Tersi Bendiburg, professional storyteller
My long-time friend and colleague (and former storytelling student), Tersi Bendiburg, came to the U.S. from her Cuban birthplace when she was ten. Like most people learning a second language at that age or older, Tersi struggled to pronounce certain sounds in U.S. English. In particular, she struggled for years to produce the sound of "ch" (as in "church").
In fact, young Tersi was assigned a speech pathologist to help with her "speech problems."
She told me that she had spent many hours trying to imitate that "ch" sound. Her speech teacher would look directly at Tersi and say, "ch, ch, ch," over and over, while Tersi tried her best to repeat it. "To this day," she said, "that's the hardest sound for me."
I said, "That never should have happened to you!"
Tersi looked relieved but puzzled. "Why not?" she said.
I said, "Because I have heard you say the 't' sound as well as the 'sh' sound. Those aren't a problem for you, are they?"
Tersi said, "No, I can make those sounds just fine."
"Well, the speech teacher should have known that 'ch' is the same sound as 't' followed by 'sh.' Can you say 'sh' with a 't' in front of it?"
Tersi succeeded quite well on the first try. After about 10 tries, she had mastered the rapid timing needed to make "ch" from "t" and "sh!"!
Then she said, "That's all 'ch' is? That's not hard! Why didn't anyone tell me!" Pausing for a moment, she looked down, then said, "I can't believe I spent all those years struggling to do something that was so easy!"
Bad Teaching Makes Learning Hard
Tersi suffered for years trying to do something that, if her teacher had understood how it worked and how to teach it, Tersi could have mastered in a day.
Alas. The more I study about plot, the more I get the same feeling that I got when I helped Tersi that day:
The problems are not with the learner, but with teachers who don't know enough to reveal the basic principles—and who therefore present us with information that is partial, misleading, or just plain wrong.
Note that the main problem is not that teachers don't know the true structure of speech sounds (or plots). That's just innocent ignorance.
Instead, the main problem is that teachers with inadequate information (no doubt passed on to them by their teachers) don't question what they've been told. They don't think for themselves—even when their students flounder. Therefore, they don't learn from their students' painful experiences! (To me, making mistakes is just part of life. But failing to learn from your mistakes when it affects others—that is criminal negligence!)
The "CH" of Plot?
All too often, we are told to approach plot as though it's more simple than it is: e.g., "Just give your main character a conflict and then..."
At the same time, we are denied access to some of the important information about solving the problem (kind of like the idea that "ch" is a combination of "t" and "sh.").
For example, the role of conflict (which is a powerful force in stories) is too often elevated to replace all other organizing principles for stories (such as connection/disconnection and growth/stagnation).
This leads us to focus, not on the actual goals of our characters, but on a single result of their goals: conflict.
Focusing Too Narrowly?
Do you know the expression, "When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"?
Well, when you prioritize conflict as the only fuel for a story, you skip over every other kind of path for your story.
The resulting problems aren't simple, but they are straightforward. You may find yourself:
Wandering blindly through the forest of plot (like struggling alone with "ch") OR
Oversimplifying our choices (like endlessly repeating the "ch sound" without clear guidance on how else to proceed).
The Way Out?
If that too-narrow focus happens to you, then it's time to learn what really matters in the creation and development of plot:
Start, not with a formula, but with a human experience that interests you; and
Surface your deep sense of what your characters are struggling with (or seeking to give birth to).
Together, those two processes free us, both from overly simplistic formulas, on the one hand, and from wandering aimlessly through the landscape of plot, on the other.
The result won't be rote learning! Instead, it will combine an understanding of how to create a plot, on the one hand, with a commitment to be truthful to the essence of your story, on the other.
And that's something that, like Tersi's long-awaited success when she finally learned the pronunciation of "ch," we can all learn to do!