Writing From the Bottom Up

                A very long time ago, long before stories were written down, in fact before there was much in the way of language at all, there was a caveman. His name has been lost to the mist of time, but perhaps it was Bob. Bob was out hunting as he had every day since he could hold a spear when out of the depths of the forest primeval lumbered a terrible bear. Not a small, relatively tame modern bear like a Grizzly or a Kodiak, but a horrible prehistoric protobear , superior in every way to its smaller cousins.  Until today, every caveman who had ever encountered a bear before had dropped their spears and run for their lives. Some lived, some died but all ran. Until today that is. For today something took a hold of Bob,  call it Fate, call it madness, perhaps it was misplaced rage because a similar bear had killed his hunting partner just a week before his retirement, but Bob didn’t run.  Hefting his lucky spear Bob howled his challenge at the bear and charged to meet his Destiny.  Later, sitting by the fire, with a brand new bearskin to ward off the chill of the encroaching glacier Bob showed off his sweet new scar, and for the first time ever,  in the primitive language of the cavemen, the Tale of Small versus Large was told. His cave man buddies gave him primitive high fives, and his cave woman mate was like “I am so hot for you right now”

                A couple of ice ages later,300 Spartans and some Thespians held the narrow pass at Thermopylae against several hundred thousand Persian soldiers.  And though they had little in common with Bob there was something in that battle, an echo perhaps of the caveman’s epic battle against the bear. The fear, the courage against dire odds, perhaps a sense of awe that they were actually doing the impossible. Though the Spartans all died their sacrifice had saved Greece.  All about the country the Tale of Small versus Large was told once more and Athens was like “I’m so hot for you right now Sparta”

                Again and again this story is told and though the names and faces change and the battles take many forms, from wars for independence to lawsuits against giant corporations to boxing matches against enormous Russians who couldn’t possibly be in your weight class they are all the same story, and they are all powerful.  The story of Small versus Large has endured all of these years because it is powerful.  It is powerful because it strikes some chord within all humans. Perhaps because we have all been small at some point and have felt threatened by the powerful the idea that sometimes small can stand up for itself and win is infinitely appealing.

                If you look for them you will find so many of these powerful stories that keep recurring throughout history and have found their way into modern fiction.  We have three of them in our Declaration of Independence.  How many great stories have been built on those eternal quests that drive mankind? Survival? Freedom? The chance to find Joy or at least peace in your life? The Shawshank Redemption had all three.  This is the secret to writing from the bottom up.  Look for the stories that really affect people. Chances are once you get past the details, they are the same stories that moved your grandfather and his grandfather, and his grandfather before him, because the Human stories endure.  The times change, and the fashions change, and new technologies replace old, but what makes us human remains as it ever was,  and always there are the stories. 

        When you figure out what it is that makes these stories so appealing, build your story right on top of that. It almost doesn’t matter then what the details of your story are, because this epic tale that has survived thousands of years of fans and critics is doing the heavy lifting. I call this writing from the bottom up because the energy of the story is welling up from Bob the caveman , through the Spartans, through David with his sling, and the Alamo, the Battle of Britain and Rocky Balboa and it’s just sitting there, waiting,  all that potential energy looking for an outlet through your story.

                When your story is sitting on top of one of the great stories, you have to work very hard to make it bad.  If you had never watched a Pixar movie, and all you knew about them was a synopsis would you ever have imagined that they could be as good as they are? Living Toys? Clown Fish? Rats that want to cook. Are the things you want to write about less plausible than those? Pixar movies are great because they’re telling Human Stories.  There is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing the same.