Story Mechanics vs. Story Values?

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There are countless books, articles, videos, and classes about screenwriting. They will discuss plot points, save the cat beats, inciting incidents, structure, writer’s voice, formatting, and on and on. Most screenwriting discussions focus on mechanics. The nuts and bolts of a script. Mechanics is only half the story of how to write fiction. The forgotten stepchild of storytelling is Values.

Values

What do I mean by VALUES?

I mean the things and ideals people care about. Or more specifically in fiction writing -- the life-supporting ideas that underly the conflicts, events, and character choices of a story.

Let’s consider, for example, the hit Israeli television show Fauda.

Its stories are generally well-constructed action/suspense conflicts. For instance, season four features the intense physical danger of a massive missile attack on Israel. This threat is compounded when a top Israeli spy master is captured by the Palestinian terrorists behind the missile plot. That is a good action conflict plot. But what are the important values being dramatized in this story? If you watch the season, you will see that these events dramatize such ideas as moral strength, loyalty, honesty, overcoming loss, betrayal, and failing love. These high value ideas most of have experienced and struggled with. They have deep personal meaning to us.

Consider also the feature film Saving Mr. Banks. The values dramatized in this drama film include free will, overcoming psychological damage in childhood, and failed dreams in adulthood. Again, these are ideas that implicitly or explicitly we all deal with in our lives. They are real and important to us. They are life vital ideas -- Values.

To make this important point explicitly clear:

The values underpinning the stories in Fauda and Saving Mr. Banks are high compelling ones that make these stories resonate. They connect with audiences and cause deep emotion in them. We recognise these values, feel they are part of us, and hunger to see if they will succeed or fail in the story.

Contrast rare stories today like Fauda and Saving Mr. Banks with the many modern films that rely on violence, special effects, faux edginess, and swearing for “drama”. This list could go on, but I fell asleep.

Three Keys to Values in Story

To create resonance and emotion, the values in your story should be universal, important, and personal.

Universal values are those that most if not all humans desire: Survival, freedom, self-esteem, and love, for example. Consider the film Casablanca. Its values of freedom and love are fundamental to human life, especially during a world war. The values of this film are one key reason it is a popular classic to this day.

The importance of a value is contextual. For example, oxygen is a universal value for all humans, but generally it’s not an urgent or dramatic need. But place a man in a bathysphere at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean with his oxygen is running out and… Or consider the danger to human life when scientists are shrunken and injected into a human body, as in Fantastic Voyage. Or the marriage and family at risk in the terrorist takeover of a skyscraper in Die Hard. In these contexts, the values struggled to be attained are intense and riveting.

By personal, I mean a value that is crucial to a specific person’s individual life and context. A real life example of personal values could be a student wanting to get As at school so she can get that dream publishing job. Consider the following deeply personal values in two film stories. First, in The Browning Version, the soul of failed school master Andrew Crocker Harris on his last day of school and last chance for redemption. Or that of Marty, the lonely, sensitive and physically unattractive butcher seeking love in Marty. These value conflicts in a properly set up dramatic context are heart moving.

Note that values can be physical or psychological. Freedom and self-esteem, for instance.

Actionable Takeaway

While not weakening the mechanics of your story, ask these three key questions to lift the values of your script:

1) Are the values motivating the characters and at stake universal for all humans?

2) Are the values in my story important to human life?

3) Are the values underpinning the characters and conflicts set up as deeply personal?

Asking and answering these three questions can help you write more compelling stories to reach a wider and more emotionally satisfied audience. And to create a bigger box office.

I understand that values are a personal thing to each of us and that every storyteller must create stories as they wish, but not all values are equal. Not in life nor in story.

A story that has weak values in conflict/at stake cannot be compelling. The most resonant and popular stories dramatize the deepest values.

Great writers not only know the mechanics of writing -- they also dramatize big values. That is fundamental to how they involve and excite us.

Values should not be the hidden stepchild of great storytelling. They should be its most loved child.

To work with me to increase the resonance of your script, reply VALUES.

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