The First Rule of a Good Story: Knowing it Will End
“The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either.”
That’s right, I’m quoting Nietzsche now.
Why wouldn’t I? Personally, I think all moustachioed men with glasses should be listened to… no reason.
Jokes aside, what he says is true of music, but it’s also true of storytelling, and it’s never been truer than in the 21st century. Why has it never been truer? Because it’s never been so widely ignored.
Marvel Studios, LucasFilm, DC, and almost every other storytelling behemoth is terrified of the one thing that made them so prolific in the first place:
Endings.
They’re what give stories meaning.
There seems to be a prevailing theory in mainstream production that ‘cool’ is the same as ‘good’, or that ‘bigger’ is ‘better’. Instead of evolving established storytelling tropes, many modern franchises are devolving what worked before into gimmicks that fail to achieve the same result.
Just look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The post-credit scenes would often be split in two. One would be a tease for an upcoming project, often filmed during that projects production, and the other would be a neat little easter egg for the film that audiences have just watched. By the time Avengers: Endgame rolled around, there was no need for a post-credit scene. The story was over. The credits rolled and that was that. The Infinity Saga was concluded.
When was the last time audiences saw Eros, brother of Thanos, introduced in the post-credit scene of Eternals?
Endings.
Often, the bit of a story before the climax and after the inciting incident is called ‘the muddle in the middle’. It doesn’t matter how muddled the middle is, so long as the ending is satisfying and, most importantly, inevitable.
That doesn’t mean you need to know where your characters will be stood on the final pages of whatever you’re writing. It means that you need to know where the journey meets its thematic end. When, in the inciting incident of the Infinity Saga (The Avengers), Tony Stark is told he’s “not the guy to make the sacrifice play”, it sets him on one clear path. One day, he will make that play, and the story will be over.
Focusing back on you, the writer reading this, I implore you to understand that one universal truth. You may herald the next biggest franchise, but it won’t last forever. Pretending it will only hasten its downfall.
To make sure you create something that generations will admire and look to, embrace the ending, and understand the path you’re on to get you there.
Paths
The yellow brick road is not the mountain-face of Mount Doom, yet both are paths to a story’s conclusion.
Franchises in the 21st century are… big. Often, and due to a lack of education, they’re too big.
Interconnected stories that create a narrative tapestry which audiences initially love, only to become overwhelmed when it all gets too busy is a story you don’t need to look far to find.
As I see it, and keeping in mind the notion that all stories must end, there are a few paths to take when establishing a successful modern franchise:
The Web
The Winding Road
The Anthology
Pocket Franchises
Each path, or ‘frame’ will give you the two important pillars to a successful storytelling franchise:
Freedom
Focus
Too much freedom, and not enough focus, and you end up with The Flash, Moonknight, and other stories that ultimately take a franchise nowhere. Too much focus, and not enough freedom, and you end up with Captain Marvel, a story that reorders the tropes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe simply because its titular character is going to feature in Avengers: Endgame. But with just the right balance of both, you get Andor.
So, let’s look at these frames a little closer.
The Web
The Web is a franchising technique originally attributed to the Wachowski’s when they made The Matrix. Don’t Google it, though, it’s a term I’ve made up. To see what I mean, you’re better searching for ‘The Matrix Transmedia Storytelling’.
When Henry Jenkins termed the phrase while describing The Matrix trilogy, the practice was in its infancy. The idea that there were deliberate gaps left in the core trilogy for other artists to explore in comics, games, and the like was abhorred by critics at the time. Looking back, it’s still one of the most prolific stories ever to exist.
The reason I call stories like The Matrix a ‘web’ is because, when you look at it as a whole, that’s what it is. The central trilogy is the centre of an interconnected web that spills further and further outward. As it does, each strand ties itself to the core, making the whole web stronger.
And, when it was big enough, the Wachowski’s stopped.
Endings.
Luckily nobody has tried to revive the franchise to bastardise it or flog it for more money… right?
The Winding Road
‘Down, down, down the road, down the winding road’. Such a beautiful song this time of year!
When is a sequel not a sequel?
To all intents and purposes, the Winding Road is just a normal story. It has one beginning, and it has one end, and we get from A to B in a linear fashion.
There’s an act 01, culminating in the inciting incident. There’s an act 02, culminating in the mid-point. There’s an act 3, where the story is turned on its head. There’s an act 04, culminating in the final confrontation. And there’s an act 05, or the ‘return home.’
The main difference is how we get from act 01 to act 02, and so on.
The Winding Road is a storytelling method where seemingly disconnected stories intertwine at key act breaks, driving towards one distinct climax.
Yes, like the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Or, if you’ve read George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire books, it would be a bit like adapting each character POV individually for different mediums. It’s all one story, told in different ways by different characters.
As mentioned previously, though, the key consideration here is:
Endings.
The inciting incident of the MCU came with the teaming up of the Avengers and the post-credit scene revealing Thanos. Whatever happened after that point, the Infinity Saga had a clear end goal, the Avengers vs. Thanos.
Of course, Marvel Studios is run by an intelligent group of story-focused filmmakers that would never forget that core principle simply to make money… right?
The Anthology
The Anthology is a relatively new addition to the Transmedia franchise scene, but one I think could change the game forever.
James Gunn’s DC Universe is still finding its feet. By that, I mean we’re yet to see anyone other than James Gunn have a go at making anything.
But right from the off, something felt different about his approach to this shared universe. In fact, it feels more like a comic-book style approach to the adaptation process. Standalone stories that exist in a shared universe, where characters dip in and out where necessary to build less of a cohesive story and more of a thematic tapestry.
By calling the first ‘phase’ “Gods and Monsters”, Gunn essentially told audiences that this won’t be the kind of universe where the stories come together towards a fight with a ‘big bad’ at the end.
It’s certainly an interesting approach, and we’ll see if it works. I, for one, think the underpinning theory is sound.
Why?
Endings.
At some point, “Gods and Monsters” will end, and audiences will be able to buy the DCU: Gods and Monsters box set with a sense of satisfaction that everything in it has earned its place.
Outside of comic-book adaptations, this franchise style would work especially well if adapting period of history. World War 2 started in 1939 and ended in 1945. The journey from one state to the other, however, isn’t linear. It’s built on the struggles of thousands of individuals. Individual stories that, when stitched together, cover one thematic conflict.
I for one think there’s something rather beautiful in that.
Pocket Franchises
Pocket Franchises are a peculiar thing. They’re linear franchises, stitched together through almost web-like network of other stories.
In many ways, they’re just a multi-core web. However, unlike the other types of Transmedia franchise we’ve discussed, Pocket Franchises are initially delivered in conventional methods:
One medium
One self-contained Story
No intention of expanding
And then spun off from there.
Let’s say, for example, you’ve made one of the most successful trilogies in the history of cinema. Then, years later, you make another trilogy set around 20-30 years before the original trilogy. Both exist. Both are complete.
But there’s a 20-year narrative gap.
And your story was an allegory for the corrupting effects of power and the ‘little man’ rising up against the machine.
And in this 20-year gap, Empiric ‘machine’ rises and oppresses billions.
But your story was about one family, and their story is done…
Yes, I’m talking about Star Wars.
Pocket Franchises are the only retrospective Transmedia storytelling technique, and that’s where its strength lies.
The story has already ended.
Your main goal is to find ways to make that ending stronger. You don’t need to see Rogue One and Andor to experience joy when Luke destroys the Death Star, but my God it helps. You don’t need to see Star Wars: Rebels to experience the dread of the rising Empire in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, but knowing what’s coming makes the senate scenes much more powerful.
And the best part?
This is the only Transmedia experience that can continue without end.
As long as there is a completely contained central story that takes place before or after another completely contained central story set in the same universe, ties can be pulled together.
Well, not completely without end. It’s ill-advised to create external stories that exist before or after your central narrative, as it gives audiences nothing to anchor to. Also, these stories are franchise bridges, not franchises in their own right. Spin too far out and you lose the audience.
A franchise as auteur focused as Star Wars wouldn’t forget that… right?
The End
And thus concludes my brief(ish) introduction to understanding what story frames are and why they’re important. I’d love to hear what you think, so please DM me, comment here, or send feedback to my Instagram: @tongueincheekwriter.
If you want to know more about how the frames work, I’ll be writing articles for each one in the near future.
I’ve created examples of Web and Winding Road franchises for James Bond and The Lord of the Rings which you can check out here:
JAMES BOND CINEMATIC UNIVERSE
LORD OF THE RINGS CINEMATIC UNIVERSE
Until next time,
Happy Writing!
