How to Create Story Charts

Story Charts are used to visualize the structure of stories. Some of the terms used below are explained in the story theory section.

Obtaining a Controlling Idea

Robert McKee believes that a clear and concise Controlling Idea has within it a story value and a cause. If we take “true love leads to living responsibly”, we have the story value of “responsibility” and the cause of “true love”. Lajos Egri would add that the Controlling Idea also implies a character: that “leads to” implies the conflict, “living responsibly” implies a specific end and “true love” implies a character that is in true love. Taken together, can draw this spine for the Controlling Idea “true love leads to living responsibly”:

We have a spine plot for the story value of “responsibility” that journeys from non-responsibility to responsibility. What’s missing? Conflict. What stands in the way of this journey? In CASABLANCA, the love between Rick and Ilsa actually stands in the way of Rick’s ability to live responsibly. He must sacrifice love in order to live responsibly. The irony is that he does this because he loves Ilsa and respects her responsibilities. The spine is an exchange of these two story values:

True love leads to living responsibly, even if it means sacrificing the chance to be together! CASABLANCA creates a very specific context for this Controlling Idea by taking us on two parallel journeys from bitterness to love to loss and from bystander to patriot. It proves the Controlling Idea by taking both journeys through seemingly insurmountable obstacles so that at the end, we are both convinced of the Controlling Idea and the inevitability of the Controlling Idea given the circumstances. The degree by which we are convinced of the Controlling Idea is equal in proportion to the obstacles that have been overcome.

Obstacles Prove the Controlling Idea

To elaborate on the importance of obstacles in proving a Controlling Idea, lets take the Controlling Idea “star-crossed love defies even death” from ROMEO AND JULIET. The story value at stake is obviously “love”. The cause is fated love that is “star-crossed”. The end implied in this Controlling Idea is that love succeeds. So the simple spine is:

We can see that the story value of “love” moves from the negative start to a positive success. What’s stopping their love? The conflict is implied in “defies even death”. In order to be together, these lovers overcome escalating obstacles: physical barriers, tradition, family, friends and eventually death. So the spine looks more like this:

Unlike CASABLANCA, ROMEO AND JULIET has a single spine plot, that of their love, which goes through huge obstacles to earn the Controlling Idea. Simple spines do not mean a trivial story. McKee argues that we should strive to design relatively simple but complex stories. By which he means the journey can be simple, but it needs to be complicated by tremendous conflict and earned through seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Numerous Adventure films have a single spine plot that demonstrates the Controlling Idea of “perseverance and ingenuity lead the underdog to triumph”. They include BACK TO THE FUTURE, INDIANA JONES, ROCKY and JAMES BOND. But the obstacles for each of these stories are different and each results in a satisfying experience through a journey of incredible conflict and obstacles.

Sketching a Spine

We can use Story Charts to begin thinking the Controlling Idea for a story. Perhaps you would like to write a great Adventure story. Lets consider some questions about this Adventure story. What type of adventure? Whose adventure is it? Does the hero win at the end of the adventure? Assuming we want the hero to emerge victorious at the end of the adventure, we have a spine that looks like:

We can already surmise that we need at least this one spine plot that represents the adventure. The story value of this plot is external where positive turns in value mean we’re closer to winning our adventure and negative turns in value mean we’re further away from winning. We currently have two points in our story, the beginning when we embark on the adventure, and the end, when the hero wins. What gets in the way of the adventure? In BACK TO THE FUTURE, Marty gets accidentally thrown back in time and needs to return to the future. One of the obstacles he encounters is that he has changed history and now must make sure his parents meet and kiss like they were supposed to. Here is the spine of what we have just described:

The spine’s Inciting Incident, upon which the adventure starts, is when Marty gets thrown back in time. We have now added one major negative turning point when he messes up the meeting between his parents. We know somehow he must overcome this obstacle, since we want him to win in his adventure, so we have a positive turning point somewhere. Notice how similar spine looks to the spine for ROMEO AND JULIET.

Marty himself doesn’t really change through the movie, but others around him do change. For example, he must help his dad, George, become more confident in order to kiss his mom. So on his adventure plot, Marty helps George become a more confident person:

We have added a subplot of George’s internal journey, which Marty helps to bring about. George’s subplot is not part of the spine of the story, but his transformation was an obstacle to the spine of the story. It is among the host of obstacles in the way of Marty’s quest as the story proves that “perseverance and ingenuity lead the underdog to triumph”.

In many other adventure films, the internal transformation of the hero is an obstacle to the external journey. Lets take a look at FINDING NEMO. In the film, a clownfish, Marlin goes on an ocean-wide search for his son, a boy clownfish named Nemo. In the end Marlin is successful. So far, the spine plot is pretty simple and is made up of the single adventure plot. Here it is again:

What gets in Marlin’s way? What are his obstacles? For one thing there are sharks that want to eat him. Okay:

Nothing special so far, right? Lets see if we can place an obstacle within our main character. Lets say Marlin is overprotective and does not trust Nemo and that is why he lost Nemo in the first place. So in order to win Nemo back, he needs to not only physically rescue him, but also must learn to trust Nemo in order to win Nemo back emotionally. Now we have something like:

We now have an internal story value plot that shows Marlin’s transformation from protective to trusting. Both of these plots are needed at the Climax of the story because if Marlin hasn’t changed at the end, he may lose Nemo again. These two plots are both integral parts of the story’s spine. At Climax, we have an exchange of story values that state our Controlling Idea of “love leads to learning to trust”. Lets see if this Controlling Idea works. Love is what motivates Marlin to go across the sea to find Nemo. But he lost Nemo because he is unable to trust Nemo. So if he goes through all this trouble for love, he had better solve root of the problem as well. He had better learn to trust and to let go. Thinking about the action of this movie, is this Controlling Idea served by all the other actions and characters? Lets see, Marlin has to learn to trust a partner whom he thinks is crazy. He encounters some sea turtles with baby sea turtles that are very independent. The sea turtles have a very liberal philosophy about child rearing and teach him about it. At Climax, Nemo and Marlin have to escape capture by a fishing boat. They are successful because Marlin trusts Nemo to rally all the fish in the net to break free together. Marlin’s transformation is demonstrated through action. The Controlling Idea “love leads to learning to trust” seems to fit.

We can use Story Charts to sketch out the spine of a story and think about the Controlling Idea. Remember that Controlling Ideas could be simple, but it needs to be clear and the spine needs to demonstrate the Controlling Idea clearly. The obstacles are what help the story prove the Controlling Idea. Lets revisit the definition of the Controlling Idea:

A story’s Controlling Idea is a truth about the cause in irreversible change of story values. The story exists to prove the Controlling Idea through action and conflict.

Story values can represent any human experience, whether internal, relational or external. The Controlling Idea is a statement about what causes fundamental and irreversible change in a human experience. It is proven through obstacles.

Script Problems

Story Charts can help reveal problems in the script that are related to the spine and Controlling Idea.

Lack of Obstacles

If you graph the Story Chart of a script in progress and the spine looks like this:

You can see that the spine lacks true obstacles. If we go through this story, we will not experience the Controlling Idea or may feel like there isn’t a Controlling Idea at all. The solution is to think about the spine plots to find ways to make the hero’s journey as difficult as humanly possible.

Confusion of Spine Plot and Sub Plots

If you graph the Story Chart of a script in progress and it looks like this:

You can see that the spine plot, the one that matters at Climax, starts after half the movie is over. This is a problem of focus. What is the Controlling Idea you would like to tell? The Controlling Idea needs to be demonstrated by the spine plots at Climax, are the subplots that take the spotlight in the first half of the movie contributing to the Controlling Idea? Are they related to the spine? Can they be incorporated into the spine? Or are you telling two different stories?

Unclear Spine

If you graph the Story Chart of a script in progress and the spine looks like this:

What are the spine plots that drive your Controlling Idea? What is your Controlling Idea? Sketch the spine plots that tell the Controlling idea first. The subplots are there primarily to service the spine plots, to create conflict and setup obstacles. Focus on the spine first and foremost and keep it in mind as you add subplots that help instead of distract.