“Storytelling is the greatest technology that humans have ever created.”
JON WESTENBERG
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What you’re trying to do, when you tell a story, is to write about an event in your life that made you feel some particular way. And what you’re trying to do, when you tell a story, is to get the audience to have that same feeling.
The Story Spine structure: Once upon a time there was [blank]. Every day, [blank]. One day [blank]. Because of that, [blank]. Until finally [bank].
A story’s purpose: find why you want to tell this story, what belief of yours fueled that story, what does it teach and its purpose. Stories with a purpose that you are passionate about have a bigger impact.
- Great stories convey things common to the human condition in unique situations. They are universal.
- Great stories have a clear structure and purpose.
- People find it easy to root for an underdog and they don’t even need to succeed. They value the character’s journey over their destination.
- Great stories appeal to our deepest emotions.
- Having the readers perceptions of reality challenged or changed in some way makes for great storytelling.
- Great stories are simple and focused. Resist the urge to show all the world building you made to allow your audience to get lost in the narrative. You can test your story by reading it to a new person and watching their reactions and questions.
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Know well in advance what the ending would be like.
The purpose and key result should be the final outcome. Make sure your focus does not deviate from the main objectives.
- Emphasize trying more than success.
- Having an initial theme while writing is important but don’t get too attached to it.
- Cutting things out is important part of the writing process.
- Challenge your characters with their polar opposite.
- Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle.
- Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
- Audiences don’t like passive/malleable characters, so give yours opinions.
- Imagining what you would do in the place of your character helps you lend credibility to unbelievable situations.
- Give the consumers reason to root for the character. Stack the odds against them and make the stakes clear.
- Story is testing, not refining.
- Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
- Trying to rewrite a movie you dislike into one you like without messing too much with the structure is a good exercise.
- Summarize the essence of your story. If you know that, you can build out from there.
- Stories solidify abstract concepts and simplify complex messages;
- Stories bring people together: stories connect us through the way we feel and respond to them;
- Stories inspire and motivate, by tapping into people’s emotions and baring both the good and bad.