7

Creating Narrative Structures

There has been disagreement about the role of structure when writing stories for visual mediums. Writers of film, television, games, and even comic books have often bristled at the idea of needing dramatic structure in their medium. This problem is somewhat unique to the art form of writing. Few musicians bristle at the idea of using notes, measures, keys, and chords. Few painters refuse to use shades of blue because other painters have done so in the past. Few architects try to avoid including windows, doors, floors, and ceilings in a home only because every other livable home has included these same elements. Yes, many writers spend a great deal of time trying to avoid any familiar trope that an audience might recognize. There is certainly something to be said for creativity. However, many creators fail to recognize that basic narrative structure is actually based on the way human brains solve problems. Structure provides a natural chemical reward to the brain when a viewer sees patterns in the narrative they are watching. These patterns allow the viewer to create meaning from the experience. This was stated at the beginning of this book but bears repeating in this discussion:

• Structure is about form, not formula.

As a matter of review, basic three-act structure was first articulated by Aristotle in his Poetics. Essentially, Aristotle states that stories should have a beginning, middle, and end. He is more elusive about exactly what should be included in each of these three sections. Many instructors have outlined possibilities for what works best when detailing beats and moments throughout each act. For those interested in greater detail, the work of Syd Field and Chris Vogler is essential. Rather than outline the precise beats that could structure a narrative within each act, we will instead examine a broader perspective. Refer to Chapter 5 for a more detailed look at each act in three-act structure. Before examining structure further, it should be stated that three-act structure is not the only possible way of approaching narrative. Other structures certainly exist. There are also narratives that completely ignore three-act structure and take a more abstract approach that have been successful. However, these stories have been executed by artistic masters, the ranks of which are much slimmer than we would care to admit. In a sense, three-act structure takes advantage of the constructs that already exist in the mind of the audience. Efficiency can be an essential tool in efforts to engage viewers with modern attention spans.

Metaphor, Symbolism, and Irony

While structure is the skeleton that must be present to create a living, breathing narrative, it is the flesh, hair, and features that truly make a creation unique. Clever uses of metaphor, symbolism, and irony can compose those features. Finding ways to incorporate these elements seamlessly into your narrative will create a greater sense of audience engagement and enjoyment.

Metaphor

As fundamental review, metaphor means for us to compare two ideas by presenting one idea directly as the other idea. Imagine a scene in a narrative where two partners decide to end their marriage. We could have these two characters discuss the reasons why the relationship must end. This is using dialogue to explain the plot to the viewer. We should remember, however, that we are working within a visual medium. A more powerful scene would simply have one partner taking a key off their key ring and sliding it across the table to the other. This scene would then be incorporating visual metaphor in order to demonstrate the end of the relationship. This image is more powerful than any piece of dialogue could be.

Symbolism

In the visual scenario, the key becomes a symbol for the relationship. Rather than only having it present in one scene, we would do well to find other ways to incorporate this symbol into various scenes throughout the narrative. It is notable that the key itself doesn’t directly have innate qualities that link it to a relationship. This keeps the symbol from being pandering to the audience. The risk in symbolism is walking the line between allowing the audience to comprehend the symbol and making it so obvious they feel it is insulting.

Irony

While potentially having a variety of meanings in a narrative, for our purposes, irony refers to the ending of a story and the relationship between the external narrative (wants/desires) and the internal narrative (needs). As briefly mentioned in Chapter 6, there are four types of endings in narratives structured around a hero and his or her journey:

1. Positive—the protagonist gets both what they want and what they need.
2. Positive irony—the protagonist gets what they need but not what they want.
3. Negative irony—the protagonist gets what they want but not what they need.
4. Negative—the protagonist gets neither what they want nor what they need.

Creating an Inciting Incident or Catalyst in VR

Every story needs a moment that accelerates the narrative action. Something should happen early in the experience that gives the protagonist a reason he or she must go on their journey. It might be a phone call informing them of a death in the family, the reappearance of an old lover, or the purchase of a house that some claim to be haunted. All these scenarios provide us the opportunity to establish each character’s goals, motivations, and plans for success. With VR, this incident might actually be the viewer finding themselves in immersed virtual space, especially in a first-person experience. This may provide all the momentum we need for the viewer to begin their journey. However, many times, this incident will be more dramatically significant. It will quickly move the characters into pursuit of their goals. Even in first-person experiences, the viewer can be further engaged in the narrative after finding themselves in the virtual space, with an event that acts as a “starting clock” for them to accomplish their task. While the first few moments of any narrative often give the participants orientation, it is this inciting incident that accelerates the conflict for all involved—protagonist, antagonist, and supporting characters.

Types of Inciting Incidents

Propelling the protagonist into the narrative action can be achieved through a variety of approaches. While no inclusive list exists, following are a few approaches that may be helpful when creating inciting incidents for immersive experiences.

The Magical Opportunity

An unexpected magical opportunity or gifting is most effective when the narrative has already established that a protagonist’s life is either monotonous or difficult. However, in gaming and interactive experiences, the magical opportunity is inherent upon entering the virtual space. In more developed narratives, a strict theme emerges from stories that offer their protagonist such opportunities—you cannot use magic to solve your problems. Near the end of the narrative, the protagonist is usually required to reject or dispose of the magic. This will often be the lesson the protagonist must learn over the course of the story. Again, gaming and interactive experiences with less complicated levels of narrative may be the exception.

The Test

A major challenge is forced on the protagonist in order to have the life he or she wants in narratives in which the inciting incident introduces a test. The test often comes just after some major component of the protagonist’s identity has been taken away or threatened. The test may be multilayered and involve levels of riddles, endurance, and conflict. If a test is presented as the inciting incident of the story, there should be either an implicit or explicit moment in the narrative, in which the protagonist accepts the challenge. Audiences tend to root for active protagonists who make choices as opposed to victims who simply are thrown from scenario to scenario.

An Enemy Arises

When the life of the protagonist is thrown into chaos by the arrival of an unexpected force, he or she must choose to confront the emerging enemy or lose what is important to them. As discussed earlier in the section on the antagonist, this force may or may not be concentrated in a central character. It is worth noting, however, that audiences often more quickly relate to the struggle of the protagonist when their opposition has a face. Usually defeating the enemy that has arisen, the protagonist must sacrifice something important to them or overcome a flaw within their own life.

The Missing Piece

Inciting incidents in which a missing piece of the protagonist’s life is introduced usually present this piece in the form of another person. It becomes clear to the protagonist that if they could only win this person over, life would be better. Unfortunately, the “missing piece” is reluctant to fill that hole initially and must be persuaded or won over. Again, this inciting incident is often connected to a theme. In these narratives, the protagonist must usually come to recognize that “missing pieces” are not possessions to be had but instead actual people that must be engaged with and sacrificed for. The protagonist only becomes complete when they realize that this person is not the missing piece, but that thing inside them that they had refused to face completes their psyche and makes the healthy relationship with someone else possible. Of course, this lesson may involve losing the “missing piece” altogether. While many VR narratives have been focused on very external experiences, the future of immersive experiences will no doubt involve more nuanced internal journeys in which viewers are thrust into worlds where they will confront their most basic desires and struggles.

Concepts to Consider from Chris Edwards

• VR shares connections with elements of theater and theme parks.
• There are various situations in which the 180-degree field of view is preferred to the 360-degree field.
• VR experiences allow for a simultaneous individual and collective experience.
• Technical limitations should not be considered in the earliest stages of immersive designs, as they can inhibit imagination.
• The technological and entertainment/artistic industries need each other’s expertise in order to take VR storytelling into the future.

Putting Ideas Together

Chris Edwards managed to turn his creative process into a large-scale company. His grounding philosophy was to let imagination trump limitation. Fields like VR can quickly become consumed by concerns about technology, an important partner in the storytelling process. However, the technology should serve the stories we dream and allow us more efficient and powerful ways to tell them. This approach in prioritization has served many other industries, such as animation, gaming, and even traditional theater, as well as historically. There is little reason to believe that the storytellers in disciplines creating immersive media will be any exception.

Connecting Classical Storytelling and Philosophy with Immersive Media

Exploring classical narrative techniques and figures alongside how these concepts might fit into emerging platforms is relatively uncharted territory. Some new technologies develop quickly and become embraced at such paces that reflective studies and spectrums of effect, which take time to develop and test, can risk becoming obsolete or irrelevant. Fortunately, there is a significant body of work around storytelling in classic literature, which we can build a base from in attempting to connect it with emerging media.

Plato, Socrates, and VR

Most scholars have conventionally held the position that Plato saw logos and muthos as fundamentally opposite ideas. Logos being the medium of philosophy and muthos that of poetry. This idea originates in the Protagoras, with Socrates’ criticism of poetry in the Republic, where muthos appears to refer to a story and logos to an argument.¹ Socrates continues to make his case for this in Theaetetus and the Sophist. However, if we expand the definition of muthos to encompass storytelling beyond poetry to our wider understandings of narrative, the opposition becomes less stated. In Plato the Myth Maker, Luc Brisson argues that logos is an argument that follows a logical order and aims at demonstrating a conclusion for Plato. Muthos is an “unfalsifiable discourse that can be characterized as a story because it relates events whose sequence does not respect a rational order” (100, 110).² Even if Plato was not a proponent of muthos and storytelling, there are still some significant thoughts we take from his work for VR and immersive experiences, most notably in his allegory of the cave and discussions of digesis and mimesis.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

Originally written as a dialogue between Plato’s brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates about the effect of education and the lack of it on our nature, this narrative stands as one of the most memorable ideas in the Republic and has been used as a metaphor for a great number of postmodern ideas. The allegory describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave their entire lives. They face the wall. All they can see is the wall. All they know is the wall. There is a fire behind them causing any person, animal, or object that passes between them and the fire to cast a shadow on the wall. The chained people begin to name the shadows, which become their concept of reality, unaware of a more vivid reality that exists right behind them. In the narrative, philosophers are prisoners who have been freed from not only the wall but the entire cave. These freed people are able to observe the actual world, including the sources of the shadows on the wall they have long watched. However, the blinding sun in the real world temporarily makes them unable to see when returning to the dark cave to tell the other prisoners about what they have witnessed. When the prisoners see their blind friend, they refuse to undertake freedom, willing to kill anyone who might try to drag them out of the cave.

There is a sharp division between those who would consider the blank wall that the prisoners stare at to be the “old world” we have known and those who consider it to be the “new world of media.” Is Virtual Reality a new reality that some have emerged from darkness to find new freedom in? Or is it the shadows being projected on the wall that only point to a faint image of actual reality? What are the implications of each philosophy? Does the allegory fall flat if the prisoners know that they are simply seeing shadows and that they are free to exit the cave any time they like? As with any cultural change or emerging technology, there are issues to be mindful about and consider. We will discuss further implications of Plato’s allegory in the section on ethics. However, for now, let us incorporate Aristotle’s ideas about narratives with Platonic approaches.

Diegetic and Mimetic Approaches in Aristotelian Narratives

Aristotelian narratives are those that follow the simplest structural three-act form. Simply stated, they have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Within Aristotelian narratives, scholars have differentiated between those that take a diegetic approach, in which a narrator tells the story, and a mimetic approach, in which there is a visual representation or direct embodiment of things that play out or show us the story. Narratologists such as Gerard Genette have further defined and divided the diegetic into levels such as the intradiegetic, the extradiegetic, and the metadiegetic.³ With the intradiegetic, a narrator exists within the fictional story world. With the extradiegetic, the narrator exists outside the fictional story world. In a metadiegetic narrative, the narrator exists within the story world, participates as a central character, and conveys a story of his or her own to other characters within the central narrative—essentially a story within the story. While some narratives stay strictly within the bounds of one approach, others have thrived through the combining of these approaches. The combining of these forms may be not only compelling but necessary in cinematic and VR storytelling.

The Diegetic and Mimetic in Cinematic Storytelling

Plato differentiated in the Republic between the epos (or epic) and the drama. Epic narratives told their stories through narration. Dramas showed their stories by having players enact the narrative. Cinema employs the epic through its use of dramatic tropes and technology. The camera has told us where to look in cinema. Lighting and lenses have further provided avenues for a diegetic approach. Editing brings us from one story point to the other by shifting time and space as the cinematic creator narrates our journey through the story. It might be easy to assume that films that employ a narrator or voice-over to tell us what characters are thinking and fill in gaps for us, much like the Greek chorus, which will be discussed later, also should be considered diegetic. However, voice-over, titles, and subtitles are usually considered nondiegetic elements in cinematic storytelling. The potential elimination of the edges of the frame in VR, AR, and MR should cause us to consider how these traditional terms might apply to storytelling in immersive media. Some VR is edited cinematically and some is not. This can further complicate our view of these concepts and use of these terms. It is important to remember that the key behind the classification of these ideas is intent. Is the storyteller trying to narrate the story for us through the use of these elements?

Aristotle suggested that humans are inherently mimetic beings, with a drive to imitate and capture reality through art. Cinema has always been a captured or represented experience—a mimetic experience. When inside an immersive experience, it is difficult not to consider the experience in real time. As immersed as we become in a movie, it would be rare that an audience member forgets that what is happening before them isn’t actually real as it might be in a play. This distinction becomes less clear once an HMD is put on, which is certainly the point. It may be important for storytellers to remember that diegetic storytelling usually proceeds the mimetic within an art form, or at least our observation of it does. VR experiences that employ a diegetic experience will likely be an easier transition for those still becoming used to the technology. The potential with intradiegetic, extradiegetic, and metadiegetic stories offers a wide variety of ways to tell a viewer a story in a VR experience. Their impact should not be underestimated. However, mimetic experiences will likely have even greater emotional impact. As with cinema, the most effective VR experiences will likely take advantage of both approaches. For those with greater interest in the diegetic and mimetic approaches in Virtual Reality, the work of Sandy Louchart and Ruth Aylett should be considered.⁴

Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and VR

While we only have a fraction of what was likely written, the work of Greek tragedians has played a highly significant role in the way the average viewer experiences a visual story. While we know that many more existed, only the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides remain. Here is a brief list of the comparative points among the three.

Aeschylus (525–455 BCE)

• Expanded from a single actor on stage to two
• Used the Chorus front and center as the protagonists of the story
• Themes of his work were the most theological and traditional of the tragedians

Sophocles (497–406 BCE)

• Expanded from two actors to three and sometimes four
• Expanded the role of the Chorus but removed them as the protagonist
• Added painted scenery to settings
• Themes of his work included political ideas and strong women (Antigone)

Euripides (480–406 BCE)

• Expanded the cast to multiple actors
• Limited and sometimes eliminated the Chorus
• Themes also focused on strong women (Medea) and satirizing traditional Greek heroes

It is helpful to look back at the history and development of how our modern storytelling evolved, as we have been conditioned by these changes throughout the centuries to arrive at the place we are currently. No one would argue that immersive technologies such as VR, AR, and MR are in their earliest stages. Is it possible that we are in our own VR age of Aeschylus, still transitioning from a single viewer experience to a more social experience? Have early VR storytellers used a digital chorus that may be eliminated at some point? Theorists such as Schlegel have famously interpreted the role of the chorus as that of an ideal spectator.⁵ This would, of course, have significance in immersive experiences for a long time to come. The work of Euripides most closely resembles the types of dramas we most frequently see today. However, we must remember that it would not have been possible without the preceding work of Aeschylus and Sophocles. Euripides was able to see what had worked and what could be transcended in the work of his predecessors. VR storytellers must study the work of earlier creators in order to learn what can now be transcended in VR in order to fully envision the potentials of this new medium as distinct from other art forms such as cinema and gaming.

Balancing the Apollonian and Dionysian Approaches in the Immersive

There has not yet been a great deal of discussion on the role of mythology in the discipline. However, because mythological concepts and structures are largely connected to the development of storytelling in both literal and unconscious senses, it is worth our time to consider some of the principles from this discipline. Let us begin by considering the Apollonian and Dionysian philosophies and literary concepts from Greek mythology. Famously linked to Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy in our modern era as artistic impulses, the concepts originate with Apollo and Dionysus, both sons of Zeus. Though the Greeks did not consider the duo to be rivals or opposites, the nature of each did sometimes cause conflict in various myths. For our purposes, we will look at striving to find a balance between the approaches that creates the most effective immersive experience. First, let us give greater detail on each approach.

The Apollonian Approach

Apollo and thus the Apollonian approach is based on logic and reason. Apollo was referred to as the god of the sun, giving him a natural connection to truth and light. Apollonian approaches value restraint, cultural good, harmony, and discipline. They prioritize order, control, moderation, clarity, and rules. From a technological perspective, experiences and games with an Apollonian approach will be those that clearly spell out to the player how to successfully complete the experience. They will err on the side of guiding the player through the experience and minimize confusion or wandering.

The Dionysian Approach

Dionysus and thus the Dionysian approach is based on instinct, emotion, unbridled passion, and, in extreme situations, chaos and irrationality. Dionysus was the god of the earth, spring and renewal. He was known to be the god of wine, madness, tragedy, and the theater. His approach often arises in discussions of expression and the body. Dionysian approaches value spontaneity, intuition, feelings, and imagination. From a technological perspective, experiences and games with a Dionysian approach will allow the player to explore the world put before them. They will err on the side of allowing players to get lost and even frustrated with the experience. It is also worth noting that theorists such as Brenda Laurel have compared the experience of Virtual Reality to the Dionysian cultic experience in which a shaman led initiates into a cave for a mediated experience of ritualistic significance.⁶

Finding Balance

While we will consider interactivity in storytelling later, it is worth noting that much of the philosophies behind the different approaches to telling stories in immersive space tends to lean toward one of these approaches. How far an experience should lean into one approach or the other will vary depending on the experience being created. However, throughout the history of other art forms that have relied on the tension between these approaches, common practice has led creators to look for a position somewhere between the two. Balance tends to create the most successful experiences. Early Flash Gordon serials set in space relied completely on the emotional storytelling so common to the Dionysian approach. Often, the technology and science surrounding space travel and living was either glossed over or completely ignored. Later, Star Trek would set stories in space with a distinctly Apollonian approach, basing the crew’s success greatly on logic and reason. It was not until Star Wars that a successful balance of Dionysian and Apollonian approaches brought both camps together, which made for successful storytelling that eclipsed all space stories that came before it.

The Role of Ritual

It is difficult to bring up the topic of the Dionysian without giving some voice to ritual. “Ritual” might be another term surprising to find in a discussion of storytelling in immersive space. However, repetition and ritual are key components of the logic in immersive experiences both inside and outside of interactive stories and video games. Both Aristotle, who pointed to the dithyramb (sung and improvised poetry performed by the cult of Dionysus), and Nietzsche, who used Aristotle’s work as the basis of The Birth of Tragedy, have contended that ancient Greek tragedy, and thus most of modern storytelling, derives from ritual. Religious historian and cultural critic Mircea Eliade argued that ritual is the reenactment of the foundational events that are commemorated in myth.⁷ In other words, we repeat what the “gods” did in the beginning—we repeat the creative act. The recreation of events, time, and space that becomes a new reality mirrors the act of transubstantiation found in religious rituals such as the Eucharist. The fact that we must currently either blind our vision of actual reality with the use of an HMD or enter a CAVE (cave automatic virtual environment) to experience Virtual Reality further links it to our concept of ritual activities. Even Augmented and Mixed Realities require some sort of mediated experience that again provides the link. The discussion of ritual in immersive experiences, to which entire volumes have been devoted, reminds us that we are indeed creating mediated experiences. These experiences come with their own sets of ethics and techniques in making them successful.

Mythological Approaches to the Immersive

While this topic likely deserves its own lengthy exploration, we will attempt to give a brief overview of relevant mythological approaches significant to the discussion of VR, AR, and MR. There are a number of mythological theorists whose work figures in to thinking about the immersive. However, none more so than that of Joseph Campbell. Campbell wrote a great deal about mythic dimensions and journeys that one can become immersed in by entering certain spaces and engaging with specific practices. In one particular discussion about the metaphoric journey of engaging a Navajo sand painting, Campbell discusses the archetypal adventure of physically entering the painting, which is the way the art form is meant to be experienced. He goes on to suggest that we actually become mythic figures through the experience, and therefore our experience becomes mythologized.⁹ It does not require a great leap to assume that Campbell would have had a similar perspective about immersive experiences like VR. He furthers his explanation of immersive art and mythological art comparing the sand art to a rainbow, which is composed of both matter and light, formed by reflection and refraction. It is both material and immaterial in the same way that VR is both material and immaterial.

Another area of Campbell’s work of particular interest to creators of immersive experiences involves the interpretation of symbolic forms. Using symbolic forms cuts through the rigorous task of explaining to a viewer the meaning behind objects, landscapes, and even certain characters when constructing a narrative. For example, if we see a character wandering through the desert, no one must explain to us the hardships of the desert that the character will encounter, even if we ourselves have never experienced the trials one faces in such terrain. This is because the desert serves as a symbol. Because of the initial shock a viewer can experience while orienting to a new immersed space, relying on symbolic form, at least initially, can be helpful in achieving a successful narrative. Campbell grounds his thoughts on symbolic form in Jung’s four basic psychological functions of virtue, of which we apprehend and evaluate all experience. These are sensation and intuition, which are apprehending functions, and thinking and feeling, which are those of judgment and evaluation.¹⁰ Campbell explains that Jung suggested we tend to shape our lives by combining one function from each pair. For example, one might embrace sensation and thinking, leaving intuition and feeling undeveloped. Understanding the potential for the psychological perspective one could hold when entering immersive space can be helpful in considering how the viewer may conceive narrative. A great deal more could be considered of Campbell’s work, including how his monomyth in the now-classic The Hero With a Thousand Faces might function in virtual immersive space. However, those thoughts must be left for a later volume. For now, we can simply ponder the connection between the opening of the mind and heart to wonder, which Campbell claimed was the service of mythology, and the immersive experiences we are creating.

Concepts to Consider from Steve Peters

• VR requires game mechanics that must be considered when developing an experience.
• Gaming has established a vocabulary effective at getting users to look in directions that creators desire.
• True VR should allow the user agency and the ability to interact with the environment.
• Cultural cravings for the organic and tactile will be a challenge for VR.
• Agency can include the illusion of impacting the story.

Putting Ideas Together

Steve Peters mentions what could be one of the biggest obstacles to success in VR storytelling, the potential of digital exhaustion with users. This factor could greatly impact the length of time that an audience is willing to be immersed in VR, especially if that immersion involves wearing an HMD. Stories must be crafted at a pace that honors the audience’s tolerance for the experience. Technological advancements that allow tactile responses with objects and other users will certainly have impact on this tolerance. However, the ability of the story to engage the viewer will likely always be the determining factor in the success of the experience with the user. The immersive experience will always be a dance between the creator and the audience. Recognizing the subtleties of the dance will come with time and experience on the part of both parties. It will be the role of the creators, however, to lead the dance and not to step on the toes of their partners.

Exercise 7 

Exercise 8 

Exercise 9