Mass Review. Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, Together With Alter Your Life Through The Ability Of Storytelling

The most powerful someone inwards the public is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values too agenda of an entire generation that is to come. -- Steve Jobs

This mass is by Made to stick" too "Talk similar TED"  on presenting too story telling. This mass is at a dissimilar grade than those. I strongly recommend yous to read this book. It is entertaining equally much equally it is informative. This is similar a short-story format version of the Hollywood movie-script format storytelling, which I covered briefly amongst "Nobody wants to read your shit". Both books receive got the same message really: "You must streamline your message (staying on theme), too brand its seem fun (organizing around an interesting concept)."

My highlights from the book

No 1 ever made a determination because of a number. They quest a story. -- Daniel Kahneman

Your story must reverberate alter over time. A story cannot only live a serial of remarkable events. You must start out equally 1 version of yourself too destination equally something new. The alter tin live infinitesimal.

In truth, these moments are everywhere. They be inwards multitudes for all of us. They’re similar dander inwards the wind. They be all around us. More than yous could ever imagine. The work is that nosotros don’t meet these moments. We neglect to notice them or recognize their importance, too when nosotros orbit off to meet one, nosotros don’t orbit out to grab it. We don’t tape it. We don’t salvage it. We neglect to proceed these precious moments condom for the future.

I decided that at the destination of every day, I’d reverberate upon my 24-hour interval too inquire myself 1 unproblematic question: If I had to tell a story from today — a five-minute story onstage nearly something that took identify over the course of written report of this 24-hour interval — what would it be? As benign too dull too inconsequential equally it powerfulness seem, what was the most storyworthy 2nd from my day?

Instead I would write a snippet. A judgement or 2 that captured the 2nd from the day. Just plenty for me to recall the moment.

I started seeing stories inwards my everyday life, stories began welling upwardly from my childhood that I’d long since forgotten. It was similar excavation into the public too of a abrupt striking a geyser.

Essentially Crash & Burn is stream-of-consciousness writing. I similar to think of it equally dreaming on the destination of your pen, because when it’s working well, it volition mimic the free-associative thought patterns that so many of us experience spell dreaming.

When Crash & Burn is at its best, ideas are constantly crashing the party, slashing too burning the previous ones.

In class, nosotros exercise First Last Best Worst equally an improv game. You are given a prompt too must tell a story using the first, last, best, or worst version of that prompt.

I’ve given yous 3 tools to notice stories. 

• Homework for Life 
• Crash & Burn 
• First Last Best Worst 

Do all 3 amongst regularity too fidelity, too yous volition notice yourself drowning inwards stories earlier long.      

Let me tell it again: Every groovy story ever told is essentially nearly a five-second 2nd inwards the life of a human being, too the piece of work of the story is to lead that 2nd to the greatest clarity possible.

Anything inwards the story that doesn’t assist lead that 2nd to the greatest clarity possible is marginalized, shaded, or removed entirely. Anything that helps lead clarity to that 2nd is strengthened too highlighted.

You’ll meet how much I receive got left on the cutting-room flooring to lead my five-second 2nd to the greatest clarity possible. Understanding that stories are nearly tiny moments is the bedrock upon which all storytelling is built, too yet this is what people neglect to empathise most when thinking nearly a story. Instead they believe that if something interesting or incredible or unbelievable has happened to them, they receive got a groovy story to tell. Not true.

This is Indy’s five-second moment. The 2nd he finds faith. The 2nd he believes inwards the ability of God.

So dig. Search. Hunt. Fight for the five-second moment. Allow yourself to recall the entire event. Don’t acquire hung upwardly on the big moments, the unbelievable circumstances, or the hilarious details. Seek out the moments when yous felt your kernel move. When something changed forever, fifty-fifty if that 2nd seems minuscule compared to the balance of the story.

Your five-second 2nd is the most of import affair that yous volition say. It is the piece of work too pinnacle of your story. It’s the argue yous opened your oral cavity inwards the firstly place. Therefore it must come upwardly equally unopen to the destination of your story equally possible. Sometimes it volition live the rattling concluding affair yous say.

                

So how do yous select the correct identify to start a story? Simple. Ask yourself where your story ends. What is the pregnant of your five-second moment? Say it aloud.          

Simply put, the firstly of the story should live the reverse of the end. Find the reverse of your transformation, revelation, or realization, too this is where your story should start. This is what creates an arc inwards your story. This is how a story shows alter over time. I was in 1 trial this, but straightaway I am this. I in 1 trial thought this, but straightaway I think this. I in 1 trial felt this, but straightaway I experience this.

I also attempt to start my story equally unopen to the destination equally possible (a dominion Kurt Vonnegut followed when writing brusk stories).

Speak equally if yous were speaking to friends. Be yourself. If your linguistic communication sounds to a greater extent than formal than your normal speech, yous receive got failed.

The Nazis too snakes are the stakes. They are the things that proceed our attending scene to scene. They are the argue nosotros purchase a ticket too popcorn too surrender 2 hours of our life.

Every story must receive got an Elephant. The Elephant is the affair that everyone inwards the room tin see.

The audience doesn’t know why they are listening to the story or what is to come, so it’s like shooting fish in a barrel to halt listening. If yous don’t introduce a argue to hear rattling early on, yous run a peril losing their attending altogether. The Elephant tells the audience what to expect. It gives them a argue to listen, a argue to wonder. It infuses the story amongst instantaneous stakes.

Note that I’m non really changing the path that the audience is on. It’s the same path we’ve been walking since the start of the story. The audience exactly didn’t realize that it’s a much deeper, to a greater extent than interesting path than firstly expected. Don’t switch Elephants. Simply alter the color.

A Backpack is a strategy that increases the stakes of the story yesteryear increasing the audience’s anticipation nearly a coming event. It’s when a storyteller loads upwardly the audience amongst all the storyteller’s hopes too fears inwards that 2nd earlier moving the story forward. It’s an endeavour to do 2 things: 1. Make the audience wonder what volition orbit off next. 2. Make your audience experience the same emotion, or something similar the same emotion, that the storyteller experienced inwards the 2nd nearly to live described.

Backpacks are most effective when a innovation does non work. If I had described my innovation for begging for gas, too and then the innovation worked perfectly, in that location would receive got been no reward for the Backpack.

It’s an strange thing: The audience wants characters (or storytellers) to succeed, but they don’t really desire characters to succeed. It’s fighting too strife that brand stories great. They desire to meet their characters ultimately triumph, but they desire suffering first. They don’t desire anything to live easy.

Breadcrumbs Storytellers exercise Breadcrumbs when nosotros hint at a hereafter trial but only let out plenty to proceed the audience guessing. Breadcrumbs are peculiarly effective when the genuinely unexpected is coming.

Hourglasses. There comes a fourth dimension inwards many stories when yous reached a 2nd (or the moment) that the audience has been waiting for. Perhaps yous receive got paved the means to the 2nd amongst Breadcrumbs too Backpacks, or perhaps you’ve used none of these strategies because you’ve got yourself a stake-laden story, too straightaway you’re approaching the payoff. The judgement you’ve been waiting to say. The judgement your audience has been waiting to hear. This is the 2nd to exercise an Hourglass. It’s fourth dimension to tardily things down. Grind them to a halt when possible. When yous know the audience is hanging on your every word, allow them hang. Drag out the hold back equally long equally possible.

In “Charity Thief,” that 2nd occurs equally I am knocking on that bluish door. The audience knows that I’m nearly to do something to endeavour to solve my problem. They know that a McDonald’s uniform is involved (my Breadcrumb), but they likely can’t imagine what my solution powerfulness be. There is no quest to depict this uniform inwards whatever detail, yet I select to depict it anyway, inwards the greatest detail. It is the longest scrap of description inwards the entire story, too I’m describing the concluding affair inwards the public that needs to live described. This is because I receive got my audience now. I ain them. They cannot hold back for that bluish door to opened upwardly so the unknown tin move known.

Find the 2nd inwards your story that everyone has been waiting for, too then flip that Hourglass too allow the sand run.

A Crystal Ball is a imitation prediction made yesteryear a storyteller to motion the audience to wonder if the prediction volition show to live true. In “Charity Thief,” I say: [The man] points his finger at me too says, “You remain correct there.” Then he walks dorsum into his house, too I know what he’s doing. He’s calling the police, too they volition come upwardly too arrest me for stealing coin from McDonald’s. This does non happen, of course, but when I introduce this rattling existent possibility, the audience wants to know if it volition happen. By predicting my hereafter arrest, I’ve established wonder inwards their minds nearly a hereafter event.

In storytelling, deploy Crystal Balls strategically: Only when your prediction seems possible. Only when your approximate is reasonable. And only when your prediction presents an intriguing or exciting possibility.

Remember, the best means to ensure that your story has stakes is to select a story that has stakes. Elephants, Backpacks, Breadcrumbs, Hourglasses, too Crystal Balls volition only acquire yous so far. If your story is boring, it volition ever live boring.

Humor is optional. Stakes are nonnegotiable.

Here is what I think: A story is similar a coat. When nosotros tell a story, nosotros set a coat on our audience. Our goal is to brand that coat equally hard to take equally possible. I desire that coat to live impossible to receive got off. Days later you’ve heard my story at the dinner tabular array or the conference room or the golf game course of written report or the theater, I desire yous to live thinking nearly my story. I desire that coat to cling to your torso too mind.

Audiences don’t desire redemption. Redemption cleanses the palate. It ties upwardly all loose ends. It makes the public whole again. It allows your audience to slumber good at night.

The goal of every storyteller should live to create a cinematic experience inwards the minds of every listener.

Listeners should live able to meet the story inwards their mind’s oculus at all times. At no signal should the story move visually obscured or impossible to see.

Always supply a physical location for every 2nd of your story. That’s it. If the audience knows where yous are at all times inside your story, the motion-picture exhibit is running inwards their minds. The celluloid is cycling from reel to reel. If your audience tin painting the location of the activity at all times, yous receive got created a motion-picture exhibit inwards the hear of your listeners.

Whatever yous are doing, if the motion-picture exhibit has stopped inwards the hear of your audience, it’s no longer a story.

I give this 2nd of backstory a place. I arrive a scene.

But too thence are words that signal change. The story was heading inwards 1 direction, but straightaway it’s heading inwards another. This is effective storytelling. It’s a means of making a story experience equally if it’s constantly going someplace new, fifty-fifty if the events are linear too predictable.

Oddly, the negative is almost ever improve than the positive when it comes to storytelling. Saying what something or someone is non is almost ever improve than maxim what something or someone is. For example: I am dumb, ugly, too unpopular. I’m non smart, I’m non at all good-looking, too no 1 likes me. By maxim what I am not, I am also maxim what I could receive got been, too that is a hidden but. “I was lost” is exactly non equally practiced equally “I could non notice my means home.”

Mirror practise only encourages attending on your physical appearance. Don’t do it. Why would yous practise doing something inwards a means that volition never orbit off inwards existent life?

Nevertheless, in that location are times when yous powerfulness desire to tell a success story, too when yous do, in that location are 2 strategies that I advise yous employ. 1. Malign yourself. 2. Marginalize your accomplishment.

Summiting Mount Everest is an adventure story. Changing your life yesteryear summiting Mount Everest is a groovy story.

Don’t memorize your story.

Instead of memorizing your story word-for-word, memorize 3 parts to a story: 1. The firstly few sentences. Always start strong. 2. The concluding few sentences. Always destination strong.  3. The scenes of your story.

I don’t memorize my stories. I memorize the places where my story takes me, so fifty-fifty if I can’t recall how I desire to tell it, I tin all the same do so. I may lose some express joy lines, clever transitions, too “golden sentences,” but I’m all the same telling my story.

When yous are entertaining, people acquire better. When your students dear you, they volition learn, fifty-fifty if they despise the subject. This is how I approach instruction every day.

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