Narrative

Narrative is "a values-based story about our core beliefs. Powerful narratives, used repeatedly over time, can change how people view the world and shape cultural common sense. Values and story are essential elements of narrative that move people." -Climate Access Communications Hub

The elements of narratives

Adrienne Maree Brown	"I tend to think of abolition as one result of transformative justice: abolition is the end of prisons; transformative justice is the methods people use to uproot injustice patterns in communities. I tend to think of abolition as a totality, and I think that can be tricky. People set out to abolish slavery and we ended up with the prison industrial complex because while there were surface and policy level shifts, the culture did not shift. That deep underlying racism and classism remains and is now roaring to the surface as we write this. So, while I identify as an abolitionist, I find speaking about the iterative tangible work of transformative justice makes more sense to me now–I don’t simply want the prisons gone, I want a radically different way of interacting with each other to grow."
Mia Mingus	"I understand abolition to be a necessary part of transformative justice because prisons, and the PIC, are major sites of individual and collective violence, abuse, and trauma. However, transformative justice is and must also be a critical part of abolition work because we will need to build alternatives to how we respond to harm, violence, and abuse. Just because we shut down prisons, does not mean that these will stop. Transformative justice has roots in abolition work and is an abolitionist framework, but goes beyond abolishing prisons (and slavery) and asks us to end–and transform the conditions that perpetuate–generational cycles of violence such as rape, sexual assault, child abuse, child sexual abuse, domestic violence, intimate partner abuse, war, genocide, poverty, human trafficking, police brutality, murder, stalking, sexual harassment, all systems of oppression, dangerous societal norms, and trauma."
Amanda Aguilar Shank	Interpersonal harm is inevitable. Abolition imagines that "each moment where harm happens is an opportunity to transform relationships and communities, build trust and safety, and grow slowly toward the beautiful people we are meant to be, in the world we deserve."

1. Values; The heroes of your narrative stand up because they believe in these values. Values are not a story element, but are touchstones that must be woven into all the story elements. 

i.e. justice and equity

2. Quest; the big picture beyond the policy 

i.e. a just society

3. Threat; what is standing in our way 

i.e. injustice; some communities and the environment are given less value than profit.

4. Heroes (archetypes)

i.e. activists standing up for what's right

5. Heroes tools 

i.e. direct action and education

6. Villains (archetypes of who or what is the threat)

i.e. big money

7. Villains weapons (what they're doing)

i.e. maintain power and inequality

For a detailed resource on how to draft a narrative, see this resource on the Commons library.

If you have any suggested revisions or additional resources to share related to the above content, please email them to kenzie@lehub.ca.

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