Almost a year ago, I heard Donald Miller talk about his book, "A Million Miles In a Thousand Years", which is based on his experience of learning what it means to write a good story. A good story will follow a plot line, there will be character development, the reader will be able to understand what is happening, and the story is worth telling. A method for accomplishing a 'good story' is through the use of the Three-Act Structure, which is as follows: Act 1, act 1 climax, act 2/rising action, act 2 climax, finishing with act-3/resolution. While not guaranteed to generate a good story, it is the basic method of creating one.
When thinking about the story or narrative of King David of Israel, I was struck by how similar it is to the Three-Act Structure. Now David's story could be broken into multiple Three-Acts, but here's my basic outline of the story:
Act 1: David's childhood, going off to fight Goliath, running from Saul, and then leading his band through the wilderness.
Climax 1: Saul Dies, David is finally made King
Act 2: David is King, he starts to make bad decisions, he's fighting his sons for power, etc...
Climax 2: At some point, David begins to turn back to God. He begins to go after "God's Heart" thus becoming a man after God's own heart.
Act 3: David as he was towards the end of his life, and God's power is highlighted rather than Davids.
While not a perfect outline, the basic ideas are the same. There is a rhythm to his story, an up and down movement that makes David's story interesting. He grows, he develops, he makes mistakes, he makes good choices, he has friendships, he gets married, he has children, he goes to war, he is crowned King, he defies another King, etc. David's story is not easy, simple, or basic anything. There are plot twists, character development, climaxes, resolutions, tension, irony, and other tools of story telling that make a narrative's plot a good one.
David was not perfect, but his story is a good one.
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