Writing With Story Arcs
Click to Enlarge ImagesShapes of Stories
3-Act “What If” Story Spine
From User to Character Reading
When I later came to work with and study scenarios, I was surprised to find that the scenarios never presented the users as vivid characters. At best they were stereotypes and made me laugh, at worst they only existed as a name.
I have felt this way about some scenarios as well, particularly when presented with the characters. Oftentimes I’ve seen user personas used in the field of interaction design as a way to create characters to be used in stories. I’ve made some myself, teaching myself based on what I’ve seen as examples and with online templates. The personas I’ve both seen and made have felt flat and one-dimensional. I now realize the active push to create characters, rather than personas, as an effective way to storytell.
Even though we are all individuals, we are not completely unique. We have a common language created by the time and the cultures we are part of. This makes no two persons identical because we all participate in different social groups.
With the diversification of culture in the media age, I feel that this is a particularly important point to make. The human experience is unique, but there is so much that is similar that we relate to one another and build communities and culture. With rapidly evolving social media that use algorithms and targeted advertising, niche participation in interests have formed. I’ve seen this on TikTok particularly with the formation of “BookTok” and other nice groups. However, there are things that we can all connect to that we can tap in through storytelling.
When the writer engages in a user and the traits and goals of the user, the prediction of the writing will become much more grounded.
Characters are critical in storytelling. The personhood of these characters matters for good writing. Engaging in the different types of functioning characters as plot vessels or character driven stories illuminate the world and scenario are building. By engaging the user, we can develop empathy, which is how we can connect to a wider audience. User personas often try and engage with these traits and goals, but end up falling short because it is not engaging with the scenario and character with the knowledge and history of characters in mind.
I have felt this way about some scenarios as well, particularly when presented with the characters. Oftentimes I’ve seen user personas used in the field of interaction design as a way to create characters to be used in stories. I’ve made some myself, teaching myself based on what I’ve seen as examples and with online templates. The personas I’ve both seen and made have felt flat and one-dimensional. I now realize the active push to create characters, rather than personas, as an effective way to storytell.
Even though we are all individuals, we are not completely unique. We have a common language created by the time and the cultures we are part of. This makes no two persons identical because we all participate in different social groups.
With the diversification of culture in the media age, I feel that this is a particularly important point to make. The human experience is unique, but there is so much that is similar that we relate to one another and build communities and culture. With rapidly evolving social media that use algorithms and targeted advertising, niche participation in interests have formed. I’ve seen this on TikTok particularly with the formation of “BookTok” and other nice groups. However, there are things that we can all connect to that we can tap in through storytelling.
When the writer engages in a user and the traits and goals of the user, the prediction of the writing will become much more grounded.
Characters are critical in storytelling. The personhood of these characters matters for good writing. Engaging in the different types of functioning characters as plot vessels or character driven stories illuminate the world and scenario are building. By engaging the user, we can develop empathy, which is how we can connect to a wider audience. User personas often try and engage with these traits and goals, but end up falling short because it is not engaging with the scenario and character with the knowledge and history of characters in mind.