Casuality and causality – Free Storytelling Course

Hello friends!

When we start to analyze the way a story is constructed and told, we will see that every good story has to have a relationship between casualties and causalities. These two words, though similar in sound and spelling, signify very different issues in a narrative.

In this text, we are going to analyze the differences and understand the reasons that lead to the construction by the author or storyteller of casual clues, hidden and camouflaged, which are revealed over time as relevant causes for the consequences faced by the protagonists and other characters, the in order to provoke the curiosity of those who are reading or listening.

This is another Lesson from our Free Storytelling Course.

In order not to confuse the two words, it is easier if we associate chance with chance and causality with cause (and consequence). If we meet an old friend on a corner by chance, we are unintentionally talking about a coincidence. If the cause of the encounter was a previous connection, let’s say that the cause of the encounter was a connection, therefore, a causality.

In a story, as we saw in a previous lesson, everything has to be connected: the events have to be framed in a dynamic of cause and effect, in a causal logic. However, while this is true in all cases, when telling or creating a new story, many elements must seem as if by chance.

For example, these days I was watching a movie with the following synopsis:

A successful woman is approaching forty. Despite all her professional success, she is single and feeling that time is short to get pregnant. by chance – her sister says she was reading an article in a magazine about women who were willing to be surrogate mothers. The idea is mentioned and forgotten for a while, but then it returns as an alternative to the lack of a partner and the difficulty of adopting.

However, it is because It is from this mention of her sister that she goes in search of her dream to come true and, in fact, the story revolves around the relationship between the protagonist who wants to be a mother and the girl who accepts being a surrogate mother.

What is important to note here in this lesson is that each and every event in a story has meaning, that is, it is inserted for a reason, for a cause. But it doesn’t have to look like a fluke, better, if it looks like it’s a fluke, a fluke.

If the possibility of finding a surrogate wasn’t important in the narrative, the author wouldn’t have put it in the story, because if we had a strange element, we’d be expecting something more from that element. If it were a meaningless element, we would have a digression, which could detract from the quality of the plot.

It’s like this text you’re reading. If I start talking about child support for two or three paragraphs, you’ll start to think – “Wow, what does this have to do with a storytelling lesson?” Cohesion and coherence must be present not only in dissertation or argumentative texts, but also in narrative texts.

Therefore, a good storyteller is one who manages to convey to his reader or listener the events that will cause consequences as if they were by chance, as if they were random, in order to bring suspense and surprise.

casual clues

We can better understand causality, chance, through the concept of clues. Imagine a detective novel in which there is a murder and the detective – along with you – has to find out who the culprit is. Whoever is going to create the story will have to give clues for people to find out who the murderer is, how he committed the murder and why.

The clues, however, become dull if they are too obvious, if they are too obvious, because that way we could discover them without effort. With this, whoever is going to create or tell the police story will have to give casual clues, clues that are at the crime scene as if by chance and, most of the time, go unnoticed if we are not alert.

With that, we can see the dynamics of any story – not just the detective story – through a simple scheme:

– Casual clues – other events – unveiling of clues as important causes

In our terminology:

– Casualties – other events – casualties disclosure

Conclusion and questions

– Analyze if there are any events in your story that are not important in one way or another for the concatenation of the facts. If you go through everything and find something that is more verbose and digressive than relevant, simply cut it out and focus on what directly affects the conduct of the narrative.

– See if the relationships between causes and effects are not immediate, that is, the reader wants and can tolerate a little suspense between events: this is one of the factors that will hold your attention.

– Review the clues and put yourself in the position of those on the other side. Are the clues enough to spark the imagination and even allow the reader or listener to discover the truth? After all, an attentive reader or listener can foresee what is about to happen and that does not mean that the story will be poorly told. The point to be observed here is that even a less attentive reader or listener has to recognize – even if he is not fully aware of it – the clues that are being given.

In the last lesson, before the conclusion, we are going to talk about flashbacks and forewards, two terms in English that are consecrated in the area, especially cinema, and that are also very important so that digressions are not actually digressions.

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