Once upon a time there lived a man who owned a very special tree—a cornucopia tree.
Now, as we all know, the word “cornucopia” comes from the Latin word meaning “horn of plenty.” In ancient mythology, it was said to produce an endless supply of food and drink. Even today, Americans display a cornucopia at their Thanksgiving table as a symbol of gratitude for all the Lord has given us.
Well, this cornucopia tree produced everything the man’s family needed to survive. From its branches grew food and drink, wood to build and heat their house, and even the clothes they wore.
(Yes, clothes. Don’t ask how the tree managed that. It just did.)
One day the cornucopia tree produced something it had never produced before—two identical eggs.
The man, now very old, saw them and understood their meaning. So he called his two sons.
“Boys,” he said, “this tree has given our family everything we have ever needed. Now it has Continue Reading “The Cornucopia Tree”
The Terrible Reality of Story Arcs
Bob Denver Gilligan’s Island, 1966, CBS Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Think back to all the great stories you’ve heard, read while relaxing on a sunny beach, or watched in front of the big screen. What do they all have in common? Your first answer might be, “They kept me on the edge of my seat and their ending nailed it.”
OK, that might be true. But if you dig deeper, you’ll find they all stayed true to the narrative structure of the traditional story arc—Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution. In good stories, you don’t see this structure. The transition from one element to the next flows seamlessly.
The 1942 film Casablanca, often cited as one of the greatest movies ever made, offers a good example of this. You don’t even notice as the Exposition rolls through a series of Continue Reading “The Terrible Reality of Story Arcs”