How To Edit Your Stories (Part 3) — BWSS #4!
When putting together a story you want to tell, what stays and what goes??
This is often the thing we struggle with the most in storytelling! If you’ve listened to or read the transcripts of How To Edit Your Stories Part 1 and How To Edit Your Stories Part 2, then you’ll know that:
– You need to ask yourself, “Why do I want to tell this story? What will be different as a result?”
– Most of your story should be made up of ‘action scenes’ (granular, real-time descriptions of scenes)
– You need to pick 1 — 4 action scenes for each story
– How to create those scenes
In today’s episode, I show you how to pull those scenes together to make a coherent story! Listen to it or read the transcript here!
How to edit your stories (Part 2) – BWSS #3
This is a short episode, and honestly is the only thing you REALLY need to know about how to tell a compelling story.
Obviously, I think there are way more than just one lesson (I kind of make my living based off that belief). But if you can understand this thing? You do 90% of what’s needed.
So, today in the Baby Walk Story Sessions (the podcast + transcript, made while I walk around with the baby on my back, hence the name) I cover my most important (and pretty easy) lesson:
HOW TO WRITE AN ACTION SCENE.
If you can write an action scene, you can tell a story. And all you need is two simple questions. Want to know what they are?
How To Edit Your Stories (part 1) – BWSS #2!
You go to tell a story — or maybe, just THINK about telling a story — but… there’s so much there! How do you know what to leave out, and what to keep in?
In this week’s episode of the Baby Walk Story Sessions (less than 10 mins), ALL WILL BE REVEALED!!!!!
Well, technically some will be revealed, because this is the first of a three-parter on editing. But here, I tell you…
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TELLING CAPTIVATING AND COMPELLING STORIES.
Also, I tell you a story about my bummer life when I first moved to Toronto, and how it improved. Want to hear it?
People assume this is a mistake in storytelling. But it’s an asset.
LET’S DO A FUN MOVIE QUIZ!!!!!
I know you know this!
Guess the movie based on my short story version:
The pinnacle of my radio career
I stood, nervously playing with the corner of Jim’s desk. Below me, he was on the phone. He pointed at the receiver and mouthed, ‘One minute’. Lips pressed together, I smiled and gave a quick nod. Anxiety tugged at my stomach. What if he doesn’t say yes? Jim was the events organiser at Xfm, the…
However bad things get, you’ll ALWAYS have this
It’s a bit of a wonder I’ve survived.
Last Friday evening, I sat in the cavernous hallway of a room that had built in 1933, underneath a giant gold mosaic, and cried…
Teaching new ideas that people sometimes resist? Try this!
“So guys,” he said, from the front of the large room. “Try this, and you can get to the root of your issue.”
I was on a table right down at the back, so he couldn’t see me rolling my eyes. Jaw set in fury, I looked down at my paper.
It was the Sunday before last, I was at a business retreat, and I was very, very angry.
This year, I’m in a group program, run by Jonathan “Good Life Project” Fields. I’ve been following him for years, and he’s always steered me right. Under his guidance, my business went from doing okaaaaayyy to suddenly making a living doing the thing I’m best at and most enjoy. Working with him again seemed like a good idea.
On this afternoon, 70 other people and I were in a session led by productivity coach, Charlie Gilkey. I’ve hung out with Charlie before – just that morning, he’d been telling me about his recent trip to Hawaii. We get on well and I really like him. I know a lot of people who’ve been coached by him to wild success. He’s a charismatic, clear and powerful speaker.
But, right now, I was cross with him. Furious, actually. Seething.
Or – to be clearer, I wasn’t so much angry with him, as with what he was asking me to do…
Want to build trust, connection, influence and loyalty? Use THIS in stories. (Science!)
“My stomach was in a tight knot as I walked up to the front door.”
If you want people to really care about your stories, and be inspired to take action, there’s one element you MUST include… and yet, I see people leave it out all of the time.
What is this magic bullet?
EMOTION.
Consider the difference between these two stories:
‘I walked up to the front door.
For thirty seconds, nothing happened.
Then, the door opened, and Sally appeared. I took a deep breath, and said, “Hello.”’
Now, read this one:
‘My stomach was in a tight knot as I walked up to the front door.
For thirty seconds, nothing happened.
I started panicking. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, I thought. Maybe I should stay out of it.
Then, the door opened, and Sally appeared, smiling. Nervously, I took a deep breath, and said, “Hello.”’
Which story do you care more about? Which one makes you want to keep reading? Which has the strongest effect on you?
I’m guessing it’s the second one. The difference between the two?
In the second, I told you how I FEEL.
Emotions make your story more powerful for five reasons:
(1) We invest in your story
In the second version above, did you wonder WHY I was so nervous – and what might be about to happen?
Telling us how you feel builds tension in a story. Suddenly, there are high stakes, that might not otherwise exist. Researcher Paul Zak discovered that tension is an essential ingredient to keeping us interested in a story.
(2) We trust you more
Have you ever got nervous…
When your cab journey gets very serious, very quickly
“But that sounds nice! No?” I asked, holding onto the handrail as the cab turned a corner.
I couldn’t see much of the driver’s face. One of the small glass windows was slid open, and through it, I looked at his eyes in the rearview mirror.
He glanced at me and shook his head.
“Nah,” he said, in his South London accent. “It’s pathetic.”…
Telling a story in just one minute
We sat in the lobby of the conference hall. Janne had told me I could be brutal. “I’m Dutch”, she’d said, “I can take it!” But now, I wondered if I’d gone too far.
And then, she burst into tears.
“Oh my goodness!” I cried. “I’m so sorry!”
“It’s ok!” she said, smiling. “It’s a hard thing to do this, because it’s important to me that I get it right. But it’s ok.”
I’m the Storytelling Coach at the Portland conference World Domination Summit (think less Lex Luther, more do-gooders, trying to make the world a better place). Each year, Attendee Storytellers are invited to go onstage and share their stories.
This summer, hundreds of people applied on Saturday morning to tell a story. On Saturday afternoon, Jolie (the conference’s “Fixer and Voice of Reason”) and I combed through the entries, chose five.
Then, I had just half an hour with each, to pull the story out, and figure out they could tell it in one minute. A process I’d usually spend two or three hours with each person for.
Janne’s story was particularly tough, because she wanted to talk about…
