The Storyteller's Guide to Quick Fixes and Silver Bullets
We all want it to be true, don't we? That one "thing" that solves all our problems, that fixes everything. Most of the world's marketing tells us it exists: "it's so easy! Just buy this product, and your problems are over!" But when we buy the product, somehow we're still in the same place, with the same problems. The thing didn't live up to its promise...
A few years ago, Rach and I had lunch with our accountant, Hau (pronounced "how," just to save your brain for the remainder of this article.) Hau is an incredibly generous, powerful and humble soul, who has taken care of me ever since we studied business and accounting together. In those classes, he was the A-grade student who would have his head down, scribbling furiously and soaking in all the information, while I was the art-brained student, clearly on the wrong career path, staring out the window and falling asleep on the desk.
I don't even know how we became friends, but decades later here we are - meeting over lunch to talk about family, love, tax and cryptocurrency.
On our way in, Rach and I were not doing well. We were shattered, heart-sore and bank-account-sore. We were in the middle of a project that demanded all our time and all our savings, so each day was a battle to stay above the chaos. Our project was epic - the destination was so exciting - but some days, the journey really hurt.
So we drove in silence. We took some deep breaths and sometimes reached for each other's hand. I couldn't get my words right, and there was a lump in my throat.
The restaurant was in the Crown complex, so we headed to the free parking area and started walking. In a few minutes we were surrounded by shiny lights, glass towers, theatres and bars. The casino was pumping. As we passed the entry, each gripping the other's hand a little too tightly, I imagined just swinging in to the roulette table. "Five minutes," I'd tell Rach, and then I'd bet the car, or something, and win big, and walk out with a cool million in cash, and then finally be able to buy Hau lunch instead of the other way round.
Hau meets us with laughs and hugs, shaking his head at everything that's going on in his life. "Eat! Eat!" he tells us, "what are we just sitting here for?" And we head to the buffet. I'm still deciding which kind of rice should accompany my first scoop of curry and Hau swings past with a plate full of vegetables and greens and something that looks like salmon crossed with a dumpling crossed with a cucumber. "Come on Nathan! Fill your plate man!"
I'm still thinking about the casino. How great life would be if we just won a bazillion dollers. How much of the chaos could be removed.
•
In ancient Greek and Roman drama, there was a cheap practice that playwrights often employed to resolve the chaotic plot lines in their stories. When everything got too messy, instead of working the characters through conflict, growth and change, the writers would simply have one of their many gods turn up to solve everything.
Literally, two minutes before the end of the play, an actor playing a god would appear, suspended by a crane over the stage, and they would fix everything.
In Latin, this was called “deus ex machina.”
God, from a machine.
We use the same phrase today in storytelling, to describe random acts or events that save everything, that come out of nowhere and just fix all the chaos and resolve all the conflict. It’s the weakest way to resolve a plot, and the audience feels it instinctively: all this conflict was built up, ready for some powerful story-moments, and then, poof! Any sense of meaning turns to disappointment, eye-rolling, frustration and betrayal.
All that aside, I’d still be up for a super-improbable event to solve all my problems. Maybe a rich relative could leave me a mansion?
•
Hau is talking about crypto now. There was a big crash in the market recently, and many investors were left with nothing. Hau said that those who lost everything were the ones who put all their hopes in the one magical crypto stock that they hoped would take them to the moon. They stopped trying, growing, learning, he said, and instead they just waited.
I ask what stops him from becoming like them - content to just wait for the big rescue. He pauses to think, and then tells us that every morning when he wakes, he signs the cross, and gives thanks for his breath, his health, the sunlight on his face, the children in his household. He doesn’t demand or expect a magical rescuer. He just gets into the work, and remains thankful for any provision that comes his way.
I look over his shoulder to the flashing lights of the keno machines, and give a little sigh.
As we walked back across the parking lot, nothing had been solved. Hau didn’t fix us, we didn’t win a million dollars, and we were already late for our next thing. But, Hau did give us a "next step," which had us excitedly talking about the work. We were either very foolish or very courageous, but we weren't afraid to get back into the work, to keep going in the conflict.
•
"Deus ex machina" is so attractive - even the thought of a lucrative win is enough to flood our brains with dopamine - but the reality is that a meaningful story needs more than an easy win or a quick fix - it resolves through highs and lows, conflict and growth, allies and villains and memorable moments and character transformation.
We are all capable of bringing our own order into the chaos, and we're not going to wait for someone else somewhere else to solve everything for us.
And if a deus ex machina moment does happen to occur? Well, it's going to have to keep up, because we've got work to do.
_________
How would a storyteller write your life?
The Storytellers Guide explores how a storyteller might approach everyday situations, in order to deliver a compelling character who experiences meaning and transformation. Read more at www.thestorytellersguide.com