Story attractors

Story Attractors:New perspectiveson storytelling

Ali Anani, PhD

Rapid changes are causing rippling.effects andthe change in one system is affecting changes in other systems

Are story structures unaffected?

Or are they?

And if story structure is affected thenin what way?

And if story structure is affected thenin what way?

Great stories have the magic formula of moving hearts and minds

We know from Twitter, for example, visually how emotions moveWill this again affect the storytelling structure?

Let us beginthe journey of discovery

Storytelling has a strategy:Where to take us from where we are

But where we are has a pattern that developed over timeThis repeating pattern is the attractor for each one of us

We know also that it is much easier to move from a negative emotion to more negative one than to move from a negative to a positive one

Karpman drama triangle has used the diamond structure to show for that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karpman_drama_triangle

Oneexample is:

Twitter has allowed us to measure these emotion live and how they develop over time

Positive emotions. The size of nodes represents how common a given emotion is. The thickness of the edges is proportional to how often people travel between two given emotions.

http://www.kanjoya.com/blog/kanjoya-eng/building-a-roadmap-of-human-emotion-part1-/

Many repeatingdiamond structures

JOY

SADNESS

ANGERPeopleswallowtheirown poison REVENGE

FEAR

A character is attracted to this diamond of emotions. It shall stay within its boundaries unless something pulls it out

GRUDGE

Beware of customers’ grudge as the more they poison themselves, the more they shall hate youThey throw their problem at you.They tend to blame others

Example: An Insurance Story

JOY

SADNESS

ANGER

REVENGE

FEAR

GRUDGE

Angry family:There sick kid needs a prolongedmedical care in hospital

JOY

SADNESS

ANGER

REVENGE

FEAR

GRUDGE

The family has to sacrifice all its belongings to cover up for the expenses

JOY

SADNESS

ANGER

REVENGE

FEAR

GRUDGE

Things get worse as the son must be under oxygen – costs build up for the family

JOY

SADNESS

ANGER

REVENGE

FEAR

GRUDGE

The family either decides to accept the removal of oxygen or part off with all its belonging chasing a remote hope the kid would recover

JOY

SADNESS

ANGER

REVENGE

FEAR

GRUDGE

One member of the family develops grudge against the society

JOY

SADNESS

ANGER

REVENGE

FEAR

GRUDGE

He decides to revenge from the society by robbing the house of the hospital CEO

JOY

SADNESS

ANGER

REVENGE

FEAR

GRUDGE

The current situation gets worse and worse

The victim (patient) is now making other members of the family victims to their deepening grudge

The buildup of the conflict heat should be within the boundaries of the fractal diamond

Within this fractal structure the dilemma builds up again we witness exchange of roles:Hero becomes victim Victim becomes hero

If you were an advertising company how would you exploit this vicious diamond-shaped attractor to advertise a new “hero” product?

It is the job of businesses to understand what the customers want to buy, and then rally their corporate culture into delivering the right product, at the right place and at the right time.

Here’s how the system of triangulation starts: a victim approaches a rescuer (the insurance product) with information about what a persecutor (mounting hospital bills) has done. From there, the drama can unfold in many ways

The envisaged future may be best visualized as a point attractor so as not to leave people bewildered

Happy Where they are

Threatened

Revolt

Fearful

The risks of the approach are obvious, however. As the old attractor is disrupted, some agents in the system will feel threatened and insecure. As a result, they become even more attached to the patterns of the past

If the insurance company wants to have a differentiated product/service to play the hero role, this product must be able to move people out of their attractor to a goal that falls outside the original pattern where new behaviors shall be noticed

Like light and darkness exist together,

So are grief and hope

Every body is seeing the buildup of negative emotions,But forgetting about the light existing somewhere

Here comes the light in the form of new idea

The insurance company believes that it has a social responsibility with an opportunity

The insurance company thinks “outside the Diamond Fractal”

The customer can’t pay the expensesAnd the hospital shall not forfeit the bill

Social crowdfunding:The insurance company initiates a campaign that moves hearts and minds

The patient recovers

The insurance company launches a new insurance program:Salvage Insurance campaign

The company prospers as it has already gained the trust of people