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Story class 1.3 – Whose story are we working with, mine or the character’s?

This week in our story class I heard a question that I have heard many times before. It also arose in our Personal Success Story workshop in Cape Town last month. Whose story are we working with, mine or the character’s?

Interestingly enough the question only arise when working with adults. Young people do not ask this question. To them as for me, the answer is obvious: there is no difference – that is why story is so powerful for understanding yourself.

I have worked mostly with youngsters over the last 15 years and just breached the adult market in the last 3 years. Every time it surprises me that for adults the distance between fiction and fact is so vast.

Play and story both help to overcome that distance so that we can once again gain a proper perspective on our own life stories and our own characters. Throughout the ages stories have been told to help simplify our complicated lives and make concrete all the things that seem so abstract to us and hard to grasp with our minds.
Through symbols, archetypes and story patterns it helps us reduce our complex abstract thoughts and experiences into something that is simple and concrete.

So when you choose a character in a story to play with, that character reduces aspects of yourself that is difficult to deal with, or hard to access and makes it simple and accessible.

When you therefore take part in a story and identify with a character, either in one of our workshops or while reading a good book or watching well made movie, that character teaches you about you. Of course, unless you let go of your left brain analysing habits while you play, the new understanding and perspective on your life will remain elusive.

You must suspend disbelief for the time that you play or read or enjoy a movie, else it won’t work.

Thank you to all of you who had asked me this question over the last few years. It has helped me to help other participants understand the importance of letting go the controlling nature of the left brain in favour of the powerful workings of the creative right brain. Thanks to you I have been able to adjust my class introduction so that participants are eased into the play space and understand what is required of them i.e. to play inside the boundaries of the story only with the characters and symbols that are appropriate to the story. Once the story is done we will then reflect on what the story means to us in our real lives.

Because more surprising than the apparent distance between fact and fiction for adults, is the fact that :

What we think is fiction (the right brain created story) contains more truth than the fabrications created by our left brains to help create the illusion of control.

To those of you currently running the story class, my sincere hope is that you will enjoy your characters without restraint. We will get a chance to ask and reflect on what they have to say about ourselves. For the time being, allow them to take on a life of their own without any judgment about what the character has to do with you. The most surprising aspects of the character will relate, but much of it may just be pure fiction and play.

I look forward to playing next week with Lollie the exotic dancer, Friar Charles, The oh so very pregnant Evelyn Haupfleish, Lady Ishta the betrothed, Bluh the disfigured gate keeper of the underworld and the charismatic crown prince…

Our story has explosive possibilities!

At the moment all we know is that Lady Ishtar is betrothed to the charismatic Duke Tamuz who is in love with a, until now ,very ordinary women Evelyn Haupfleish. She now carries his children (triplets). As many of the noblemen in the town does, he has gone to the underworld for rejuvenation, but he is not returning and time is running out. Bluh jealously guards the gate keeping a watchful eye on any irregularities and Friar Charles who blessed the descent is very worried. The only untouched character until now is Lollie the dancer…

With all the characters clarified and the set up complete, we are ready for an event that will focus the action and propel the story forward: the Call to Adventure

Watch this space as the story unfolds.

Petro Janse van Vuuren

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Story class 1.2 – The belly of the whale

Jonah 1
Jonah returns

As promised we worked with the story of Jonah this week at our story class. I like this story for three reasons:

  1. The structure of story is very clearly demarcated in this story by location
  2. The Twilight Zones of story are wonderfully elaborated upon
  3. Jonah is not a typical hero, he is an anti-hero.

Structure demarcated by location

The story structure I like to work with is: the Call to Adventure, Preparation and Debate, The Journey, Ordeal and Reward, Return. In Jonah each of these are identified by a different and very symbolical location:

  1. The Call occurs safely on dry land.
  2. Jonah refuses and his doubt takes him on a ship beautifully symbolising debate. A ship is an in-between space neither safely on dry land nor completely immersed in water.
  3. Jonah is plunged into the sea, completely immersed and engulfed. His journey is short but dramatic.
  4. The ultimate in-between space is the belly of the big fish. He is neither dead nor alive, neither safe nor in danger. Caught in the darkest moment that has the potential for the most enlightenment – caught between the Ordeal and the Reward.
  5. Back on dry land Jonah returns to his calling and completes his mission.

The Twilight Zones

Two of the stages of story represent in-between worlds. Like dusk and dawn these stages are full of duality and contrast. They are marked by confusion, emotion, fear and ultimately resolve. I call them the “twilight zones”. A twilight zone is a crucial stage for transformation and often is neglected or fumbled because of its complex and paradoxical nature. It is in handling these stages with care and confidence that will make your story successful and stand the test of time.

In our story class we played with just the first of the two twilight zones: on the ship before the crew drew straws. This, we decided was Jonah’s most fearful moment. We used a version of the structure sometimes called ‘cop in the head’ to identify the different voices in Jonah’s head at this moment.

I invited one person to take a position that shows how Jonah is feeling. Then I invited the rest of the class to take the places of different voices that may be plaguing him. We repeated the exercise twice and what I loved most is the two different Jonah’s we looked at.

The first was stressed out sitting in a heap swearing with voices like: ‘it’s your fault’, ‘you did it again’ and ‘at least you tried’ in his head.

The second Jonah was seasick and hurling over the side of the ship. He was saying to himself ‘time for action’. Some of the voices in his head was “let’s prioritise’, ‘can’t you think of anything better to do than puking?’ and ‘cry out to God Jonah!’

The first Jonah neutralised the voices mainly by accepting his fate and getting ready to be launched into the water.

The second Jonah decided to take matters in his own hands. He did not wait for the crew and jumped in before they even got to him.

Very good example of how different people resolve their twilight zones: some are reactive and some pro-active. It was great fun to play with both and we all learned something about ourselves.

I can’t wait to tackle the second twilight zone in a few weeks’ time. That’s the real biggy…

Jonah the anti-hero

Jonah turns out not to be a classical hero riding into the sunset with his pockets full of dollars and his arms full of damsel. After Jonah’s triumph, we do not find him in a state of exuberant joy. Instead Jonah is an anti hero. He sits complaining to god, angry that god did not destroy Nineveh for their evil. It seems that the real reason for Jonah’s initial refusal of the call of God was precisely his fear that God would not punish Nineveh like they deserved but have mercy on them. His fish experience was therefore not lasting and he is at the start of a whole new journey.

Still the elixir of the story carries beyond Jonah and Nineveh to all who is struck by the love of God for all people. This love is the elixir for the complaining prophet who does not really transform, for wicked sinners like the people of Nineveh and for “also much live stock” (Jon 4:11)….

Here is an article where you can read more: The belly of the whale

For those of you who are not yet part of this class and want to be, you can still join our story class next week, but you will have to commit for 6 weeks at a price of R600. We play at 6 Neetling Street Stellenbosch.

Subscribe to our Useletter and get info on the next course in your area.

Alternatively, keep watching this blog.

Petro Janse van Vuuren

 

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Story Class 1.1 – The Big Picture

The first two sessions of our 8 week story class deals with two big pictures: 1. an overview of story structure and the hero’s transformation. 2. The pivotal moment where the hero sees the big picture and chooses the greater good – or not. The whole story and all its elements revolves around this climactic moment, the elements are as follows:

Five Stages of story structure:

1. The Call to Adventure

 Example: Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived at the edge of a forest. She always wore a red riding hood that her grandmother had made for her. One day her mother called her: ‘Little Red, would you take this basket of goodies to your sick gran on the other side of the woods?”

2. Debate and preparation

“Sure, Mom,” she replied and set off.
Her mom called after her: “Just remember Rad, there is a wolf in the woods, so stay on the path and do not stray.”

3. The Journey (tasks and team)

Little Red skips into the woods singing to herself. She is tempted to pick flowers for her gran. She hears mom’s voice in her head, but she picks them anyway. She meets the wolf and innocently tells him where she is going. She follows his advice and take the wrong path…

4. Ordeal and reward

 

Little Red and the Wolf
Little Red and the Wolf

When Little Red gets to Grandma’s house…all is not well. Gran looks very ill indeed. “Gran, why are your eyes so big? Your ears? Your mouth?” So much the better to see you with, hear you with, SWALLOW YOU WITH…

 

5. Return

A wood cutter hears a disturbing snoring sound from grandma’s house. He finds the wolf, cuts him open and sets the two women free. Yes, Little Red is no longer that little and she never wore the red hood again…

Four Forces for change

1. The hero with the goal: Little Red Riding Hood with a basket for Grandma.

2. The guide who supports: Mom with her advice

3. The obstacles which tempts and distracts: The sick grandma who may like flowers, who must be reached asap…

4. The enemy who opposes: The hungry wolf

Three levels of character

1. Action that can be seen from the outside: Little Red wheres her riding hood everyday, she accepts the challenge without hesitating and she skips into the forest.

2. Attitude that reveals internal motivation: She is eager, innocent and full of energy, motivated by fun and adventure.

3. Awareness that comes from seeing the big picture: she learns about making mistakes and failure, but also about strength and courage. She is now more grown up and far less naieve.

These work together throughout the story in a certain sequence. In the first class last night we played with Little Red Riding Hood. Above is an analysis of the story according to the elements of story structure. What you will not find here is the depth and meaning we each gained from the experience for our individual lives. For that you need to join us next week when we deal with the story of Jona in the belly of the whale!

Here is more info on our story class

Alternatively, whach this blog as we play with the questions :

What stage of the story are you in right now?

What forces work to help you transform your life?

What really drives you as hero of your life story?

How can you use all this in helping others be their own hero’s?

Dr. Petro Janse van Vuuren

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Personal Success Story Notes

Designing a Personal Success Story for your life

One of the most powerful means for designing journeys of transformation lies in the structure of myth and story. Every story is designed so that the central character undergoes positive life change. Every other character and every event in the story works together for this purpose. In response to the transformation of the hero, his/her community and even the landscape undergo their own transformation also. It all starts with one person and his/her story.

With this in mind it becomes possible to use story structure as a way to look at your own life and see how it can help you to work with your own personal success.  Take a look at the diagram and table below as a starting point. Be mindful of the twighlight zones.

If you want to understand this better take a look at our 8 week face to face story course.

Classic story structure: diagram:

Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end, or Act one, Act Two and Act Three. Yet it is the transition between the acts that are the most interesting and fruitful for change and successful transformation of the main character.

Journey diagram
Journey diagram

Classic story structure:  table (to help you with your homework)

  • The five stages of classic story structure
  • The 6 steps for developing your personal success story.

Two of the stages are italicised. This indicates what I call a “twilight zone”. They are also indicated in the diagram. A twilight zone is a crucial stage for transformation and often is neglected or fumbled because of its complex and paradoxical nature. It is in handling these stages with care and confidence that will make your story successful and stand the test of time.The table shows:

Stages of a journey Steps of personal success story
1. Call to Adventure: Who is the protagonist and in what way is he stuck in his ordinary world with no way of changing it?What opportunity arises for him to change? 1. Get a Great GoalIn what way are you feeling stuck and frustrated? What opportunity do you have to change this?Set a goal that is realistic and actionable and helps you with knowing what to do now.
Preparation for the Journey:What fears do the hero need to overcome/ doubts does he need to settle?Who (mentor) helps him with this and with what (magic tool/weapon)?How does he show his commitment to the journey? 2. Manifest your Main MotivationWhat values drives your choices and which of these support your goal? Can you link it to your identity i.e. what you believe is true of you. What other desires clash with these values?
The journey:What tests and trials does he need to face and how does he plan to overcome them?Who are his friends and who are his enemies in facing his challenges? 3. Put together a Personalised PlanWhat are the most important obstacles in the way of your reaching your goal?What plan can you put in place to help you overcome them?  E.g. restructure your space and resources and identify small habits to replace old unwanted habits.
4. Set up Social Support systemsHow can you get your friends and family to support your goal?How can you eliminate or minimise contact with people who do not support you?
Ordeal and reward:What drives him to his near downfall? How does he face and overcome his nemesis?How does he become aware of the big picture? What immediate reward does he receive for his victory? 5. Achieve Authentic AwarenessThis step is almost impossible to design. It does not always hit when you expect it and it seldom works out how you planned. When you come to a very low uncertain place, you are close to it. Yet often you can dip far lower than that first low. Most importantly, when you are there, in anger or sadness and despair, listen for the still small voice of truth inside you that reminds you of the big picture.Reap the rewards of your perseverance, of reaching your goal even if it turns out so very different from the one you set in the first place What sacrifice do you need to make so that you can focus on what really matters?.
Return home:How does he cross back into his ordinary world? (usually some ritual involved or a chase)How does he prove his sacrifice/death regarding his old ways?What new response to old problems does he model?How does this embody an elixir that heals his community and his land? 6. Turn over and travel with the tide Ritualise your new behaviour so that it can become automatic. Now go through the actions as you have planned them, draw on your support system and keep behaving yourself to success simply following the current you have created. Beware of streams that pull you off course and fight back but let yourself settle in to a new normal.

You can join our 8 week face to face story course for a fun personal success story adventure!

For those of you who had joined one of our Personal Success Story workshops, here is a question to engage with in comments to this blog:

Share with one another what sacrifice you may have to make to reach success? In what way does this relate to the sacrifice your character had to make in the story?

Your success depends on your willingness to go on a journey and make sacrifices for what is truly important to you.

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Are you losing control, or losing power?

Is there a difference between control and power? Many people confuse the one with the other. You see, it is not true that you will have power when you have control and if you lose control, it does not mean you have to lose your power.

We make a promise in our Personal Success Story workshop that it will help you figure out what parts of your story you have control over and what parts you don’t. This does not mean we promise that you will regain control. We do, however promise to create a space where you can regain power.

Control is the illusion of power. Real power, is being strong inspite of a sense of being out of control.

Here is an example of what I mean.

In the movie UP, Mr. Frederickson feels out of control from the moment he discovers the boy scout has joined him on his voyage. From that moment on he responds to challenges with resistance. He wants to get to  Paradise Falls and he strives towards it with all his might. Around every turn he meets with characters that slows him down, takes him on detours and confuses the goal.

Finally he chases them all away and forces himself to the Fall. There he sits down to enjoy the rewards of reaching his goal – he was successful at last. Yet, it is not what he expected. With the help of his late beloved wife Elli’s Adventure book, he rediscovers the true value of an adventure: not reaching the destination (paradise Falls) but enjoying the journey with your companions.

There and then he makes a choice to embrace the new companions he had met and support them in their quest. He reunites with the talking dog and sacrifices all his resources to help the boy and the exotic bird Kevin.

Personal success is dependent on the choices you make in the darkest moments of your journey.

These choices, stories teach us, either produce success or they lead to ultimate downfall. Either you receive reward beyond your wildest imagination, or you regress to a point worse than where you started.

In UP Mr. Frederickson makes a choice for relationship vs reaching his destination – he chooses power over control.  This motivates him through the worst ordeal of the entire story and causes him to lose all that he used to hold dear. But he gains a new life and a new set of companions to share the adventure with.

Mr. Frederickson was able to give up control and regain his power. This is my hope for all of us:

To allow our darkest moments to manifest our main motivation: the thing that matters more than staying in control. There lies true power.

The Mr. Frederickson response is therefore to let go of the ideals you were holding on to in favour of new growth and change.

But stories teach us two other responses

The Brave Heart response comes when you discover in that moment that you cannot let go of the thing you are holding on to. This may be because it really is your true ;power and you have been chosen to manifest it in a world that resists your truth. In that case holding on would also access your true power. Still, you would need to let go of everything else and give up control in that way. You may even have to be willing to give your life like Brave Heart.

In the Oedipus response the main character is also brought to his darkest moment and confronted with his own truth and the greater good, but is unable to let go the obsession that is driving him (his version of Paradise Falls).  The consequences of such a choice, stories teach us, is devastating. Characters like Oedipus, Othello, Macbeth and Clever Elsie all end up worse than where they started, these are not success stories.

May you know when to let go and when to hold on so you can access your power.

Go out and be a Mr. Frederickson or a Brave Heart

For more on you and your life story, join our story class in Stellenbosch

Dr. Petro Janse van Vuuren

Click on the links below for more info about our Personal Success Story workshops in your area.
Western Cape

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Improv Class 2.6 – Who is the hero in your story?

In his book “A million miles in a thousand years” Don Miller distils the essence of a good story as “a character that wants something and overcomes conflict to get it”. In the previous class we focused on creating a strong character (a character that knows what he/she wants). Now to write this character into a good story he/she needs to overcome some kind of conflict to get what he/she wants. In her article, “A Story structure for change and growth”, (click here to download article) Petro Janse van Vuuren identifies 4 essential characters that make up a good story. The first is the protagonist (hero/main character) of the story – the character that wants something. The second is the antagonist (nemesis/villain). The antagonist is in direct conflict of the protagonist and doesn’t want the protagonist to get what they want. A third character is the mentor (guide/guardian angel). The mentor helps and guides the protagonist to get what they want. The last character is the contagonist (obstacle/ tempter). The role of the contagonist is to distract the protagonist from achieving what he/she really wants. The contagonist is not in direct conflict with the protagonist like the antagonist. The contagonist tests the protagonist, to see if he/she is worthy of getting what he/she wants.

In Monday night’s class we played a new game that I made up based on these 4 characters. I call this game “The 4 roles game”. In the game 4 players are each given one of the 4 different characters. Three scenes are played. The first scene is between the protagonist and the mentor. In this scene what the protagonist wants must be clearly defined. In the next scene the protagonist meets the contagonist, who tries to distract the protagonist from achieving his/her goal. In the last scene the protagonist faces the antagonist and must overcome him/her to get what he/she wants. Here is an example from last night’s class. Ruan played a dancer who wanted to win the Olympic dance medal. Luci played the mentor who taught him to dance from his heart. In the next scene Ruan is distracted by his girlfriend (contagonist) played by Minki who wants him to copy other dance styles in his dancing. In the last scene Ruan is faced with his arch nemesis (antagonist) Juan-Philip, 3 times dance world champion played by Olaf. In order to beat him Ruan remembers the words of his mentor, reminding him to dance from his heart. His own authentic dance style overwhelms Juan-Philip and he wins the Olympic dance medal. WOW, what a beautiful story, made up right there on the spot because everyone knew what role they had to play.

So what role are you playing in your own life? Are you the hero? Or are you your own antagonist, preventing yourself from getting what you really want? Or are you the hero but find yourself lured and occupied by the distractions of a contagonist in your life? Or don’t you know what you really want so you are not really living a good story? Are you experiencing life as a series of random events? (If you want to read more about knowing what you want read my previous blog “what do you really want?”)
You are the author of your own life story and you have the power to cast the other roles in your life. Think of someone who you have cast as an antagonist in your life. Maybe you want to quit your job and start your own business but your father or your husband doesn’t want you to for whatever reason. You can cast them as an antagonist who is preventing you from getting what you want. However you can cast them as a contagonist who is helping you to know if you are ready for this big step. Or you can even cast them as a mentor that is guiding you to make an informed decision. The way you cast them will determine how you will react towards them and the influence they will have on you. In this story the antagonist isn’t really your father or your husband. The real antagonist is being stuck in a job that is not allowing you to live out your passion.

Understanding that all 4 roles are essential for a good story will help you to recognize and accept conflict, temptation and support in your life so that you can be the hero of your own life story and get what you really want out of life.

If you want to know more about how to become the hero of your own life story attend our Personal Success Story workshop.

Click on the following links for a Personal success Story workshop in your area.
Western Cape
Gauteng
KZN

Want to take an improv class? click here

Click here to read previous blog posts.