How to elevate your story

It is quite simple actually. Tell a story never told before or tell an existing story in a way never told before.

The Lion King is not a new story. It is Hamlet retold with a happy ending. It is fantastic example of an existing story told in a new way. Consider the following:

 a)    Simba is essentially Hamlet. Both are born as princes, destined to be kings.

b)   Both have uncles who aspire to be kings themselves. Scar in the Disney movie and Claudius in Shakespeare’s play.

c)    Male buddies: Simba develops a friendship with Timone and Pumbaa who support him while he is in exile. Hamlet has a friend called Horatio.

d)   Love interest: Nala is essentially Ophelia in the form of a lioness.  

e)   Both the father’s die and reappear as ghosts to guide the son.

f)     Both Simba and Hamlet are exiled but eventually return to fight with and overthrow their uncle and reclaim their throne.

g)   While Hamlet ends in a tragedy, the Lion Kind has a happy ending. The happy ending is a demand of mainstream cinema and the kind of target audience a Disney film appeals to. The compulsion for a happy ending is no different, in some way, from what the makers of the hugely popular Shah Rukh Khan film, DDLJ (Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge) must’ve felt while adapting Romeo and Juliet to an Indian context. Hence the happy ending – ‘Ja Simran, jee le apni zindagi’.  

On the other hand, all innovations, like Airbnb, Amazon and Uber can be seen as examples of new stories being told for the first time. In the realm of fiction, it is argued by some that it is not possible to tell a completely new story anymore because all the stories that can be told have already been told. I disagree. I find many good biographies to be original stories. Gandhi’s life story, for example, resists easy categorizations and labels like ‘David vs. Goliath’ because it is so much more than that. I find it to be a great example of an original story.

 Whether you are a storyteller, entrepreneur or a brand marketer, you have really two choices: tell a story never old before or tell an existing story in a way never told before. Of course, there is the third option of being mediocre and a me too but I don’t think you want to go there.