Comments on: The “A” Story and the “B” Story

By: David Y.B. Kaufmann

David Y.B. Kaufmann — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:30:35 +0000

While reading this I was reminded of the double plot of Anna Karenina, and some of Dickens’s novels as well. Star Wars has the same double plot – Han Solo “shadowing” Luke. George Lakoff has written extensively about metaphor, and how we think in metaphors. Perhaps narrative itself is an extended metaphor. Interestingly, while the “A” story seems to proceed on a linear line – classic crisis Aristotelian plot – the “B” story seems to be a diversion, an annoyance, irrelevant, etc. Yet as you say the “B” story must be confronted and transformed first – in Jewish mysticism, which I know you’ve looked into Steven – there is the idea of the “negative inclination” which if ruled (you talk in “Turning Pro” about the need for order and structure – energy (the muse) channeled) can be the “engine” of positive achievement.

By: Kabamba

Kabamba — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:31:47 +0000

Thank you for your work. I look forward to laying my hands on your books soon.

By: Elliot Dwennen

Elliot Dwennen — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:11:13 +0000

Really insightful you have a new subscriber

By: Roger Ellman

Roger Ellman — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 10:31:40 +0000

Wonderful! Helpful. I learn.

By: Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:00:35 +0000

Ah yes, the story we’re LIVING …

By: Mary Cronk Farrell

Mary Cronk Farrell — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:34:02 +0000

Seems I found your blog at the perfect time as I just watched the “Descendants” a week or two ago. Thanks so much for clearly laying out these important aspects of story. So helpful in think about the novel I’m writing.

By: Stephen Denny

Stephen Denny — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:01:24 +0000

Steven, does this mean your fiction writing is your shadow career, the facade that keeps the money coming in, so you can pursue your true calling of helping the rest of us in our pursuit of whatever-it-is-we’re-pursuing through Do The Work, Turning Pro, War of Art and your other non-fiction works?

If so, carry on! We appreciate it.

By: Carla Smith

Carla Smith — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:10:24 +0000

When writing my script there was a point when the story began to tell itself and my struggle was to both hold on enough to tell it and give rein enough to let it flow. While the ‘A’ story was entirely visible and more easily manipulable , the ‘B’ story held the heart and knew where it needed to go.

I think that life is similar. It is difficult to detect the ‘B’ within the ‘A’ story of our own lives, though if we are lucky there may be one or possibly two people in our lives who know us well enough to have the perspective to see our underlying story line. It is as we get older and shed peripherals, physical ’stuff’ we are drawn ever closer to our real selves, our authentic story and like in a movie, if we are both lucky and persistent, things come full circle.

Good movies do that. They are like archetypes; hope for our own journeys.

By: Bob Taylor

Bob Taylor — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:06:30 +0000

Great post. Really clarifies the story I’m writing as well as the story I’m living.

By: Sonja

Sonja — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:20:20 +0000

Great thoughts again, Steven.

Resistance, every four years, equals watching the Olympics. The only upside: seeing how hard those guys have worked for their medals is inspiration against Resistance.

Hell, that could be a post in itself. Watching Phelps give it all he had in his signature butterfly, only to miss gold by .05 of a second! Excruciating to watch.

The daily battles of a warrior, artist and athlete.

xo,
Sonja