‘Story’ Doesn’t Exist

“I think a lot of filmmakers think of story as the purpose of the film. And that the characters really have just got to service the story and take it to where it’s going. And that seems to me to be the complete opposite of what should be happening because there should be no story. I mean, we spend our lives inventing stories, but ‘story’ actually doesn’t exist. We exist and our apprehension of a story is how we explain the kind of meanderings that we take. So there’s no such thing as the empirical story. It’s just what happens to people.”

Bill Forsyth, Scottish Director

Wild. Been studying storytelling and screenwriting for so long and I’ve never heard someone say this.

But it’s true! There are only characters. Characters with wants and fears and desires making little and big decisions and bumping into each other.

Just like us.