Defining Moments
Using a story’s underlying structure, authors can pinpoint the singular defining moments that best showcase each of your story’s throughlines.
Our greatest stories are chock full of iconic and memorable moments, many of which go on to influence our culture over multiple generations.
Andy Dufresne in the rain outside Shawshank. The spaghetti kiss from Lady and the Tramp. “Use the Force, Luke.” They’re easy to spot once a great story is done, but why are they so iconic? What is it about these scenes that makes them stand out? Makes them so inherently memorable? Is it just luck? An incredibly talented author? That’s definitely part of it, but as it turns out, there may actually be a concrete, structural reason these moments stand out.
Predicting which moments will truly stand out while creating your story can be an uncertain, and daunting endeavor—if you ever figure them out at all. Fortunately, understanding the structure of your story can help to reveal which moments should be more significant than others.
In any given story, there are four main throughlines to consider. The subjective problem of your Main Character, the more objective viewpoint of the character who most influences that Main Character, the relationship that grows between those two players, and finally the objective plot. Each of these throughlines can be thought of as a unique and specific struggle, as seen in isolation as if one were holding a lens to block out the other three.
To distinguish between them, one can identify what type of struggle is unique to that viewpoint by boiling it down into one of four classifications. It’s like four different ways to look at the same story. So for each throughline, its struggle will be defined as either some Situation, some Activity, some way of thinking—or Mentality, or some immovable bias—or Standpoint. And one would be hard pressed to categorize any problem into anything other than one of these types.
The Throughlines of Star Wars
So let’s look at an easy, textbook example: Star Wars.
The problem that’s personal to Luke is that he’s just a simple farm-boy stuck on a desert planet on the outer rim of the galaxy, far away from his dream of one day joining the fight against the evil Galactic Empire. Put simply, Luke is stuck in a Situation.
And who is the character that most influences Luke in the story? Obi-Wan, the old Jedi Master who believes Luke needs to join him on his quest to save the princess and learn the ways of the Force, like Luke’s father before him. Obi-Wan’s perspective on this issue is unwavering, making his struggle one of an immovable Standpoint.
The relationship between Obi-Wan and Luke, is that of a mentorship which grows through exploring new ways of thinking about things. In particular, the ways of the Force and whether or not it’s all a bunch of hokey religious nonsense and ancient weapons that don’t compare to a modern-day blaster. In short, their relationship grows through the struggle of a specific Mentality.
And finally, we have the plot. Put simply and objectively: Star Wars is about a band of Rebels seeking to overthrow an evil Empire by stealing the plans to the enemy’s ultimate weapon, finding its weakness, and destroying said weapon before they are destroyed themselves. All of those problems deal with physically doing somethin. Activities.
So, what does all of this have to do with understanding which clip from your story is destined to end up in the Oscar’s Best Picture reel?
Let’s take a quick look at how story structure works.
Story Theory Overview and Terms
Underneath the storytelling, every beat of your story holds in it some subtextual meaning. At any level of appreciation, each beach of a story can be broken down into four distinct beats, which in turn can be broken down again into four beats—like a fractal. The broadest way to break down a story is to break it into structural acts called “Transits.” Breaking down a Transit gives you four “Progressions.” And breaking down a Progression gives you four individual “Events.” And the key to finding your story's defining moments is to understand how the various beats are classified as either a situation, activity, mentality, or stance. Lucky for you, the Subtxt engine identifies that for you once you define the premise your story argues.
Subtxt borrows terminology from the Dramatica Theory of Story to make things more accessible to writers. Instead of a confusing chain of mentalities nested inside activities nested inside stances nested inside situations, each type of beat is defined by the logical definition of that nested classification.
For example, in Star Wars, the overall story is classified as an Activity. Within that, if one were to pay attention to the nature of the classifications of each nested beat, there should exist one singular beat in which those classifications are compounded. And this gives you the most defining Moment of that Throughline.
If a throughline is an Activity, there will be within that throughline a Transit that is also defined as an Activity. And within that Transit, one of the Progressions is defined as an Activity. And one of the Events of that Progression is also defined as an Activity. So you have Activity inside Activity inside Activity inside Activity. And this can get confusing. So instead, one would describe the Activity of the Activity as the process of “Doing” that Activity. And if there’s a Mentality nested in that process of Doing, one could describe that as the “Experience” of Doing.
Accessing the Subtextual Code in your Story
As I pointed out before, the objective story in Star Wars is classified as a struggle of an Activity. Rebels fighting the Empire. Empire fighting the Rebels. It doesn’t matter which way you look at it. The problem here has to do with Activities. So to find the singular moment which will best define that entire throughline, one must locate the nested Transit, Progression and Event which are also structurally characterized as Activities. Leaving the hard stuff up to the Subtxt engine, that pinpoint in your story should spotlight the most structurally defining moment of that Throughline (which should be one of your story’s most iconic and memorable moments).
In Star Wars, it’s the moment that best demonstrates the struggle of Rebels fighting the Empire. And it just happens to show up here:
Overall Story: Activity
Transit 1: Doing (activity)
Progression 2: Prediction (activity)
Event 2: Order (activity)
So basically, whatever is happening in the 2nd Event of the 2nd Progression in Act one should be the most compounded struggle of an activity that we see in the entire film—in terms of the structure of the Overall Story. Checking the Road Map for Star Wars, that moment is right about here:
I mean, yeah…. when we are introduced to the brute force of the most powerful being in the Galaxy? Darth Vader, crushing the neck of a Rebel with one hand and casting him aside before barking orders to tear the ship apart and find the hidden plans. Yeah, I’d say that moment kind of best exemplifies the biggest physical struggle in the film. More so than the destruction of Alderaan, any encounter with stormtroopers, even the blowing up of the Death Star. It’s actually here in this moment that we really feel the biggest struggle, the biggest threat in the Overall Story. This is the moment that defines Darth Vader as the most powerful, threatening villain in cinematic history.
But this is just one of three major defining moments in Star Wars. The one that best defines the struggle of the plot. So what about Luke, Obi-Wan, and the relationship story between them?
The Significant Beats in Each Throughline
If we take a look at the structure of the Main Character’s throughline, the most significant beat should be the one that’s the most “Situation-y” Situation. So if we break that down, we find the other situations at:
MC Throughline: Situation
Transit 2 (situation)
Progression 1 (situation)
Event 1 (situation)
So the most situation-y moment that defines his throughline shows up about here, when he steps into the "Special World" of the Cantina. He gets pushed around by bar flies, shocked by Obi-Wan’s prowess, and schooled by Han Solo over his piloting skills. Essentially his throughline is about being a Little Fish in a Big Pond. That’s his problematic Situation.
In Obi-Wan’s throughline, defined as a Stance, the most defining moment is here:
Influence Throughline: Stance
Transit 1 (stance)
Progression 4 (stance)
Event 4 (stance)
And as one might guess, it’s the scene where Obi-Wan explains to Luke about his father, the ways of the Force, insisting that he comes with him and learn the ways of the Jedi.
And for the most defining moment of the relationship between Luke and Obi-Wan, we’d be looking for the most nested instance of a Mentality. Not surprisingly, this comes at the structural climax of the relationship. That pivotal moment where everything comes to a head between Obi-Wan and Luke.
So for that Relationship Throughline we find:
Relationship Throughline: Mentality
Transit 4: Becoming (mentality)
Progression 3: Reappraisal (mentality)
Event 3: Temptation (mentality)
Which should be the most nested instance of that Mentality. They even sum up the entire throughline for you in one piece of dialogue.
“Use the Force, Luke!”
A Writer’s Arsenal
These moments are like the “crucial scenes” of the individual throughlines. Iconic and memorable moments one would find in the trailer, the moments you’d quote or use in daily life.
So, while making any story iconic and memorable is no easy feat, imagine being armed with the knowledge that certain pinpointed moments should be the ones that best define each of your throughlines. It essentially takes away all the guess-work; all the time wasted focusing on moments that might seem important during the storybuilding process, but fall short of these singular defining events. Armed with this knowledge, authors can focus their efforts into the biggest tentpoles in their story.
The moments that really matter.