Once upon a time…and suddenly……… these words had a magical effect on me during my childhood. Those opening words, small pieces of events still impacts me both the personal and professional avatars of me.
Take a typical day in your life: you wake up with the memory of a dream—which, of course, is a story. Over breakfast, you check out Facebook—where people tell idealised stories about themselves. You make up an excuse about traffic to tell your boss – this too is a story. And then, if you work, like for me it’s UX, where you empathise, write user stories, define persona, build customer journeys, UX writing for a digital product—all day, for a living and all of that is some form of story.
Luckily, storytelling is something we all do naturally ‘esp mothers’, starting at a very young age.
It’s not a process, nor method, or technique or a course, it’s an art that requires creativity, vision, skill, and practice. Storytelling isn’t something that you can grasp in one sitting, or after one course. It’s a trial-and-error process of mastery.
Storytelling involves a deep understanding of human emotions, motivations, inspirations in order to truly move the audience. Its an art form as old as time and has a place in every culture and society, as stories are a universal language that everyone — regardless of dialect, hometown, or heritage — can understand. Stories stimulate imagination and passion and create a sense of community among listeners and tellers alike.
Each one of us can tell a story, let’s see why we tell a story as a society, culture and economy.
Few key reasons are mentioned below;
- Stories bring people Together
- Stories Inspire and Motivate
- Stories makes complex messages Simple for the user
- Stories help us Remember
- Stories generate Empathy
Lets move on to ‘how’ or formula to tell a great story…
- Great stories have a clear structure(The Story Spine)and (real) purpose
- Great stories have a character (unexpected hero) to root for – When your character is battling against all odds, facing adversity, or their back is against the wall, well then, you have yourself the makings of great story.
- Great stories appeal to our deepest emotions
- Great stories are surprising and unexpected
- Great stories are universal- Great storytelling is about taking a piece of the human condition (so things like birth, growth, emotionality, aspiration, conflict) and conveying it in a unique situation.
- Know your audience- Who wants to hear your story? Who will benefit and respond the strongest?
- Define your story medium – A written story (Blog, posts, books articles etc etc..), A spoken story(TED talk, Live, spoken stories etc etc…), An audio story (usually a Podcast) and A digital story (video, animation, interactive stories etc etc…)
- Build your call-to-action(CTA):What exactly do you want your readers to do after reading?
- Decide what kind of story you’re telling: To determine what kind of story you’re telling, figure out how you want your audience to feel or react as they read.
- Define your core message- What is the point of your story? To help define this, try to summarize your story in six to ten words.
‘There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you,’ said Maya Angelou.
We realise our potential by expressing our innermost stories. Tales take on many different shapes, and each one possesses the inherent capacity to affect human beings.
