Life is fragile - but perhaps because we are all acutely aware of our own mortality, we value stories of renewal, growth, and resurgence. We value stories that show us that if we wade through our tougher moments, there is a sense of peace from transformation waiting just on the other side.
For writers of all stripes, this story path something drilled into our heads using the most basic of teaching tools: the story arc. The story arc lays out a basic structure for any new plot: trigger, rising conflict, crisis, climax, and resolution. This linear path carries the reader/viewer/listener through the character’s journey and out the other side—the promised sense of peace.
TRIGGER
What would you do to save the ones you love? A brilliant scientist freezes his children alive while he races to cure their deadly genetic disease and give them the gift of immortality. Joined in this task by a shadowy fellow scientist, the decisions that they make together will have consequences rippling throughout both of their lives.
CONFLICT
The wind scatters a group of people away from their home and sets them on a long, dangerous journey in this gripping stop motion film. The filmmakers use sounds collected from the thousands of youtube videos depicting violence amongst the Syrian people in an effort to ask the viewer: What does it mean to be abandoned? What does it mean to abandon everything?
CRISIS
In the not so distant future, the United States of Africa is a thriving country while it’s neighbor to the north–Europe–is in the throes of serious instability and crushing poverty. A desperate, unemployed couple decide to immigrate to the US-of-A in hopes for a better life.
CLIMAX
This video shows how a laser with a wavelength of 1,310 nanometers is launched into a silicon wave guide 350 by 220 nanometers.
But, what does it really mean?
RESOLUTION
In great microscopic detail, we see the development of a newt from conception to hatching – a single cell is transformed into a new organism. Although a science film at its core, journey of growth is one we all undertake. The first stages of embryonic development are roughly the same for all animals, including humans. In watching the progression of this small being, we watch our own lives as well.
About the author
Bettina is a communications consultant, whose work supports social change initiatives in health and clean energy in southern Africa and Latin America. Her work has seen her teaching photography courses to youth in villages across Botswana, writing content for high ranking officials working in HIV/AIDS programming, and building business case studies for clean energy investments across southern Africa. She is currently based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
