Who is it about?
Stories are never about big issues. They are always about how an ordinary person is affected by big issues. That person is the character.
Expressed in narrative terms, story structure looks like this:
Beginning = Character
Middle = Conflict
End = Resolution
In this structure the character is introduced (beginning), the character’s conflict or problem is shown (middle), and finally the character either resolves the problem, or doesn’t (end).
It’s not what the story is about, it’s “who” the story is about.
In storytelling, big issues are explained through the eyes and the experience of a person who is directly affected by them.
Audiences relate better to stories about people than to issues and information alone.
A story is not a list of facts.
Facts + human emotion = storytelling
Next: What is the conflict?
