3 Lessons from the Cubs on Dramatic Writing

As a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan who writhed happily on the floor after they won their first World Series in 108 years last fall, and who just finished reading Tom Verducci’s terrific new book “The Cubs Way,” I’ve had a lot of time to think about what happened a few months ago. It’s stayed in my mind often and, between the book and the banner raising earlier this week (along with the ring ceremony tonight at Wrigley), I’ve been thinking about it even more lately.

One thing that came to mind was how the whole story almost seems like it had to be fiction — the two longest-suffering franchises met in the World Series, the one that hadn’t won in over 100 years fell behind 3 games to 1, they looked like they were going to complete the comeback, then they blew the lead late on a dramatic home run, losing all the momentum before a short rain delay gave them a chance to regroup and come back to win by one in extra innings.

It made me think about how much more fascinating this championship is to a lot of people because of the story behind it. There’s a reason Game 7 was the most watched baseball game in a quarter century, and it isn’t just because third baseman Kris Bryant looks like a supermodel. One of the reasons many people gravitate to sports is because it’s real — nobody knows what’s going to happen, and he drama isn’t manufactured. People like being surprised, seeing something new, something they didn’t anticipate. What can we learn about dramatic writing from the Cubs’ World Series title?

1. People love underdogs
   The Cubs were the “lovable losers,” the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, the team that famously hadn’t won a title in 108 years, hadn’t even competed in the World Series in more than 70 years. That gave a lot of people reason to root for them, to see if they’d finally overcome all of that futility. It’s a good reminder to have characters that people can hope succeed in spite of themselves. Make your characters fail before you let them succeed … if you let them succeed.
2. Rip the rug out from under your hero
   The Cubs led 6-3 with two outs in the eighth inning and their best reliever on the mound, just four outs from the title. Two batters later, a Cleveland player who hadn’t homered in more than a month hit a two-run homer to tie the game. That was a gut punch for Cubs fans (as a Cubs fan, I can confirm this; I basically hid behind a pillow the rest of the inning), and injected a sense of dread into what was happening. It was a false horizon, and it definitely helped to build the drama. The beaten-down Cubs fans were ready for the title to finally be theirs, and it was yanked away by an unlikely foe. Don’t let anything be easy for your characters. Put obstacles in front of them. Let them trip and fall. Let them taste success, and then have it ripped from their grasp.
3. A dramatic pause can build suspense
   After the Cubs survived the rest of the eighth and then ninth inning, the game was still tied and headed to extra innings when it started raining just hard enough to prompt the umpire crew chief to delay the game. The delay only ended up lasting 17 minutes, but that was long enough for the Cubs players to gather together and get themselves refocused for the 10th inning, when they scored two runs to win. Without that brief pause, maybe they lose that mental edge and the game. Generally, in writing, we keep building the suspense. Keep the story taut. But maybe there’s room for a dramatic pause, a conversation that draws out the story a bit and gives the characters a moment to breathe — and the reader a few more moments to wonder what will happen — before the last big build to the finale.

Sure, the non-scripted nature of sports is one of its big draws. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find elements of how the stories play out to borrow from for your own writing, whether you’re a sports fan or not. The same elements work for any sort of dramatic writing. So, whether you writhed on the floor with me after they won or barely knew it was happening at all, it’s worth considering why so many people cared, and see if you can draw some of those people to whatever story you’re writing.