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“A good story is about two things. A great story is about three.” I heard this once in a writing workshop about short stories. We’re naturally suspicious of rules around here – but rules also became rules because they started from a useful insight.
Short stories, like features, live or die by their economy. You have limited space to tell your story, so you need to be careful in the choices you make. What will have the maximum impact? What will best serve the story? What will bring it to life?
But sometimes that limited space results in writing that’s so laser focused on one idea that the whole piece winds up feeling thin and written. Our lives rarely revolve around just one thing. We might be worried about that upcoming surgery, or fixating on our crush, or racing to solve some problem – but the rest of our lives continue to happen.
By bringing that complexity and breadth of life into your story you can enrich the world you’re creating. Not only that, but the different elements can help provide subtext and tensions through the juxtaposition of these seemingly dissimilar ideas.
In honor of the release of Barry Jenkin’s new series The Underground Railroad, let’s look at his student film My Josephine and how it illuminates these ideas.
My Josephine
Barry Jenkin’s student film My Josephine acts as a character portrait of Aadid, a laundromat employee. Not much happens in the way of “plot” – the short only takes a few minutes and most of that is consumed with the rhythm’s of Aadid’s life on the night shift. The tension and insight of the piece comes from the different ideas it brings together.
The Power of Juxtaposition
Like I said, not much ‘happens’. But by bringing together three disparate elements – the story of Napoleon, the possible relationship between Aadid and Adela, and the business of the laundromat and free flags – the short still generates story. Aadid’s thoughts on Napoleon and Josephine shade in his feelings towards Adela. Likewise the free washing of flags says so much about the tension of being Arab-American in the years post-9/11. That tension in turn provides an obstacle for Aadid and Adela, as shown with their language choices. But the flag and what it can represent at its more idealized form also speaks to the love that Aadid feels.
All that, and in just 7 minutes. Jenkins tells a whole story simply through contrast. At the same time, it feels so much more lived in because the main character has to engage with so many different elements.
Consider what this looks like reduced to a simple dialogue scene between Aadid and Adela. He flirts with her, they bicker a little over English vs Arabic, and it ends on an ambiguous note. But that would make a simpler film, and a more written one. Nothing from the outside world would intrude on their relationship. Instead it would be hermetically sealed away. A little crafted jewel, and not a real, living thing.
By combing these three different ideas into one story, Jenkins makes something greater than the sum of its parts.
The Take-away
Like we said at the top, we don’t trust rules around here. Writing is not a one-size fits all process. So not all stories need to be “about three things” in order to be great. But this can make for a useful tool in your storytelling tool belt.
Not only that, but it scales! At any level – dialogue, character, scene work, sequences, acts, whole stories – you can use juxtaposition to enliven your writing. Introducing the unexpected can add some extra dimension and depth to whatever you’re working on.