David Barnes @ Packt

Storytelling 101

I'm fascinated by story master plots and the way that the same patterns and motifs show up in all kinds of stories. Somewhere through the presentation above you'll learn about three kinds of story that you can use in presentations (or books, if you want). They are:

1. The Rockstar: the classic hero story. The hero receives a challenge that will require hard work and sacrifice. At first they resist -- it's too hard -- but eventually they embrace the challenge and save the world. This is the classic action story -- the hero's journey or quest. The challenge is to overcome the odds and achieve your goal through cunning, wit, strength. Indiana Jones.
2. The Maverick: here somebody with strong, outspoken views struggles to be vindicated and find a place in society. It's about an outcast that gradually emerges as a leader. I suppose Topgun fits this -- Maverick refuses to compromise and play by the rules, and Goose is the one person who believes in him -- but he dies! Eventually Maverick is vindicated -- it becomes clear that he was right all along, when he does so well in the fight at the end. (I'm ashamed that I remember the plot at all.) This story is all about changing society to the hero's will, and becoming recognized as a hero in the end.
3. The Sherlock: this is a problem solving story. The "case" is all set out at the beginning, and the hero tries to piece it together and solve the problem.

I guess that the typical tutorial has an overall "rockstar" structure -- the reader is trying to achieve a final goal, and faces challenges and obstacles along the way. Each individual chapter might present a more intellectual problem that the reader has to solve, in the Sherlock style.

Anyway, it's worth clicking through the slide show and seeing what you think of it.

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You're an article writer, working on a way to explain Twitter to beginners. It doesn't seem to matter how clearly you explain what Twitter does or how it works, most people just don't get it. They stare blankly... why should anybody care what I'm doing? they ask, one after the other. You tell them that's not what it's about, that it can be used to share all kinds of things from special offers to links. Still they stay glazed over.

Then it occurs to you: tell Twitter success stories. So you talk about the time that your brother took a trip around Italy, and sent little bulletins about his experiences to his friends and family. The middle aged mums in the audience are listening now. You talk about the coffee shop that doubled its sales by taking Twitter orders. Now the entrepreneurs start seeing the point. Before long, your audience are heading over to Twitter, signing up, looking for people to follow, and posting.

You just used the power of stories.

If you're a writer, you really should.

The parts of a story
We're not talking Tolstoy here. The stories you'll tell follow a basic recurring structure: situation, incident, predicament, action, result.

Situation
"Let's imagine that you..." -- get the reader to put themselves in another person's shoes.

"Let's imagine that you are an estate agent..."
"Let's imagine that you are on organic farmer..."

Then describe what that person does (the part that is relevant to the rest of the story, at least).

Incident
Something comes up that puts the protagonist in a difficult position, and they're not sure how to handle it. Describe a particular incident. Remember, the reader is imagining this happening to them.

The incident can be implicit in the situation: a cafe always wants more customers, and needs ways to get them. You can make the need stronger with an incident that makes it an urgent need: the landlord visits and says if he doesn't get his rent by the end of the week, they'll have to close down. Screenwriters would call this raising the stakes.

Predicament
The protagonist considers the options they have for solving the problem -- but every familiar solution has a flaw and is unworkable. It looks like they're doomed.

And then, just before all hope is lost, they have an idea. And that idea involves using the new tool that your story is trying to evangelize or explain. (For a story to "work" the protagonist needs to consider and reject at least one other solution, before choosing the new one.)

Action
Explain how the protagonist uses the tool to solve the problem. Describe what actions they take and how it works.

Result
And finally, explain how the action they took solves the problem -- and leaves them better off than they were where they started.

Or, if you want to return to this situation later -- indicate that there's another problem on the horizon...

Rules for sticky stories
Take a lesson from Made to Stick. Write Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional Stories and they'll stick in the reader's mind like flies to paper: S.U.C.C.E.S.

Simple
The 5 basic parts of the story should be simple and easy to remember. You might embellish the story with details, but the basic plot could be summarized in a few words.

This is why "real life case studies" often disappoint. They promise a lot, but real life case studies are usually too complicated (and pedestrian) to make sticky stories.

Unexpected
The story shouldn't be about stuff you hear about every day. Give it an unusual twist. Instead of talking about an estate agent, talk about somebody selling canal boats. Or an Ancient Egyptian undertaker selling pyramids. Instead of a used car dealership, have a second hand horse dealership.

Concrete
Put in specific, visual details (it's not anywhere, it's Italy. It's not any shop, it's a coffee shop). Make sure that the story is something that the reader can SEE -- not just words on a page. Engage the senses: see, sound, touch, taste, smell.

Credible
Given the starting premise, each subsequent event should be believable. The result should be reasonable given the action, the action should be reasonable given the predicament, the predicament reasonable given the incident, and so on.

Emotional
Emphasize how characters in the story feel. Contented, anxious, hopeless, determined, relieved, overjoyed.

Stories

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