How Rick & Morty taught me to become the protagonist of my own life
Why good storytelling isn’t just for writers—it’s the secret to living a more compelling, intentional life
This week I was inspired by the Scottish International Story Festival. It’s not often I think about storytelling, or consider great storytellers, but I’ve been a voracious (I love this word, look it up!) reader!
I’ve always naturally enjoyed stories and creativity. I think my imagination always ran away with itself and created characters who I thought were cool or scary. I believe good storytelling is about the details. If you can pick out funny, odd or unusual details and then think about the emotion you felt when that happened, you get a compelling narrative.
You don’t need to stick purely to the facts, but there must be truths. Too many facts and it feels like you’re listening to a police interview. Too few facts and the whole story falls apart as if it were a dream. The best stories expand your emotional response to small, seemingly insignificant details. Those details always form a journey. The listener always feels led—they’re following you, the storyteller, as you weave around the narrative.
I learn’t the most about storytelling from a cartoon - Rick & Morty!
An Accidental Masterclass: Working on Rick & Morty
Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland are the creators of one of the highest-rated cartoons - Rick & Morty. I love adult cartoons & anime— South Park, The Simpsons, or One Punch Man. The fact that the characters are drawn and childlike gives the creators a much bigger remit to jest about the state of the world. Adult cartoons challenge real power through poking fun and pointing out the ridiculous state of the moment. I was lucky enough to work on the Rick & Morty mobile game as a lead game designer, and so watching the show was kind of in my blood.
It would be fair to say I’ve probably watched every episode in the region of 5-10 times each. That’s excessive for any TV show, but when you’re working on something, it becomes pretty natural to have it on in the background. Whilst the show itself is both deep, powerful, intellectual and funny, the storytelling within each episode is engaging and gripping. Unlike other cartoons which have huge seasons, there are usually 10 episodes per season and the overall quality per episode is high along with a season based narrative arc. Whilst the pace of the visuals on screen initially leaves you dazzled, going a level deeper and understanding the interweaving storylines often takes a second or third watch.
The key to the great storytelling is a tool Dan Harmon created called the Story Circle. This is the workshop on the back of card 010 Storytelling!
The Story Circle: Why Characters Need to Struggle
Characters are key to us relating to a story. Whether it be a goofy, angst-filled teenager or a suave gentleman, we each immediately place our own experience or tropes onto those characters. It would feel disjointed if the goofy teenager sat at a bar ordering a cocktail shaken not stirred, yet for a gentleman in a tux we would feel at ease. Main characters need growth. We need to feel their ups and downs and grow with them. We don’t need to love everyone, but we need to understand their journeys.
The story circle always forces you as a writer or creative to stress your character and ensure they feel some turmoil. We need a story to have difficulties we can overcome, so that the ultimate goals feel more fulfilling. Climbing Mount Everest is less about the flag on the top than the 10,000th step across the glacier. The events which shape the journey build character. All characters lose their way or question their choices, yet stay true to their morality and values.
So a good story needs elements that put our protagonists in danger (physically, emotionally or morally). How the situation develops is the test, and it’s something we each remember more than the environment. You can learn this in your own storytelling when you use the circle.
Story Circle in Action: The best brew
Here’s a quick example I wrote using the circle:
Tom decides he’s in need of a good brew.
Yet he’s out of delicious cow’s milk (yes, I’ve not gone full oat!)
As he leaves his house he sees a homeless man with a cup of coins.
The homeless man’s arm shoots out, grabbing his arm, whispering “Big Issue?!”
As he’s pulled in, the change in his pocket drops exactly into the cup. The homeless man, excited, mouths “No issue!”
At the shop he doesn’t have enough change for milk, but a beautiful woman takes pity and offers him her Oatly instead.
Without thinking he blurts out “but I love moo milk!”
She laughs and offers to exchange it. He says “let’s exchange numbers instead, it’s the least I can do...”
Returning home, he sips his less than perfect oaty brew, smiling.
What feels great about a story like this is at each stage we’re invested, interested, but at no point could we have guessed the end. Keeping people guessing builds tension and investment. The things we remember about the story are not the brew itself, but the journey to the brew. We feel our protagonist’s emotions at each stage. We wish him well.
It’s unusual to be able to create stories like this on the fly. It probably took me 3 rewrites and 10 minutes to craft that little ditty. Yet, when we engage with people and talk about our lives, we can engage them much more with the twists and details.
Become the Protagonist of Your Life!
So how can you apply this to everyday life? It seems implausible that a story such as this happens every time you need some milk?! Yet, engaging friends at dinner parties or coffee dates can captivate us over even the smallest details. I think this comes down to three things:
We don’t see ourselves as the protagonists in our own life.
We haven’t practised HOW we tell stories.
We are unsure what to “embellish” or “find the funny.”
We all form an identity, a sense of self. Yet it can be very difficult to place ourselves in control of it. If we don’t associate ourselves and our actions as THE protagonist, then we feel like the environment or other characters are telling the story about us. We externalise control. This leads to the concepts of luck, fate and apathy. We cannot construct a narrative where we are the driving force of our lives.
If we let all the events that happen to us control us, we end up becoming victims. We believe that it was the world’s fault, the other’s fault. Even if the facts clearly show it is someone else’s fault, we’re seeing the story from their perspective. What would The Shawshank Redemption look like if Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), placed in prison for the alleged murders of his wife and lover, would never attempt an escape?! I believe you always have control. You always have free will. You are ALWAYS the protagonist.
So having that central internalised locus of control gives us a power. It gives us the power to tell stronger stories about our lives. If we can tell a story about our struggle, then we can also write how we escape. So now comes the practice…
Building Coherence Through the Circle
Making something sound compelling and interesting is a skill. I once joined Toastmasters, a collective of people who specifically practise public speaking and hosting as a group. There are certainly some traits that help—charm, wit, confidence—but they don’t matter as much as coherence, and that’s where the story circle comes in!
The story circle not only gives your narrative a clear goal, it also ensures you build drama into the story through struggle and change. We often overlook struggles—they either were too difficult to talk about or seem simple once we overcome them. We love to describe positive change, yet we often neglect to be honest about who we really were before the change. The story circle forces you to think about this in stages that work well narratively. So when you then build up a normal interaction, you set the scene for embellishing the drama!
Embellish the Drama
Rick and Morty’s storywriters are excellent at embellishment. So much so, the show itself becomes a parody of the story circle, often using it as a narrative tool within the narrative itself—see episodes S4E06 and S8E07 as good examples. While the structure of the circle keeps us clear on goals, it’s the details of the scene, the monster gore and Rick’s contraptions that keep us entertained. The story embellishes the drama.
In episode S4E02 - The Old Man and the Seat, we begin by seeing Rick sneak off to an alternative universe. Not just any universe, but a beautiful, blissful natural heaven, peaceful and tranquil. In this episode we learn that Rick is a “shy pooper”—he likes to get away and do his business in peace. Yet that is ruined when he discovers someone else has found his toilet. The drama that ensues and the relentless energy of tracking and ending this other individual’s existence consumes the entire show. All because someone took a dump in his loo!
So there are lots of ways you can imagine, expand or stretch the truth while being honest to the events that happened. This adds colour, connection and depth to your story structure. The more you start to do it, the more you will enjoy it. It’s fun to get creative!
Write Your Story Circle This Week
So I encourage you to take some action this week. Think of a moment in your life—not necessarily a good one, but one where you feel you changed—and fill in the blanks of the story circle. Get the structure right, ensure YOU are the protagonist, and then embellish the shit out of each stage! Go wild, go big, get funny, make the universe bend to your will. Then sit down and practise telling it. Make sure you hit all the points. Figure out where you might pause, or what details matter. Then go and tell some people. Watch how they respond, get feedback, but use them as a mirror to your tale. You will adapt the telling of the story based on the feedback you get. Over time you will get better at telling the same story and each time you tell it, it will develop. This is what comedians get paid to do! They tell the same story every night and get funnier at telling it!
Soon you’ll be a suave, funny protagonist living an epic life—oh that’s funny, you already are!