Stories are powerful tools to connect with your audience, convey your message, and inspire action. But how do you craft stories that resonate with your listeners or readers? What's the secret to making them care, feel, and remember? In this article, we'll share some tips and techniques to help you master the art of storytelling.
The first step to crafting a resonant story is to know who you're telling it to. What are their needs, interests, values, and emotions? How can you relate to them and address their pain points or aspirations? How can you tailor your language, tone, and style to suit their preferences and expectations? Knowing your audience will help you choose the right story, the right angle, and the right delivery.
One more thing, when delivering the story - especially in person, remember to read the room. If you already rehearsed a lengthy presentation and your audience looks tired/exhausted, make it shorter. Pick up cues from their body language and engagement levels and adjust your presentation accordingly.
You also have to go beyond the superficial data and try to find that one nugget that will let the reader/listener/viewer know that you're someone that cares about them. This also requires a certain finesse. You can't just insert your findings inside a text/speech. You have to do it in a way that flows with your story. Doing so will help you avoid being disingenuous.
It's important to remember that telling a story is really a conversation where the the listeners are replying silently. Use pauses to give them time to absorb and reflect.
Why not ask them directly? Send out a survey. Host a round table. Go to community forums and lurk & listen. Attend conferences and have conversations over coffee. Ask them specifics: what is it about their job that keeps them up at night? If a genie granted them one wish that could make their job better/easier, what would that be? What are they reading when they're on the can at work? Get personal too. Ask them what their dream job is. What made them get into the work that they're currently in? If there was a movie about their job, what would the story be and who would direct/act? Why do they care about succeeding in this area of work? It's definitely not just about getting a paycheck.
The same message delivered to different audiences can be perceived in completely different ways. Understanding the audience is one of the fundamental steps to building a story that resonates. First, you must understand the audience - How aware are they of the subject matter? What is their existing knowledge level? Next, anticipate the audience's resistance - What reasons might they have to not take the desired action? What objections or concerns might they raise? These should be priority points to address upfront in the narrative building strategy. Taking the time to analyze the audience, set clear objectives, and preemptively overcome resistances can help ensure your message lands as intended. A thoughtful approach drives resonance.
The second step to crafting a resonant story is to have a clear purpose for telling it. What do you want your audience to think, feel, or do after hearing or reading your story? How does your story support your main message or goal? How does your story fit into the larger context of your communication? Having a clear purpose will help you structure your story, focus your content, and measure your impact.
One way to find the goal of telling the story is to reflect on what you learned from that experience. Often that insight you gained is the reason why you're sharing the story. Whether it is to inspire people to take chances or have them realise that there's life after a corporate career. That's normally the purpose of why you're telling the story. Understanding the main point of your story.
A key that I use frequently is to narrow down the purpose. A campaign should aim for one thing. And be obvious about it. Clever copy follows a clear direction. We can give winks and nods to many fun things in our campaign, but the goal must be clear.
The third step to crafting a resonant story is to use the classic story arc to shape your narrative. The story arc consists of four elements: exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution. The exposition introduces the characters, setting, and situation. The conflict creates tension and challenges for the protagonist. The climax is the turning point or the peak of the action. The resolution is the outcome or the lesson learned. Using the story arc will help you create a compelling plot, build suspense, and deliver a satisfying conclusion.
The narrative arc is one of the easiest structures you can use to start telling the story, but there's also so many other ways to do it. You can start closer to the end and use flashbacks to tell the story.
While there are multiple story arc elements, it's easier to think in three - Beginning, middle, and end. Another example would be - What, So what, Now what? The most crucial piece is to begin "in medias res" or "in the midst of things." Don't bore your audience!
This is one of my favourite things about content marketing. It's about crafting a compelling story that really hooks your audience. When following that story arc, make sure you're specific. You're not just telling a story about the challenges of recruitment for restaurants in the time of the Great Resignation. That's boring. Tell the story of Farah, a restaurant manager at an upscale joint in uptown Manhattan. She just learned that her #1 chef is leaving two days before the biggest night of the year, and that chef is taking their team with them. Her boss is yelling at her to get a new team together –?and fast. She's freaking out. Now you have a story! Your target audience of restauranteurs will be hooked because they can relate.
In his 2004 book The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker proposes that most stories can be classified into one of seven archetypes: 1. Overcoming Monster - hero defeats threat 2. Rags to Riches - hero rises from obscurity 3. The Quest - hero searches for treasure 4. Voyage & Return - hero journeys to strange world 5. Comedy - mistakes resolved happily 6. Tragedy - hero falls due to flaw 7. Rebirth - hero renewed after struggle With the help of AI Tools (GPT, Claude2, Bard) it is easy to turn a business series of facts into engaging stories by applying one of the archetypes. We will then choose the story that we believe will resonate the best. Resource: the Storytelling Archetypes Canvas
The fourth step to crafting a resonant story is to engage the senses of your audience. Use vivid descriptions, sensory details, metaphors, and analogies to bring your story to life. Make your audience see, hear, smell, taste, and touch what you're describing. Make them feel what you're feeling. Engaging the senses will help you create an immersive experience, evoke emotions, and trigger memories.
One way to engage the senses is to explain what it looks like or feels like to you. For example, when you say, I feel tired, what does that mean? For some it could feel I could feel my eyelids start to droop. For others it could mean, my knees buckled and my legs feel like jelly. To be able to explain things vividly using metaphors and examples and reflecting back on what does it feel like, taste like FOR YOU adds colour to your story.
This is where "show, don't tell" comes in. If your protagonist is nervous, that's boring. If your protagonist is breathing quick, shallow breaths and their heart is thudding, and their hands are shaking –?now that's more interesting. We are animals after all. Our senses are what make us feel alive. That's no different in storytelling.
The fifth step to crafting a resonant story is to be authentic. Don't try to copy someone else's style, voice, or perspective. Don't exaggerate, embellish, or fabricate your story. Don't hide your flaws, mistakes, or vulnerabilities. Be yourself, be honest, and be sincere. Share your personal experiences, insights, and opinions. Be authentic will help you establish credibility, rapport, and trust with your audience.
Especially when it comes to personal narratives, authenticity is key. You tell stories from you own point of view. Your listener sees your story through your filtered lens (when done well). One way of showing authenticity is by sharing your inner voice, that's an insight to the inner workings of your mind.
Authenticity invites others to share more of their authentic selves. By sharing your story vulnerably, it gives permission for others to do the same. Your story will not resonate with everyone, but it might be more meaningful than you realize to a person who needs to hear it. It will find the people who might have felt alone on an issue and realize that they are not alone. Write your story for yourself and have faith that whoever needs to come across it or gain wisdom from it, will do so.
Authenticity is also about not having all the answers and being honest about that reality. No one knows everything and that's OK.
This is especially true for documentaries. If your subject is hesitant to show their vulnerable side, remind them that no-one will find them truthful if they portray perfection. Everyone has hurdles to overcome, and relatability is the very quality that makes a documentary truly authentic.
The sixth and final step to crafting a resonant story is to invite feedback from your audience. Ask them what they liked, disliked, learned, or questioned about your story. Listen to their comments, suggestions, and criticisms. Thank them for their attention, appreciation, and participation. Inviting feedback will help you improve your storytelling skills, understand your audience better, and foster a dialogue.
One structure I find useful when getting feedback on the story is by asking the following questions: What did you like? What was not clear? What would you like to hear more of ? (humour, vivid descriptions, characters, etc)
The best storytelling is relatable. Reading it feels like someone putting words to feelings you've struggled to articulate. You find yourself nodding along, laughing at clever prose or catching your breath at an emotional beat. The only way to achieve these moments of involuntary appreciation is by being genuine and vulnerable with your content. Write from the heart sounds cliche (because it is) but there's a certain merit to it. Write with your voice, so that others can hear their voice in your words. Ask yourself, if you're trying to build an audience with your storytelling: - What value am I sharing with my ideal followers? - Why would someone want to save or share this? - Am I being authentic and truthful with this content?
Use language that your audience understands. From my experience, conversational storytelling keeps the narrative relatable and easy to understand. People want to be part of the conversation, so invite them in.
Elmore Leonard says it best, "I try to leave out the parts that people skip." Gather several stakeholders from the audience you're trying to reach to validate what you're doing. Make sure they shoot straight with you. The more blunt, the better. If you can win them over - welcome to the big time!