Solving a story puzzle is a lot like solving a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle with 5679 pieces in the box… and you’ve lost the top of the box.
The point of the metaphor is that discovering a story has a lot to do with noticing what is important, focusing only on that, and keeping an open mind about what the story turns out to be. You can want to tell a certain story and discover that what is really there is something else.
Step 1: think of storytelling more like plumbing than painting.
When you’re painting the interior of a house, you can choose any color for any room, and there’s no way to really tell if the colors you’ve chosen are “good.” I mean, yes, there are professional colorists and people with taste and color really does matter. But paint is not nearly as objective as plumbing. Paint color is something you see, with choices limited only by your imagination. Plumbing is something you typically don’t see, and is shaped primarily by facts. Given where the water comes from and where it’s needed, there will be few options and likely one optimal solution.
Step 2: identify the key story elements:
Step 3: apply story principles:
- Have you identified the priority goal?
- Is the obstacle to that goal the singular problem?
- Is there some intuitive equivalency between them?
Then, play around in your imagination and see if what you’re coming up with has that sharp edge, gut feeling, go for the jugular kind of energy.
Often, when you’ve solved a story puzzle, there’s a sense of insight, an aha! kind of feeling – a feeling of having discovered something.
NOTE: It should be understood that the answers to the puzzles are my answers, not THE answers. I am open to better ideas (always).