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Immersive Narrative

in the elements of ❝What I Wear❞

story book

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Plot « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "plot"

Narratives have plot. Plot is a sequence of events. The car chase, the fight scene, the love scene. Plot is what happens.

An immersive narrative tells why it happens. It does so by engaging the reader with the protagonist's internal struggle. By relating to the struggle, the reader is immersed in the protagonist's world and invested in the outcome of events.

The story process typically begins by wondering what if?


What If « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "what_if"

What If is a situation that upsets the protagonist’s equilibrium and sets up an external struggle for the protagonist.

Examples

What If could be constructed with a Story Spine.


Table of Contents « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "toc"

Key Terms

Resources


Equilibrium « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "equilibrium"

Equilibrium is a sense of stability or balance that occurs when experience (external environment) matches expectations (mental model).

The protagonist maintains equilibrium when his or her mental model can explain (make sense of, assimilate) any new perceptions or experiences.


External Struggle « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "external_struggle"

External struggle is another name for the plot, the sequence of events involving the protagonist to solve the problem in the what if.

Mental Model « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "mental_model"

A mental model is a representation of an object or event that directs how a person will respond or intereact with it. For example, the concept of a truck or police officer or job interview.

Types of mental models

A mental model affects how a person perceives and interacts with an object or event. We filter our world view through mental models. If a mental model is incomplete or inaccurate, however, it may lead to faulty generalizations, such as stereotypes.

Example

The protagonist regards older people as lonely, cranky, mentally diminished, and set in their ways. When the protagonist meets a senior citizen with keen mental acuity, the protagonist discounts it as the senior having a rare good day or focuses in on one instance of the senior citizen's forgetfulness.


Disequilibrium « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "disequilibrium"

Disequilibrium is a discrepancy or cognitive dissonance between a person's way of thinking (mental model) and environment (experience). When individuals encounter new discrepant information, they enter a state of disequilibrium.

To return to equilibrium, a person can

In narrative, disequilibrium motivates behaviour. The protagonist feels frustrated and seeks to restore balance by overcoming the new challenge.

Once a mental model has been revised, the process of assimilation with the new mental model will continue until there is ever a need to adjustment it.


Change of Heart « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "change_of_heart"

A change of heart changes not only point of view, but the way a person thinks (outlook) or feels (attitude) about something. With a change of heart, the protagonist resolves the discrepancy between experience and mental model disequilibrium and restores equilibrium.

Enlightenment is insight, greater awareness or understanding. It occurs when there is disequilibrium. That is, when new experience doesn’t fit a mental model one already has.

Examples


Defining Misbelief « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "defining_misbelief"

A defining misbelief is what holds the protagonist from achieving his or her deep desire. Fear, for instance.

The defining misbelief feels right or seems true to the protagonist because, at a crucial moment in the his or her life, it was true in the sense it did work some purpose.

Examples


Protagonist « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "protagonist"

The protagonist is the reader’s avatar. The protagonist makes the reader a virtual participant in the story and not simply an observer. What happens to the protagonist happens to us. It is how, as readers, we have skin in the game.

The protagonist experiences an internal struggle leading to change of heart. This struggle yields the point. Said another way, the protagonist’s transformation embodies the point.

The protagonist is someone specifically whose past will make what happens to him or her inevitable. Pick a protagonist whose transformation (inner change) will embody the point.

Example: the protagonist used to be a fashion model who was the clothes; that is, who found identity is what was worn.


Precipitating Event « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "precipitating_event"

The precipitating event is the trigger scene of the what if and sets off the protagonist’s internal struggle.

By the precipitating event, the storyteller creates disequilibrium for the protagonist. This creates interest for the reader, wanting to know how the protagonist (how we, vicariously) will handle the discrepancy. The reader experiences the external struggle (plot), but invests in the protagonist's internal struggle leading to change of heart.

Even if what the protagonist expects to happen does occur, it doesn’t feel like the protagonist thought it would, which in turn causes unintended problems that the protagonist did not anticipate.

Example


Assimilation « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "assimilation"

Assimilation is one way of adapting to new information or a new situation. It is the process of applying a mental model we already possess to understand something new. To assimilate, modify discrepant information so it matches a current mental model.

Examples


Deep Desire « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "deep_desire"

Deep desire is what the protagonist has long wanted. Everything about the protagonist stems from his or her past and the deep desire it instills.

Examples

The protagonist’s deep desire doesn’t have to be logistically possible to still be desired.


Internal Struggle « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "internal_struggle"

The internal struggle is the tension between the deep desire of the protagonist and the defining misbelief that keeps him or her from it. How the protagonist overcomes his or her defining misbelief is what the story is about.

Sample Internal Struggle


The Point « Restart   ‹ Back   TOC #do bookmark = "point"

The point is the message, meaning, or moral of the story. The point is what you want readers to go away thinking about. It is what you are you trying to say about human nature.

Examples

The point determines what kind of internal struggle the story will be about. The point doesn’t come from the events, but from the struggle events trigger within the protagonist trying to figure out what to do about the problem faced.