The Storytelling Workbook: A nine-week programme to tell your story: 2 (Concise Advice Workbooks)

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I felt like stories were too hard to pull off, they didn’t resonate with non-fiction readers, and I didn’t have the writing chops to tell a story that mattered. Instead, I leaned heavily on research and interviews. He is very observant, deconstructing not just stories and scenes, but sentences and words. He gets the reader to understand the completely different impact of a simple declaration like: Jane gave her dad a kitten vs Jane gave a kitten to her dad. There’s not just a world of difference, but a world of different potential between the two sentences. Throughout the book, there are exercises presented to you so that you can work on becoming a better storyteller. These exercises will help you no matter if you are telling bedtime stories, reading a book, or trying to make a presentation. If you are serious about becoming a better storyteller, it is a good idea that you do not move on through the book without walking through the exercises. It will help you become better. Tell your children to eat broccoli, and they run to the freezer for the ice cream. Tell a story about how their favorite characters became powerful by eating broccoli, and you’ll not have enough money to by as much as they want.

Understanding the role storytelling has played throughout history is vital; it will challenge you to tell stories that matter. In my case, I explained how Stephen King gave me a plan: I must write 1,000 words a day every day by eliminating other distractions. He chooses the latter and as a consequence, he sacrifices himself by jumping to his death (only be rescued last minute by his friends).The whole crux is what Storr calls a sacred flaw (He devotes the Appendix to it). The character controls his own little world, as we all must or go crazy. In that world the character is safe, secure, and most of all, right. It is the theory of control. Something happens to shake that control and that theory, and so begins a fight, an adventure, a chase, an investigation, a crusade, a campaign…. This is of course just life. The world and the universe are constantly changing. Anyone who holds to an unshakeable position will prove to be sadly mistaken. No matter who you are or what you perceive, it works until it doesn’t, and you have to adjust the theory to fit the new reality. We know how this ends. You’re going to die and so will everyone you love... Human life, in all its noise and hubris, will be rendered meaningless for eternity... The cure for the horror is story... It gives our existence the illusion of meaning and turns our gaze from the dread. There’s simply no way to understand the human world without stories' I can't be too negative. His links ( www.bibletelling.org, www.btstories.com) do help give a summary idea of narratives and letters in OT and NT. While, as a pastor, you may not have much help from this if you preach through the Bible a chapter a week (a la Calvary Chapel), but if you need a story-form summary of the epistles and topics, these links are good to go. If you’re writing a blog post, you could insert a personal story to balance research, recommendations and information.

You can learn how to get people inspired, pushing them to take action. This is an important part of storytelling.

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This is a book that would make a great read for just about everyone; however, many of the lessons can be directly applied to storytelling. Throughout the book, Ryan Holiday will clearly explain the concepts he is using. That way, you can get an inside look at how he structured his own book, figuring out if these lessons can be applied to the stories you want to write. Walsh tells how he became a preacher and a story teller in spite of being a stutterer. He admits still struggling with stuttering in normal conversation but not while preaching or story telling. Walsh takes the reader through the entire process of a story from finding or writing the story, to developing the story, even down to the details of what the story teller should do with his (or her) hands. There’s an old hymn written by Fanny Crosby that says, “Tell me the story of Jesus; write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, Sweetest that ever was heard.” The story is ageless, yet sometimes one that seems difficult to tell. Character growth shouldn't be limited to the main character. The writer should explore how the interactions between all the main characters cause them to grow (this is a contrast with other books that suggest that the rest of the cast should remain steadfast to avoid stepping on the main character's journey of growth). In Star Wars, Luke struggles to escape his home planet after Darth Vadar’s troopers kill his aunt and uncle.

If you’re a podcaster, you could use stories in each podcast episode (oral storytelling has a long tradition and lends itself well to digital media) For centuries, humans have enjoyed making up stories, reading novels, watching plays, and living in the land of make-believe. The book itself is divided into three sections. Part one, the longest section, teaches the aspiring storyteller fourteen steps in preparing to tell a story. John further subdivides these steps into ten essential steps toward telling a good story, and four optional steps that may be taken to raise a good story to a great one. Change is also something that people try to control (they can't but they try). This universal pattern is called, 'the theory of control'. When readers see traits they share with characters in stories, they become invested in the outcome which keeps them reading. Or when readers see traits they don't believe they have, but do, they're hooked.Because he tells such a beautiful story, you get an inside look at how to tell one of your own. How does he captivate the reader the entire way? How does he frame his life so that people are interested in what he has to say? Learn more about what makes his story so interesting, and see if you can apply some of these lessons to your own stories. Even if you aren’t telling your own life story, you can still apply the principles to other stories you want to share. Lisa Cron, in Wired for Story, speaks to additional benefits of sharing stories in business settings, “Stories allow us to simulate intense experience without having to actually live through them. Stories allow us to experience the world before we actually have to experience it.” Leo Widrich, citing Princeton neuroscientist Uri Hasson, writes that “a story is the only way to activate parts in the brain so that a listener turns the story into their own idea and experience.” The potential value here for managers to use story to mentor and coach is clear. Through stories, we can utilize vicarious experience, mentally rehearsing how we might handle a situation before we have to face it. Internal data banks, so full of what if’s and how to’s, are refreshed with new options, without our having to live through an experience and all the risk that might entail. I used Star Warsand The Godfatheras examples because they’re fantastic stories that anyone can relate to.