If you want to be a successful writer, it’s really important to understand what a true or genuine story is… even if you want to shape your writing career around more superficial takes on story, like spectacle action scripts, or cheesy noir pulp fiction…
Remember, most newer writers write to plot and this is the least effective way to write… in just about every case… except when writing a situational narrative or one-beat concept. We’ll talk more about plot in a second.
What exactly is a Situational Narrative?
Unlike a true or genuine story, a situational narrative is exactly how it sounds… a narrative built entirely on a single situation.
Movies like:
Buried – where Green Lantern, I mean, Deadpool actor dude is buried in a box.
Fall – where two girls climb an old electrical tower and get stuck at the top.
Lone Survivor – Marky Mark and his military boys get stuck on a Mountain and chased by a million Taliban soldiers.
127 Hours – What’s his name gets his arm stuck rock climbing for 127 hours.
Gravity – Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are American astronauts stranded in space when they’re caught in a meteor shower (or maybe it was an exploding satellite or something).
Cujo – A mother and her kid are trapped in their car by the rabid family dog.
All these stories are based on a situation. They are NOT complex, deep narratives with lots of moving parts or completely different situations. You’ll notice most of the time Situational Narratives are set in one location or a minimal number of locations, though this isn’t a hard requirement if your imagination is firing on all cylinders.
While almost always simple in essence, it would be incorrect to call a situational narrative “void or without concept.”
Because situational narratives STAY with the situation (changing the overall situation very little, if at all), these narratives are more accurately recognized as one-beat concepts.
Just like a spectacle action story, or any other story that doesn’t hit hard into genuine story territory–there’s nothing inherently wrong with situational narratives. They can be plenty entertaining and memorable.
Interestingly, I don’t remember which article it’s in, but somewhere I mentioned that “comics are a highlight reel and you should always be able to take any given scene and stretch it out for many pages, without losing reader engagement.”
In essence, every situation in your comic, should have the potential to be its own situational narrative. A lot of writers slip up here, showcasing so many scenes in comics that aren’t really situations.
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- Talking heads.
- Traveling scenes.
- Entrance and Exits.
95% of the time, none of these are situations. Nothing actually happens in them except dialogue and info dumps.
While selecting scenes with the potential to stretch out, may be incredibly hard to pull off in practice. If the majority of your scenes in an issue are soft–if none of them really have the potential to stretch out and engage the reader, alarm bells should be ringing!
But I digress.
The purpose of this article was to give you some quick pointers in writing situational narratives…
The problem most run into it, is that without the depth of a genuine story, they often land flat. Even if the ride was entertaining, the reader is left with nothing to dwell on and they move right along with their lives… often not remembering much of anything.
In my story checklist article, I present 17 narrative elements. You’ll never write your best work if you ignore these guys… but more to the point, when working with situational narratives, YOU MUST hit these elements with more focus and determination.
If you’re not gonna make it a genuine story. Some elements need to step up and compensate, to avoid the narrative falling on its face.
Specifically, plot and escalation/pacing are critical. If the plot meanders in a situational narrative, if there’s no strong escalation and the pacing stumbles.
You’re sunk.
This is why I mentioned, Situational Narratives are the one exception where writing to plot can actually work.
Or more to the point, if you create a story that doesn’t have the core mechanics of a genuine story, you create a vacuum.
What is the story literally standing on?
The first thing that fills that vacuum, by default, is plot. The sequence of events taking place.
If you develop your plot well… and enhance it with strong narrative escalation, this alone can give a situational narrative the bones it needs to stand…
But, more than just stand on its own, a situational narrative can find adequate, if not complete redemption, if a handful of other narrative elements rise up, above and beyond.
For example; Having a situational narrative with flawless dialogue, incredible tone, mood, style, and visual writing may need little else to work in spades…
Of course, the more narrative elements you really sink your teeth into the better your chances of getting into unforgettable/spectacular territory.
The list is 17. You should be at least, deliberately working with half to get anything of real merit. Which means while already considering plot and narrative escalation, you need at least 6 more.
Subplot becomes the Big Plot
One trick of situational narratives, is to put a big spotlight on a subplot.
Titanic is a good example of this.
The obvious one-beat concept, is the ship hitting an iceberg and sinking with everyone on board. The subplot that rises to maximum size within this situational narrative, is Rose and Jack’s love story. Cameron crams a ton of genuine story into Titanic, through that specific “subplot.”
Squeeze in the Core Fundamentals
Master Theme and Character Arcs are essential to genuine story. For those who have read my book, Storycraft for Comics, y’all know I also put great importance on the Core Concept, which is not just the concept itself, but YOUR relationship to it, as the writer… and lastly, of the big ones, is the MAF, Main Antagonistic Force.
Specifically working with any or all of these elements, in effect, works toward turning your situational narrative, into a genuine story (within the framework of one-beat concept).
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this approach. In fact, it may be ideal.
As you work more narrative elements into your story the line between situational narrative and genuine story can and will, start to blur.
Titanic that we just mentioned is a good example.
Is the real story Rose and Jack, and the sinking ship’s in the background… or vice versa? It’s not always an easy question to answer… but in the end, it doesn’t really matter much.
A genuine story unfolding through a situational narrative, or a situational narrative with a genuine story unfolding. It’s two ways of looking at the same coin. The point is, unlike a strictly superficial situational narrative, genuine story is present!
Perhaps in your own sci-fi story, an astronaut crash lands on a strange planet. You push hard on your character development and character arc, integrating a bunch of family flashbacks set back on Earth. The story becomes a real character driven showcase of our individual humanity. Powerful, engaging, gripping… all told through a single situational narrative.
You maybe didn’t hit all 17 narrative elements in your sci-fi story.
It might not have all the depth and nuance if it wasn’t limited to a single situation.
But it sure comes close. ▪
About the Author —
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Newcomer or veteran writer, if you’re working on a project that needs commercial success, Nick urges to you read this intro article.
Nick Macari is a full-time freelance story consultant, developmental editor and writer, working primarily in the independent gaming and comic markets. His first published comic appeared on shelves via Diamond in the late 90’s. Today you can find his comic work on comixology, Amazon, and in select stores around the U.S.