THE STORY OF LIFE?

A while back I was reading a thread on a gaming forum, which was going on about the notion of story in role-playing games. Nothing knew, it's happened numerous times before, and it was the usual rambling mess, mumbling along with no clear definition of what they are discussing. What was interesting about it was a particular post by one person which stated that he didn't really see the point of role-playing games having a sense of story, as he could just role-play in response to situations all day and just 'play his character' without any overall dramatic intent needing to be present. One argument he put forward for why this was good was because it felt like real life, because life doesn't have a story.

Life doesn't have a story.

That comment made me pause and think, because a load of things started flooding into my mind based around whether I fundamentally disagreed with him or not. You see, when I thought about it, I decided life does have a story. I think life is a story, and you are the protagonist. You may not be in control of it all, and you have to ride with the good and the bad, but it definitely has choice, loves, heartache, failure, success and all sorts of other good dramatic stuff that you have to face, learn from and use to grow as a person. Take our decision to migrate to Australia, it was an epic journey of faith, born out of a desire for something, and it was, in every sense of the word, a mythic journey of discovery that changed us profoundly. When Louise and I got together it basically meant us disconnecting from our friends at the time, that was a major decision, a choice of a singular individual over friends born from a belief it was the right choice. These stories have people making hard choices, standing up to be counted, and facing conflicts of numerous types, whether it be individuals, social norms or within themselves.

A key thing may also be what people actually understand to be story. Some people see story as a sequence of structured events, a sort of this, then this, then that thing. That's fine, that's part of it. But it isn't the heart of it. The heart of any story is not if and when, but the why, the choices people make and how those choices change them and the relationships that surround them. That is it. Period. The rest is just how you progress the character through that journey. And this might be the key difference between my view of life having a story and the views of those that don't think it does. Those that don't think it does are looking, possibly, for some sort of destined, organised structure of events, which obviously doesn't happen, life can be relatively random and at times and you can have little control over it. The key thing is though, the reason people do things, why they choose certain directions even in the face of life's curve balls, what decisions they make, and do they make safe ones, or strive for something, and how that effects them IS a story.

I certainly see how this could be one difference between someone who is a writer and someone who isn't, after all, if you can't see the stories in life how could you ever write a story of any type? I'm not sure how you could run through life not seeing the story in it, but then sit down and write fiction, which is essentially a dramatised view of life. I'm sure it's possible, but I'm not getting it, because I can see the story in our Australian migration and I can see various other stories in various life events. While it's true, if they appeared in novel form they would be different, the point is the heart of them would be the same.

This differences goes right down to the core of my being I think, and dictates how I approach a lot of things. It certainly heavily influences how I watch TV shows, of all types. I watch dramatic TV shows for the story, I don't have any type of TV show I don't like. All watch anything as long as the writing is good and the stories are excellent. This is different than a lot of people, who tend to like certain genres, or won't watch others. You will also get people who seem to watch a TV show for everything but the story, choosing strange reasons for not liking something, such as it not being realistic enough, or internally consistent, or not providing answers to mysteries, etc. You might also find people who can't enjoy a movie with any fantasy content, they think it's silly. In short, people don't seem to be able to accept that the story is key, and everything else just exists to support that. In truth, all the other criteria work or don't work depending only on how well they allow the story to happen, in and off themselves they are pointless. Its' like watching Big Fish and saying it wasn't realistic enough, and believe me, I've heard it. I've also heard people say they can't watch Lord of the Rings it has Elves and Dwarves in it, yet it has a story as strong, and also very similar in many ways, to innumerable 'historical' epics or war movies they will watch.

What is interesting is people ask why I watch Reality TV shows? Now, I don't watch any old crap, but I do tend to watch key ones. The reason is exactly the same, it's because I see stories in life. You don't think their isn't an interesting and dramatic story in how Paul and Helene progressed their relationship through Big Brother 2? I do. Or how Big Brother 6 seemed to be a battle for control of the house by the women? I do. Even shows like The Games, it is fascinating to see people overcome fears, and strive for perfection and then come good on the night. Hell, how anyone can't say sport doesn't have an internal story to some degree must be smoking something, isn't that why it's so popular and why you get so many sports movies?

It influences how I play role-playing games, to the extent I sometimes think I'm on a different planet then everyone else. It influences how I play in two ways. First, it means I'm rarely interested in how the plot is structured in and off itself. I don't think that is the important part of any particular role-playing session. Why? Because, for me, the plot structure only exists as a tool, along with all the minor characters in the session, to push the player characters to understand why they are doing something, make a stand, make decisions and suffer the consequences of those decisions whether good or bad in terms of changes on themselves and their relationships. That is all it's about. Anything else like theme, mood, plot structure, different ways of delivering the session are all about why the central protagonist do something, making sure they make important, dramatic choices and deal with the consequences. A lot of people don't see it that way, they just see it as a sequence of plot logic events, which they must have complete freedom of choice in and they role-play in reaction to the situations. Even in their role-playing games they don't see a story to it.

It also influences my play style in another way. I always strive to play the central character of the drama, and I always strive to play the hero. Let's take the hero one first. When I say hero I mean hero in the overall dramatic context, people who stood out from the crowd either because of ability, philosophy or because the were just willing to stand up and be counted, it didn't mean they had to be nice, perfect or always striving to save the innocent. In this definition a hero is someone who just, for whatever reason (position, ability or just total commitment) has the power to make a difference.

As for striving to play the central character? Well, this is true really. It's not a control thing, or an attempt to push the other players out, but it is something that usually happens to one degree or another due to how I play. Just like in dramatic fiction I believe the characters in a role-playing game should have the story woven round them, it shouldn't be a case of characters going through a series of events. The whole role-playing game exists to answer the story within the each character. As a result, since I want to play a hero, and I see the story as why my character does things, having to make dramatic choices and dealing with the consequences in terms of himself and his relationships I have to set this up. This usually means creating a character with a really strong story waiting to happen, often one that is pretty pivotal to the campaign, and I set up relationships with people because that's what it's all about. I'm perfectly willing to accept this idea of me playing the closest thing to a central character might be my view only, and everyone may think they that of their own, in which case everyone wins. I may know what the character's story is, I just don't know what the journey will be and how it will end.

To be honest, and this might be one of those most important: it also influences how I approach my professional life. You see, in the work place you encounter people all the time who just want an easy life, they avoid risk, they don't stand to be counted and want to avoid making any sort of consequential decision. I think that's boring. Stand up. Be counted. Be a protagonist in the work place to bring about change, challenge people's opinions and deal with the consequences. It makes work a story, the story of trying to move the business forward, change people's perceptions and opinions, carrying them forward with you. It's great stuff. If people can't see work like this I'd find it hard to figure out why they get up in the morning?

The long and the short of it is the fact I see a story in most things influences everything I do. I wouldn't really have it any other way. The more I think about it, the more I can't fathom what the world must be like look to someone who doesn't think there is any dramatic context to it? How do they view the ups and downs of life, and frame striving for things you want, and the failures and successes? While I'm not the best person to understand the world view that life has no story, I have to admit, from where I am sitting, I find that idea pretty soulless, because it influences so much how I think and approach things, without it life would be pretty banal.

Ian O'Rourke, as well as being the man behind Fandomlife.net, is also a fan of anything that engages his imagination, be it a book, comic, TV show, theme park, an IT Project or business change.