A good story intertwines between positive and negative values.
We all have values that direct our lives, goals, and reaction to society. In a story, it's all the more apparent because in every Beat, Scene, Sequence of Scenes, Act, and the Story itself, values need to change from positive to negative or vice-versa.
For example, one of Beatriz's values is 'Feeling'. She's the protagonist in my novel, The Dance of Life and Death, and I think she's pretty awesome. The story starts with her controlling her emotions, using them with the grip of her thinking.
Scene by scene, she learns to let go, but we can't change immediately in life. We go through a journey where we take a step, two back, three forward, and one back, until we consciously or unconsciously reach the place we desire. She'd change from negative 'feeling' to positive 'feeling' or the other way in every scene, 'till she is feeling, or something in between.
Now, remember we talked in the last post about exposition? Show don't tell? The funny thing is that if no value changes in a scene, it's immediately considered exposition. What do you do in that case?
You erase what you wrote and start anew.
There's no place for just exposition in a story.
It's just an example, but every character can have several values which change in every scene, and the values of the story itself need to change as well.
By moving from positive to negative to positive, we bring the story to its climax, releasing the tension the audience has been building up through it.
I hope you enjoyed this small piece of information. In the next post, we'll open it up even further.
*In the picture- a positive turning point of the 'adventure' value in my life.
