COMBINING SCIENCE WITH STORYTELLING

When combining scientific research and fact with storytelling which is often fiction, the trick is to balance information and drama. Leaning too heavily into information can be tiresome and lecturous, but if it focuses too much on drama, you can lose substance and purpose in your writing. The stories that relay information best, are often the ones that do so through dramatic purpose. The research should feed into the story as catalysts for the drama, and can be morphed into themes or topics that the drama brings to life (sometimes literally in the form of a character). And most importantly, it should be human. We can only relate to facts and figures so much, but when we turn those into people, lived experiences, suddenly we’re completely listening.

Here are three ways to do this. You can have the science take the foreground, whereby it becomes the central topic, it can exist in the seen background, where it becomes a setting, or can exist in the unseen background, where it becomes a theme.

The Foreground

Let’s start with the foreground. Here the science is our main source of text and ideas. Let’s use (can you guess?) climate change as our topic.

Two people, A and B, are on their honeymoon, and are enjoying a beautiful getaway where they discuss their future together. They come to the subject of children. A is romantically exclaiming the wonders of children, lost in the moment as they share their honest desire to become a parent, when they turn to B expecting the eyes of their lover gazing back at them in awe. However, B seems bored. Worse, a bit repulsed. B tells them that the single worst thing they could do to the planet is bring a child into the world, and will never, ever, have a child. The couple have a rupturing row which ends in tears.

Here the topic of discussion is climate change - this is a great way to really dissect certain aspects of climate change and really bring it to your audience’s attention. The best way to approach the foreground is with subtlety. You can attack it boldly in a speech, or even rap/music, but in drama it’s best to envelop your topic in wool, and always keep it human. Importantly in the example above, you have two characters with conflicting objectives (what they want is obstructed by what the other person wants). Objectives and conflict are what make any storytelling captivating. The difference here is that your subject of climate change is the foreground reason and context for conflict.

Here is a video from David Attenborough on population growth that might inform the scene above with our newly-weds.

Seen Background

Next is the seen background. Here the science is literal and tangible to the audience, but usually unspoken - it’s a setting. Let’s use (can you guess again?) climate change as an example.

Let’s say C is an influencer who is desperate for a bigger following and fame. They’ve come out to the woods in Texas to talk about mindfulness. As they start vlogging, they realise the only streamer is their mum. C puts a brave face on, and tries to stay calm, as they expand on chakra alignment, when suddenly they begin to smell smoke. They begin to be surrounded by more and more smoke as the fire creeps in. C is afraid and about to turn off the video when they see a second person has joined the stream. Suddenly C bites, and tells their streamers that in times of crisis one must centre oneself. Mum is going berserk in the comments. Then a dozen new streamers have popped up. The closer the fire approaches, the more followers C acquires. 100. 1000. 10000. The comment section is going crazy. C is desperate to keep these followers flooding in, whilst fighting their fear of being taken by the fire. 

Here the wildfires in Texas are a literal background, one people might know about, but the topic approaches vanity and, informed by the two conflicting objectives of our main character (“I want to be famous” & “I want to live”), asks the essay question: “How far would you go for fame?”

The video below was the factual researched context where we dropped our fictional ‘influencer’ character.

Unseen Background

Finally there is the unseen background. Here the science is entirely unspoken - it completely fades in the shadows - a theme. Let’s take (no way you’re kidding!) climate change as an example.

This example is of D, and is set in the future.

(tip: a good thing to remember when writing story set in the future and using scientific predictions, is to make the situation for the audience relatable and let the background - the scientific predictions - be abnormal but never mentioned. For your characters you should do the opposite and make the background ordinary to them, but the situation abnormal and dramatic to them.)

In this situation ‘D’ is a mother who’s lost her adult child. She is standing alone in front of a recycling unit for dead bodies, as she places down a small canister labelled ‘Serplex’ in front of the compound. She is addressing her son, professing her regrets for not being more present in his life, and that had she known how things would turn out, she would have come to live with him. She is stern faced in her sorrow, grief has wiped almost any feeling from her voice, as she says goodbye, whilst the bodies are triaged between the organ donors and the recycling unit.

The reason her son died is because he lived in a different city to her for decades, where air pollution levels had become uninhabitable. The canister she holds was for a new futuristic mask that allows people to breathe better in more polluted areas, which she never sent to him, out of fear she might embarrass him because he couldn’t afford one himself. The bigger story can be about a time where air pollution devastates different places around the world because of climate change, and different classes are vying for different areas. Climate change can be the theme, but the topic could be about classism. The focus in the end, should always be the human stories within said theme.

You could create the scene above by combining this new scientist article and the two videos below.

Combining Exercise

Here’s a way to play around with all that information. First, find an article or a video that relates to climate change. It can be something you’re passionate about, something you find scary or something you find hilarious. Whatever you land on. Spend 5-10 minutes finding this (a good way - start with by entering ‘climate change issues’ or ‘climate change stories’ on google, and just scroll through the forever weaving web). Once you’ve picked, create a character - think of a name, an age, a job, a flaw in their personality and maybe sprinkle some details. Doesn’t have to be too specific. Spend 2 minute on this.

Then pick a location, a situation (something the character experiences) and a genre (comedy, drama etc). The exercise then is to drop all of this information into the article you’ve found and write a piece! You may end up with Rishi, the 40 year old ice skater who loves nothing more than travelling and tracking wild animals, in the north pole whilst being chased by bears in a slapstick comedy. The article might be about ice caps melting. Then Rishi has to swim, and swim fast. It can be whatever it becomes - but it’s a useful tool to start unifying science and storytelling.