Chapter 1.
A story usually starts in some “cool” and “unique” way. With a flashback. In the midst of action. An introduction. Scene setting. Every story is different, every story is the same.
We learn in Video Production lecture that there’re three Acts to a story, the first being the “Set up” where the “hero” is introduced.
Hi there.
This is followed by the “Confrontation”, where the “main problem” is “confronted” by the hero. The story ends with the third Act, the “Resolution”, where the “hero” solves the “main problem”. The Powerpoint slide had a triangle showing what was called the “climax” occurring halfway through the third act.
In Hollywood, it’s good guy beats bad guy, happy family drive off into the sunset, James Bond makes love to a beautiful woman.
Every story is different, every story is the same.
This story starts with me trying to be something else. I’m trying to be Gonzo Journalist. I’m trying to be modernist-surrealist. I’m trying to be James Bond. I’m trying to go for “very Quentin Tarantino.”
I try and, more often than not, I fall flat on my face. I try like a loser tries to fit in like a friend who tries to care. Try me.
Hold that. This story starts with me being a loser and moving on to being something bigger. And the loser me can’t handle being bigger. And that’s how I get a story to tell.
So, there. In the society we live in, you’re not who you are, or what you are. You are what people think you are. You could tell all your friends that you banged some Caucasian you met on Khao San street in Bangkok and they’d think you were a charming, strapping lad who is “oh so confident.”
In actual fact you got a hard on and just continued eating your mango sticky rice.
You could tell your mother that you went to church this week. Mother says, that’s a “Good Boy.”
In actual fact you were in bed, all day.
This story starts with the “hero” (me) moving towards a “main problem”. This is Act I: It starts with me making myself something I’m not but what people think I am therefore I am. I am approaching the “Inciting Incident”.
Notice how I say, I am the “hero”. It’s like a movie. In Video Production we learn how to write a screenplay, how to set the scene and use the right format and develop your characters. So here’s me: the “hero”.
This isn’t really me. It’s what you think I am through the image of me you get reading this story written by me combined with your personal experiences and your view of the world. All this is written in some textbook somewhere.
This story starts with a conversation. Like scene setting. Let’s go.
