Narrative design

So in game design, there is an entire new area of work called narrative design. The idea is that games have a completely different fictional basis compared to traditional narrative:

In a traditional narrative:

• The protagonist is called to cation
• through a series of events
• and strives to overcome challenges
• to achieve their goal.

In a game-based narrative:

• The player is performing actions
• that influences events
• and learns to master the system/rules (challenges)
• to achieve their goal.
• (The player is the hero)

What is the difference between narrative design and writing? There are many perspectives to this, but one I like is that while writing focuses on characters, narrative design focuses on the experience/immersion.

Writing is about dialogue, character arcs, themes and tone. Narrative design is about choices and consequences, branching and mechanics (the actual action being done). This is based on the idea that writers, being in complete control of the narrative, would focus more on compelling presentation that draw readers. On the other hand, a narrative designer must work knowing that they don’t have full control – the consumer will have different goals and levels of skill and familiarity, which affect changes to the series of events/narrative that occur. They need to think about how to create a system that focuses on the experience the possibilities it provides.

The interesting thing to me is that, while writing can be found in video games, narrative design is not seen in traditional fiction, at least not in the actual consumption stage. Writers might go through a process of outlining and planning their fiction, which is very close to designing their story, but they are applying very different approaches from design.

There is a disconnect between the two approaches. In writing, the writer’s goal is to craft beautiful imagery that informs the consumer how to feel, to limit the range of consequences based on the character’s choices, and to prioritize the characters’ interests. In narrative design, the goal is to provide instructions so consumers can make sense of the situation, to highlight the choices available, and to prioritize the consumer’s interests.

But that is not to say that they are opposing forces. Both writing and narrative design can and do work together. It is possible to negotiate between the needs of both approaches, and from there craft a compelling piece of work. It’s been happening to games all the time.

But my curiosity now is whether the same can be done to traditional fiction?

Applying the principles of narrative design to a medium where the creator has full control may seem a bit ludicrous. After all, why would the sole writer of a fiction need to worry about what their readers/watchers would choose? Why would a writer need to worry about mechanics?

Because I think good stories require writers think about these things, just that the ideas are tweaked to better fit into their context.

We are all familiar with the idea of a narrative structure – a blueprint that many writers follow to write their stories. This is already a basis for narrative design that is present in writing; a blueprint that guides writers as they craft the situations that their readers will go through.

There are the elements of

Now imagine if we tweak this structure slightly, to focus more on a few aspects:

1. The core mechanic – What is the loop of action in your story that your readers must be familiar with? Is it becoming a magician? Is it figuring out secrets to a mystery? is it tough dialogues and arguments?
2. The rules and systems – What are the immutable rules of your story that dictates how things are done? The assumptions that readers must be aware of as they are buying in to the story? How does the character learn to master the rules and system to gain strength and affect change?
3. The choices and consequences – What are the options that are available to the characters (and thus the readers), and what are the potential consequences?
4. The goal – what is the objectives that you want the readers to have?

Mapping them into the narrative structure, you get a map that looks like this

1. Premise and core loop – covered by exposition. Setting up the scene should be about establishing what the audience will experience and what is the core activity they will spend time doing. This leads into them into interpreting themes and ideas.
2. Mastery – The character (and hence the audience) goes through the process of understanding the core loop and mastering it.
3. Milestone – A mini-climax where the audience realizes that they understand the core loop, which leads to immersion and catharsis. This reduces over time.
4. Rules and challenges – With the core loop mastered, the rules and challenges of the story are introduced. The character and the audience find that they are now limited in some way to achieve the core loop.
5. Choices – Faced with barriers, the character and audience will become aware of possible options – to choose to act, to choose the easy way out, or to choose to despair. Being aware of the choices, and understanding the consequences, is key to making those things feel tangible.
6. We continue with another round of mastery, milestone, new rules and challenges, and choices. Note that all of this involves working on immersing oneself in the story, to become an expert in the theme.
7. Epiphany-mastery – A climax where the character and the audience realize how the system, the rules, and the core loop can interact to a creative solution, leading to a rise in mastery.
8. Final test – Using their new-found mastery, the last challenge is overcome (or not), and there is a resolution.
9. Goal – The resolution. The character and the audience see the difference between from where they began and where they ended; having mastered a core loop, understanding the system in which the story works, and looking into a new horizon.

Andrew Stanton, writer for a lot of beloved Pixar films, talked about story-telling. What drew me was that when I listened to it with a narrative design perspective, a lot of things seem to click into place. Give it a watch below:

A few things from his talk that got me thinking:

Stanton talked about a characters having a spine – that made me think about a core loop that readers can and should expect from the story. Whether it’s a horror movie, or a compelling historical drama, underneath the story is a core loop/action that forms the theme of the fiction.

Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty; The story is inevitable; but it does not mean that it is predictable – In narrative design, that would be making clear the choices that are open to the characters, and how those choices would lead to different consequences. This lends to the uncertainty to the story, while anchoring them that an end is inevitable.

The audience wants to work for their story; they want to piece together the story, rather than just be told about it – In narrative design, that would involve mastery – designing rules that are experienced and explored, leading to mastery; what happens if this rule is broken? What happens if we approach the core loop in a different way?

Mastering narrative design might be just what a lot of budding writers need to further improve their craft, and open an option to approach story-telling as an exercise in designing interesting stories, rather than just writing. At the very least, the principles and tools that narrative designers use to approach story is an interesting thing to study.