in the book.” In either situation, the mandate be anywhere on the spectrum of easy-peasy to totally disruptive.
The key here is to always put mission before mandate. This simply means the mandate should fit into the pre-determined mission of the story—the mandate should not change the mission.
For example, I was recently working on a book primarily focused on reaching HR leaders with strategies for creating a healthier work culture. About three-quarters of the way through the project, the author said to me, “I don’t think we’re talking enough about the integration of technology into the workplace here. We should probably add more content about the effects of automation, new tech trends, and so on.”
While I understood his thinking behind this, it was a moment where I had to take him back to the mission of the book. “Who are we trying to reach here, though? And will a lengthy discussion on tech get them closer to the mission of your book or distract them from the mission of your book?” After hearing it this way, he realized his personal mandate wasn’t aligned with the overall mission of the book and realized he needed to let it go. We still found a way to naturally weave in some of the tech ideas he wanted to include, but only in ways that centered on the primary mission and message of the book.
Sometimes this can be a real challenge. I’ve had other times where a mandate was forced in anyway and, frankly, I believe the end product suffered as a result. Yet I’ve also seen where a mandate can actually help fulfill the mission. Not all mandates are bad—if they support the mission, then they can be great.
Having a defined mission before you start a project helps you make decisions when the mandates show up. It helps you know which ones to fight against—which ones to embrace—and which ones to tweak a bit so that Story still comes first.
the mandate should fit into the pre-determined mission of the story—the mandate should not change the mission
#3 HEED THE FEEDBACK
I harp on this a lot and it’s no less true here with Story First. You’ve GOT to get feedback from people you trust—and then actually listen to it and act upon it.
Sometimes as writers we are a bit too precious about our work—and we’re too close to it to see where we might be neglecting Story First. Bringing in a second (or third or fourth) set of eyes can be helpful in spotting the problem areas and where we may unintentionally be drifting away from Story.
When I was working on my first novel’s second draft, I had a couple of trusted individuals read it and both gave similar feedback—the story took too long to get going and there was too much emphasis on the style of the book. My initial manuscript contained long, stylistic passages and while they loved the quality of the writing itself, those passages simply didn’t advance the plot in a meaningful way. So they suggested I cut them significantly.
At first, I wanted to reject their feedback. I loved the writing in those sections and felt like it would be a sin to cut it. But finally, once I’d swallowed my pride a bit, I realized they were right. Yet there was also a way we could both win. I decided to repurpose some of the parts I cut out as a couple of essays for the appendix of the book—it was still there, but no longer impeding the story.
Once I made these changes, I realized how much it improved the overall pacing of the story. Honestly, I probably didn’t go far enough as there were some sections I was just unwilling to excise for artistic reasons. But I ended up cutting, relocating, or repurposing about ten pages worth of text which ended up significantly improving the pacing of the book and putting the Story back where it belonged.
Sometimes the feedback you get will be more of a mandate and that’s when you have to go back to “Mission Over Mandate” and ask, “Does this feedback actually put the story first? Or is it putting a theme/style/ideology first?”
bringing in a second (or third or fourth) set of eyes can be helpful in spotting where we may unintentionally be drifting away from Story
We’re often our own worst enemy as Storytellers and justify reasons we aren’t putting Story First. But if you can do these three things—Put People First, Mission Before Mandate, and Heed the Feedback—you’ll have some guardrails in place to keep you in the right lane and stay focused on Story. This is true in both fiction and non-fiction writing—and in some ways, it’s truer than nonfiction because the readers don’t want to just be entertained, they want to learn and Story First thinking enhances the learning experience.
