Chapter 24 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Hello and welcome to the StoryGrid Masterwork Podcast. We're part of a growing StoryGrid community that includes thousands of writers and editors from all over the world. We're dedicated to helping writers improve their craft through books, podcasts, courses and online forums. In this StoryGrid Masterwork podcast, we'll be reading and analyzing great books to learn what makes them work so well. I'm your host, Bib Bailey. This season, we're reading the Wonderful wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum's classic novel about a young girl's heroic journey. In each episode, I'll read you one of the book's 24 scenes and then we'll analyze the scene using storygrid tools and methods in order to understand how and why this story endures and still captivates readers more than a century after it was written. Editor and publisher Sean Coyne developed StoryGrid during 30 years in the storytelling business. He's applied his knowledge to dozens of best selling fiction and nonfiction stories and now shares what he's learned in the StoryGrid community. You'll find a full introduction to StoryGrid's method of analyzing scenes in the first episode of this series. Now let's review how we'll analyze today's scene. If you're already familiar with StoryGrid, you can skip ahead 1 minute 40 seconds to start listening to the scene. We use five first principles to analyze any story. First, we look at a story both as a whole and in smaller parts. In this podcast, we'll dissect the Wonderful wizard of Oz in parts, scene by scene. Second, we look for a change inside the world of the story, because all stories are about change.

Third, we figure out how the change.

Is linked to a universal human value such as safety, love, or justice. Fourth, we sum up the change in that human value in a single sentence called a story event. To find the story event, we ask four Socratic questions. These questions help us see what's actually happening in the scene, what the character's essential tactics are, and how they connect to the universal human value at stake. Fifth, when we know our story event, we look at how the scene is constructed by using what we call the five commandments of storytelling. The five commandments we'll find in each scene of the Wonderful wizard of Oz are the inciting incident, which kicks off the action the turning point, progressive complication, an unexpected event that turns the human value at stake in the scene and gives rise to the crisis, which is a dilemma about how to confront the unexpected event. The climax, which is the decision and action a character takes in response to the crisis, the resolution which is the outcome of the action of the climax. Now let's step onto the yellow brick road with Dorothy and listen to this week's scene and analysis.

The Wonderful wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum Scene 24 Home Again.

Aunt Em had just come out of the house to water the cabbages when she looked up and saw Dorothy running toward her. My darling child. She cried, folding the little girl in her arms and covering her face with kisses. Where in the world did you come from? From the land of Oz. Said Dorothy gravely. And here is Toto, too. And oh, Aunt Em, I'm so glad to be at home again.

Now let's use StoryGrid first principles to analyze the scene. A story event is an active change of a universal human value for one or more characters. As a result of conflict, one character's desires clash with another's or an environmental shift changes the value positively or negatively. A working scene contains at least one story. Eventually, to determine a scene's story event, answer these four Socratic questions.

What are the characters literally doing? That is, what are their micro on the ground actions?

Aunt Em is watering cabbages. Dorothy runs toward her. Question number two what is the essential.

Tactic of the characters?

That is, what macro behaviors are they employing that are linked to a universal human value? Dorothy gratefully attunes to her everyday reality. Question number three what universal human values have changed for one or more characters in the scene? Which one of those value changes is most important and should be included in the story grid spreadsheet? Answer when in doubt the story grid rule of thumb is to highlight the.

Value that best aligns with the progress.

Of the global human value at stake in the story. The Wonderful wizard of Oz is an.

Action story which has a global value at stake of life Death?

Throughout the story grid spreadsheet, we've tracked the ways life is threatened or enhanced scene by scene? The value change is clear. Exiled to home. Question number 4 what story event sums up the scenes on the ground actions and essential tactics and value change? We will enter that event in the story grid spreadsheet.

Dorothy arrives home and rushes into Aunt Em's arms. Now let's examine how the scene abides the five commandments of storytelling. What's the inciting incident? Dorothy runs toward Aunt Em. What's the turning point? Progressive complication.

Aunt Em is taken aback because she's been gone so long. What's the crisis?

It's the best bad choice if Dorothy tells the truth about where she's been. Aunt Em may think she's lost her mind. If she doesn't tell the truth, she'll never be able to live authentically. What's the climax?

Dorothy tells Aunt Em that she was in the Land of Oz. What's the resolution?

Open ending. But Dorothy is home again.

Thanks for listening, and please join Dorothy, Toto and me on the next leg of our fantastic journey.

If you're writing or thinking about writing a story about a heroic journey, you'll.

Be interested in Sean Coyne's upcoming online seminar devoted to helping writers understand and.

Use the heroic journey in their own work.

It's a macro and micro examination of why these stories speak to us so compellingly and how to use the heroic journey to level up Your writing using StoryGrid specific tools. It includes a trip to the Shire to do a macro analysis of J.R.R. tolkien's the Hobbit, with a few detours to Oz and Emerald City along the way. Go to www.storygrid.comhero to find out more. We'd love to see you there. This has been Bib bailey for the StoryGrid Masterwork podcast. I'll see you next time. My prettiest.