Obviously, understanding tension’s role in the narrative is an important first step in crafting it in your own writing. For the writer, part of the craft of writing is simultaneously moving towards a solution while also delaying it. In contrast, Albatross offers a number of highly misleading clues (What is the conflict of the story? Where is this story–and the story within the story–going?) primarily by constantly introducing new information that has no precedent, to mislead the reader and make the ending funny–or horrifying, or gross, depending on how you feel about that sort of thing.įor the reader, part of the pleasure (or sense of fulfillment) comes from the effort to solve these problems as they present themselves. As the film progresses, other clues are offered that solve minor (What happens next?) and major (Who gets the bagel?) puzzles. This puzzle (Who is the protagonist?) has been solved. This is immediately confirmed when the film identifies him through the faux computer scan visual. If we look at Pigeon: Impossible, several clues are offered at the start–from the references to spy films (the visuals and music) and the protagonist’s inability to suavely cross the street–that allow the reader to guess that he is a bumbling secret agent. Ideally, the solution and the revelation happen at the exact same moment, but that’s the trick of being a good writer–and reader. Reading a narrative is kind of like solving a puzzle: the narrative strategically presents ‘clues’ that allow the reader to ‘solve’ the meanings the narrative will reveal. To understand the real significance of this process, think about a narrative not as a writer but a reader. This short film is an example of a contrived narrative (albeit it, a deliberately contrived narrative). When characters act not out of motivation but in the service of the plot (the author ‘needs’ them to do something so that the plot can advance) or when the plot is advanced by the introduction of a new factor, this is what we call a contrived narrative. In contrast, you might consider how a poorly-written narrative falls short of this model. This is what a narrative is and how it works. To a certain degree, the series of events which follow is simply a way of delaying (or misdirecting) the anticipated outcome. Because, from the outset, the context establishes this film as a comedic parody, we can anticipate which outcome is the most likely. The pigeon only ever wants the bagel: it’s a pigeon.įrom the outset of the conflict, we know that there are only three possible final outcomes: Walter keeps the bagel, the pigeon gets the bagel, or both lose the bagel. These motivations create a conflict, which triggers a series of escalating events which reveal other levels of motivation in Walter: fear for his own life, fear for the lives of others, fear of thermonuclear war. The film’s protagonist, a bumbling junior CIA agent named Walter Beckett, and his antagonist, a pigeon, are both motivated by desire for the same thing: Walter’s bagel. In this sense, we sometimes say that while motivations fuel the storyline, conflict drives it.Ĭonsider the following short film, Pigeon: Impossible. When a protagonist’s motivation places that character at odds with another, with the situation, or with other internal motivations, a conflict develops. In a well-structured narrative, events do not unfold arbitrarily.Ĭharacters don’t do things for no reason: they have motivations.
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