The Matrix Of Story
By Mr. Xavier Ighorodje
As long as sentient beings, capable of thought and language continue to exist in the known universe, until it rains stars — stories will forever remain important, significant, indispensable — providing us a much needed shelter from the storms and strife reality offers, or providing the necessary distractions we need to survive our everyday lives, mundane and other wise, getting us through lockdowns and future pandemics to follow — informing us, educating us, warping our minds — shaping culture and thought — you name it! And whether the storyteller whom the burden of wielding story masterfully falls to, considers themselves a god of some sort or not, the audience really doesn’t ‘care’ (read as ‘give a flying fuck’), because at the heart of it, you ultimately will probably never get remembered (account balance be damned) — but your stories, you see that pesky little document less than 1MB you have fired up on your laptop using Final Draft, Celtx, ‘a free edition of’ FadeIn— when it gets on screen, it will, if you play your hand right, mean something. It will be hopefully eternal to a lot of someones, as long as the story is good.
Simple shit? Yes? NOPE!
Because what exactly makes a good story? What ingredients in particular make the audience care about your vision? Why should it matter? Especially with the varied cocktails of content out there, copious amount of banal, yet viral short videos stealing the attention span of the average consumer, winning the battle for your audience’s attention.
I do not presume to be a sole authority on this subject, I can only give an opinion borne out of having trudged through the miasma of arduous story deadlines, script submissions, story development, pitches and what not, for the better part of over a decade. An opinion forged as a person of color, an African living in Nigeria who has grown through having to write the “terrible stories” out of their system, who is still passionate about growth and growing. In my humble great stories… nay, let’s be humble, good stories are born when memory and fluidity of the narrative, conjoin to give us a moment in time when we are trapped to care. And just for the sake of distinction, I need to point out one thing here, in case it is not already nearly obvious enough. The ingredients that make a story good and that which makes a story memorable are two different things entirely.
I am of the belief that a story might be good but not memorable.
What makes a story memorable you might ask? One word ‘connection’. Something existing within the story world we can tether our lives to and for a second live through, vicariously, be it characters we care for, those we love, those we hate or those we love to hate. I remember watching the film LOGAN and thinking, this is a good film, but it is not for me.
Yes, Logan, the titular character was humanized — battle weary, suffering from metal poisoning which impeded his healing factor and Charles Xavier was falling apart — powerful human moments right there, grounded in realism. But for someone such as me, raised to believe in the infallibility of humanity’s greatest psychic — Professor X and high on the power of the nigh destructible adamantium — every frame of that film broke me, and I hated it. So as good, nay great as that film was (there are those who consider it one of the greatest comic book movies ever made), it didn’t connect with me. I don’t consider it memorable.
I don’t like Logan. Memory may be a question of opinion.
What makes a story good? Two words — Positive Flow. Watching a good film is like taking swallow with ogbono — for want of a better way to describe it, the thing go go well. Smooth sailing — the ability for your audience to suspend disbelief, no matter the seemingly ass pull moments, if it is consistent with the mythos of the story world, it will work. Case in point RRR, but let’s forget about this and deconstruct what Positive Flow really means. To understand that, we must first understand Flow (narrative progression).
Flow, the way I have come to understand it, is how the different elements of your narrative tapestry are woven together. Positive Flow tends to be seamless, in such a way that feeling through story blindly with your hands, raise no braille. Or watching the material… I don’t encounter ridges or speed bumps, story lumps in the form of plot holes or characters that take me nowhere, people I cannot care for or people sounding like dusgbe… Or feeling seeds; you know how improperly made akamu has lumps? Yes. It’s distracting, it’s distasteful to the meal and ultimately it is heartbreaking…always in all ways, especially when you feel with just a little more thought the story for go well.
As a screenwriter, several munitions are available in your arsenal to channel to achieve Positive Flow — language, metaphors, memorable characters, freytag, etc. The simplest of these being the 3 act structure. Beginning, middle and an end.
I’ll stretch it just a little bit further to describe them as — Compelling beginning, Tumultuous middle and a Breathtaking end. Contained within the preceding is a simple way to navigate any kind of genre you wish to explore. Drama? Give me a compelling beginning. Thriller — give me a compelling beginning. Romantic comedy — again, compelling beginning. Something that holds a promise — that invites the audience to come journey with you, that dares them to see the world through your eyes for a moment. I dare say you have never seen a great movie with a bad first 10 minutes, because every scene, every moment is an invitation, selling a promise you care enough about. Remember we are chasing memory and greatness here, not turd.
A tumultuous middle — don’t give us comfort, even when it’s meant to be funny — surprise us. Don’t make us comfortable or we’ll sleep off and go to shake bumbum on TikTok. Force us to abandon peeking at our phones… That blink and you might miss it moment espoused in cinema. And lastly a breathtaking end — show us why this journey was worth it, what would you have us learn? How would you have us feel? How many gallons of tears is this piece deserving of. Was the plan to break our heart? How many pieces are we scrambling on the floor trying to piece together? The promise you made at the start of this journey must be fulfilled. It MUST!
I must admit that the above feels like a simplistic take on the subject, because if it were so simple — then of what purpose is film school? Granted it is highly simplified — but it is, indeed at the heart of every good story, with very few exceptions. To put it to use, you must understand that a large heart alone is not enough — for the organism of story to thrive — it must have a head, within which exists a functioning brain. This can be found in the other munitions we come with to attack the story and make it sing — Characters whom we root for, who we can relate to, or who offer us a different prism with which to view the world, a world we want to get lost in, magic system, world building, themes, dramatic structure, etc. It is only when the following come together, to enhance the matrix of your story world, that Neo is given breath!
Mr. Xavier Ighorodje is an award winning Screenwriter and Producer. He was screenwriter for the documentary short “Will of Iron” that won a Sundance award in 2014. With over 40,000 minutes of primetime Nigerian television writing to his credit, he has contributed to the development of multiple television shows on MNET’s Africa Magic as either Story Editor or Head Writer. He is also co-writer of Netflix’s original “Shanty Town”, which premieres in 2023.
Footnote: Hi Guys! So I promised that we will learn from other brilliant minds on storytelling, scriptwriting, character development, building story plots, what makes compelling characters, great stories, and memorable, captivating, thrilling and engaging storytelling. Here is the first in a series of articles I have been able to bully my friends to write. There will be many more.
