Still with me? Let’s go back to the Hollywood model. The “A” story issue in both cases is “Will our hero find his/her true calling and, if so, will he/she have the strength of character to embrace it and live it out?” We can think of these shadow careers and addictions as “B” stories. Or a guy with a gift for music might become a boozing, hotel-room wrecking wild man (his addiction) without actually working to become a real rocker first. For example, a woman whose dream is to be a writer might take a job as an editor at a magazine (her shadow career). The point was that these are surrogates and metaphors for our true calling. In Turning Pro, I wrote about “shadow careers” and addictions.
The Descendants‘ “B” story is how Clooney handles the ethical issues that arise from this situation. The extended family is clamoring to unload this unspoiled parcel of paradise to the highest bidder. Clooney’s character also happens to be a lawyer and chief trustee of a pristine piece of Hawaiian real estate that is in the process of being bequeathed to him and his relatives. In The Descendants, the “A” story is George Clooney’s struggle to survive the discovery of his wife’s infidelity, coupled with his grief/anguish/guilt/rage at her going into a coma after a boating accident-and thus threatening to destroy both him and the whole family. You and I have an “A” story and a “B” story too.
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The reason I’m harping on these story-structure arcana is because they’re so true and so important in real life-particularly in our own Turning Pro moments. Elements of the “B” story help the hero survive and prevail during the crisis/All Is Lost moment of the “A” story. In the crisis, “B” rides to the rescue of “A.” The two storylines come together and reveal themselves to have been metaphorically linked all along. The two must resonate, even if they don’t seem to at first. In screenwriting theory, the “B” story should always support the “A” story. The “B” story is Stu’s (Ed Helms) struggle to break out of thrall to his shrew girlfriend back in L.A. In The Hangover, the “A” story is the guys’ efforts to find their friend Doug. The “B” story is a supporting saga, running on a parallel (and often seemingly-unrelated) track. It’s the foreground-the primary throughline that the protagonist follows. The “A” story is the dramatic core of the movie. Heather Graham in “The Hangover.” Sometimes the “B” Story rides to the rescue of the “A” story.
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