The NBA Finals wrapped up on the weekend.
Nerves and tenacity powered a courageous fight back to win game one. There were moments of desperation and risk that paid off. There were players who played beyond expectation and broke statistical records. A tragic injury for the emergent folk hero, and the victory of the freshly crowned MVP.
Jalen Williams became the third youngest to score 40 points in a finals game. The Thunder had the most steals in a finals series. They’re the youngest champion since the late 1970s. Their coach was born after Michael Jordan was drafted in the league. These are statistics that don’t particularly mean anything.
When it’s looked at from a distance we can try to make a narrative out of it but they’re numbers, just statistics. Every half-time break in sports we witness talking heads trying to make sense out of statistics in order to give us a story of the game – some better than others.
These numbers don’t have meaning. But stories do.
E.M. Forster so succinctly put it – “A plot is… a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died, and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time-sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
The Pacers won game six. Then the Thunder won game seven. This is statistics.
After Tyrese Halliburton’s injury in the final game, the heart of the team was ripped out and the Pacers lost the final game to the Thunder. Of grief.
That’s a plot. It’s emotionally charged and because of that the events have meaning.
When you’re putting together events in a non-fiction book, or in a memoir, it can be a struggle to find a thread that has meaning. Fiction stories make sense because they’re crafted. Life is not crafted. It is more random. Fact is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.
Many memoirs start with the protagonist at rock bottom. An accident or an event that works as a launching pad for the story of redemption or victory. It’s a fine place to start but can often leave your memoir feeling like a template of many other stories in the same space.
Curating the facts and giving them an emotional charge is the challenge of building story. I work with authors to refine this inciting incident and hone the structure that holds their memoir together. The lowest point is not necessarily where the plot starts.
If you’re struggling with your book structure, I can help.