What Is A Story?

This post by David Baboulene originally appeared on his The Science of Story on 11/3/14.

When I first started my research degree in story theory, the thing that surprised me most was that there is no single definition for the term ‘story’. At least, not one that all the authorities agree, and certainly not one which would cover all the examples that you and I would intuitively agree are ‘stories’. 2,300 years since Aristotle and even the dictionary isn’t right.

Of course, like every other narratologist, I have come up with my own definition, but for this blog post, I won’t be trying to sell you that. I thought I would use this space to capture the top lines that most story boffins DO agree. The common elements that comprise the mainstream and which are useful to know if you are a writer of fiction. Please note the scope I’m setting. I’m not trying to include ‘the story of medicine’ or a poem or a recipe or an argument or the story of ‘last summer’ or Japanese Kishotenketsu conflict free narratives, or all the myriad other things that may or may not be stories. I’m talking about a definition that will help an aspiring writer do good things for their story telling by understanding where the centre of the mainstream flows.

So, let’s look at the simple contents of a generally ‘good’ story:

 

Read the full post on The Science of Story.