What’s the Point of Stories? (Asking for a Writer)
- Jan 25, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: May 8
“Fiction allows us to extend and refine our capacity to process social information, especially the key information of character and event–individuals and associates, allies and enemies, goals, obstacles, actions, and outcomes–and to metarepresent, to see social information from the perspective of other individuals or other times, places, or conditions …” from chapter 13 of “On the Origin of Stories” by Brian Boyd
You’ve probably heard it said that stories are fundamental to us. Something like: “stories are how we as humans make sense of the world,” or that we are “wired for story” (which is not just coincidentally the title of a fiction craft book). There are countless articles and books from a psychology/neuroscience perspective that discuss how our brains evolved to understand the world through stories and how that helped us survive and thrive as a species.1 As a writer, you don’t need to understand the brain mechanisms that achieve this wonder, but you do need to understand that we humans tell stories for a specific reason. Most concisely put:
Stories exist to give us simulations about what decisions are worth making in life.
At its most basic, that’s the underlying reason why we are so driven to both tell and consume stories. But, like most pithy sentences, it’s not terribly actionable if you’re looking to actually write. So, here’s a breakdown of what this claim means for story structure in its simplest form:
Situation leads to goal: Stories are about a new circumstance a character faces that forces them to formulate a goal so they can get something they want. (Depending on the length of the story, this happens one or more times.)
Tradeoff decisions: The character makes decisions to achieve their goal and in the process pays a price for those decisions. (Same comment as above, depending on the length of the story.)
Outcome: At the end, we, the audience, learn whether the price was worth it to the character.
There of course is more to writing stories, but these are the bones, so to speak. When you look closely, you’ll notice that every meaningful and satisfying story has this scaffolding from very simple children’s stories to very complex epic sagas. And if you encounter a story that seems to drag, is boring or unsatisfying, chances are high that the issue lies in one of these components.
Let’s look at a few examples to better spot these elements.
From “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens: Sydney Carton doesn’t feel too hot about himself—thinks himself a waste of space, even though he’s rather brilliant. He is also in love with Lucie Manette and happens to look exactly like her husband. When Lucie’s husband is about to be guillotined, (NEW SITUATION) Sydney wants to help Lucie (WANT/GOAL) and chooses to swap places with her husband (DECISION) and dies (PRICE) so that Lucie may live happily with her now free and escaped husband. The fact that Lucie names her second kid after Sydney indicates (among other clues) that the story is telling us this choice and the price of death was worth it to Sydney (OUTCOME).
I remember being utterly moved by this storyline when I first read the book, but your mileage might vary. The crucial point to keep in mind here is that a reader doesn’t have to agree with the character’s (or your) assessment of whether a price was worth it. But they do have to understand what you think about it. In short, when writing, you as the author have to have something you’re trying to say and the reader has to understand what it is. Let’s take a look at another example:
From “Wicked”, the movie:2 Elphaba has been yearning to fit in and belong somewhere, which she has a hard time doing primarily because of her green skin. She gets the chance to meet the Wizard of Oz who could “degreenify” her and make her his right-hand woman so she would belong somewhere finally. She then learns that the Wizard is not only a fraud, but is behind the oppression of speaking animals across the land (NEW SITUATION). She doesn’t want to be complicit in his fraud and oppression of the animals (WANT/GOAL). So she chooses to refuse to work for him and runs away (DECISION) thereby giving up the chance to live the life she has always wanted (PRICE). The story, by virtue of the lyrics in the smash hit “Defying Gravity” (along with the stunning visuals in the movie), tells us that this decision and the price of giving up power and status was worth it to her (OUTCOME).
If you read the lyrics of “Defying Gravity”, they are an exquisite case study of situation, want/goal, decision, price, and outcome. I firmly believe that one of the big reasons “Wicked” is so popular and being made and remade so much is because it is such a good and clear simulation of what choices are worth making in life.3
From “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins: Katniss Everdeen is a tribute in the hunger games—a dystopian bloodsport where a bunch of children are thrown into a complex arena and have to survive each other and the environment until the final one standing is the winner. Near the end, she and her friend Peeta are the only two survivors (NEW SITUATION). She neither wants to kill Peeta nor does she want to die (WANT/GOAL). So instead she suggests they both eat highly poisonous berries in unison and die together (DECISION) hoping to force the game organizers’ hand so they’d let them both live. It works! The game organizers bend and are now extremely mad at her and set on making her life hell (PRICE). But Katniss is alive and managed to save Peeta to boot, so we get the sense this price was worth it to her (OUTCOME).
These components are how stories enable us, as a species, to learn from each other’s experiences and imaginations without everyone having to live through the same thing. We try the experience out in our brain and get a good feeling for whether we should behave like the characters or not.4 I go a bit more into this and the reader engagement aspect of storytelling in this video if you haven’t already watched it. The bottom line is that when done right, stories are captivating! We are eager to follow the characters’ decisions and to learn how it all ends.
You get the gist, but are probably wondering: how do we as writers craft a story that effectively gets at this need our readers have to simulate decisions and learn? Well, I won’t claim it’s the easiest thing in the world. As you probably suspect, each of the story structure components I list above can have a deep-dive in and of itself and just like with any fine art, mastering storytelling is a lifelong pursuit that is part instinct and part technique and know-how. I offer many resources on this website for all stages of the writing process, but if you’d like to start from the beginning, I recommend first understanding the order of importance of the most crucial story elements.
My favorite is “On the Origin of Stories” by Brian Boyd, which I unfortunately can’t recommend without the disclaimer that it’s written for academically inclined audiences, so read at your own peril.
“Defying Gravity” is a midpoint moment in the musical, but it’s the end point in the movie, so that’s why I’m focusing on it here for the purposes of what we learn “in the end.” It’s worth noting that even in the musical (and the book, which is quite unlike either movie or musical) Elphaba doesn’t regret rejecting the wizard’s corruption, so all the stories communicate that this was a choice she found worth making.
Unfortunately the “Wicked for Good” sequel doesn’t manage to replicate the effectiveness of the first movie (or the musical).
If your nerd senses are tingling and you’d like to dive more into the concept of the brain as a future simulator, unrelated to storytelling, “Stumbling on Happiness” by Daniel Gilbert has an incredibly accessible breakdown of prospection.
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