All stories need an OUTLINE or a structure (eg. 3 Acts, Hero’s Journey, Sparkline, Pyramid, Kishotenketsu, Beats). At their core, all stories are about a journey where someone (or something) is transformed for better (or worse).
From powerful HEADLINES to captivating ‘cold opens’, Better Stories spike levels of dopamine and oxytocin, causing the audience to constantly wonder “and then what happened?”
Better Stories are relevant, important and true. They contain a FRONT LINE which aims to seek truth, build trust and establish empathy, helping the storyteller to "perform a service" for their audience.
Unless purely for entertainment value, every story should have an economic or social value. Better Stories have a BOTTOM LINE which can be measured by how well the audience responded (and what they did next).
Emotions have a role to play in even the most technical presentations or complex business stories. SIDELINES and personal experiences bring a story to life, because people make decisions with their hearts before they justify them with their heads.
06. Better Stories use strong verbs & short sentences.
Better Stories contain BREVITY. Big ideas, small words and short sentences. Big stories don’t need big (buzz)words. Better Stories create a higher impact when they have a low readability score.
Better Stories have LEVITY. They use the element of surprise to make them more memorable. (Especially if the goal of the story is to flip the response state of an audience from negative to positive).
Better Stories have CLARITY. They simplify complexity and communicate effectively. Audiences are not persuaded by what you say but by what they understand.
It’s not enough for a story to make an audience FEEL something. Better Stories contain CHARITY. A mission, a purpose or a call-to-action which creates so much urgency and optimism that the audience is inspired to DO something.
