Stories that use the power of surprise

When developing a story we often think about it as stretching out in a long line. What happened first, what next? What was the conclusion? But when we think about some of our favorite stories, we either know what’s going to happen from the outset, or there’s a secret that we discover, but can’t solve until most of the details have been revealed.

Dramas and Mysteries that smolder with intrigue

Citizen Kayne – one of the classic films that will lead you around the block and back again. What is Rosebud?

The Usual Suspects – we know in the opening scene that a violent murder on a ship is the driver of the story, but we don’t know how the characters are connected, leading up to that crime.

Pulp Fiction – Quentin Tarantino burst onto the scene with his nonlinear, dialogue and story driven splatterpiece. The film happens out of order, giving us story lines that repeat from alternate perspectives and contrasts humor with violence, taking viewers on a rollicking ride through a world populated by idiosyncratic criminal characters.

Serialized stories:

Batman – we know that at some point he will face the trauma of watching his parents murdered before him.

Superman – we know that kryptonite will slow him down, but that the secret between his two identities could slow him down even further.

Irma Vep – A serialized French paperback titled Les Vampires made the leap to silent film in 1916, and survives today in the films and mini series written and directed by Oliver Assayas.

In fact, we know the plot for both Les Vampires – the character Irma Vep makes her way within a criminal underground to ultimately become their leader, and Irma Vep – a struggling director fights his personal demons and the Irma Vep story to complete a film that could revive his career from the verge of collapse. The interweaving of these stories, and surprises at every turn, is what keeps the audience engaged.

Interview with the Vampire – re-imagined in 2022 as an Amazon Prime series, this story explores 200 years of a young vampire’s afterlife. Reborn as a denizen of the night, Louis de Pointe du Lac sits down with journalist Daniel Molloy to recount his journey from human blood drinker to mostly abstinent vampire.

Reorganize the scene in a nonlinear way to add the power of surprise

Start with the blast – By starting with the most shocking and life-changing moment, you can work backward through the steps as memory.

2. Start with the aftermath – a section of city is closed off. Police cars surround a blackened and damaged downtown. We see investigators looking for items to collect. A watch has been dropped on the pavement near the blast. Cut to the thief being interrogated, then draw out the incidents you’ve plotted.

3. Start with the bomb itself – the bomb is planted before the crowd emerges. Jump to news footage covering the blast (after the incident). Cut to the thief watching the footage and seeing herself in the crowd. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out stolen goods. Cut to the prep before the incident.

4. If you are planning a film, show the sequences in a linear format, but with a split screen that only merges into a single perspective when the police surround the two.

5. Use this scene as background to create a different scene for your actual story: In this instance you won’t use this scene as a primary story driver. The mayor and thief meet in secret. The origin of their alliance is the explosion and the help the thief provided to the mayor right after the incident. Throughout the story, we return to the scene with different potential intents and outcomes.

By first structuring the moments in a linear way it is easier to avoid time conflicts where it’s not possible that your character could get from one location to the next. Continuity problems are some of the most difficult to resolve if you write your story, then need to adjust timeline and events because they don’t make sense.

As you add more characters to your scene and increase the complexity – say there’s another thief who thinks the first thief is working with the mayor against them, or there is an investigator that is trying to figure out the alliance created between the thief and the mayor, the scene becomes more complex to write or film. In the planning phase you’ll simply create a row for these characters and plot out what they are doing and where they are in the crowd at the particular moments you are plotting out.

As you plot these moments, you aren’t writing all of the details, but simply jotting down the bare bones of each moment. You’ll write the scene later, fleshing out the scene, writing dialogue, and if it’s a film, sketching out the storyboard.

The Fabula deck provides a detailed model for each phase of the story development process. Drawing from the traditional three act structure, developed in the theater and used today by most Hollywood screenwriters, the model also benefits fiction writers, graphic novelists, and comic book creators.

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