When should you add or remove details from your story?

There’s no one way to tell a story. The essence of good storytelling is how you pull your core audience into the narrative and influence them to empathise with the protagonist or the storyline. The one way to start is storyboarding and painting a picture in your head. What elements will that story have - will it be emotional? Will it be curious? Will it be rational? Will it full of suspense? How will my audience relate to the story? Will they share? Will they find relatability? Will they feel inspired? Once you get a sense of how you want your audience to interact and feel - you can start fleshing your storyline by painting a picture. And then adding or deleting details to the various scenes.

In my experience, I’ve found audience analysis to be the single most crucial factor. Once I know the listeners, I can connect with them better. I evaluate criteria such as age, culture, education, profession, and the size of the audience. As we know, high school students, cancer survivors, people living with long-term health conditions, and senior citizens have different levels of life experience; they also have other interests reflecting the challenges they face daily and, to some extent, use different vocabulary. I connect from the greetings. I compliment the audience. I call people by name. I share a personal experience. And I keep a natural, local tone.

There is a small fun method that I often use in my sharing articles called K.I.S.S - Keep It Short and Simple. Because sometimes our stories cannot inspire 100% of the audience. Even if it's your own story, write it down, boldly cutting out unnecessary details so the audience can quickly understand the main ideas.

A one- to three-minute speaking slot requires tact. I’ve found storytelling helpful in such an instance. Telling a story in line with the topic is one of the most exciting and attention-grabbing techniques to deliver a message in a short speech. I pack the information within characters, situations, and behaviors and position them to fit the audience. The added value of a human story in a short speech is that it shows the tragedies, hopes, and heroic courage of a person in a community. It is trickier to achieve this quickly with statistics and rhetorical techniques. No one wants to be “thanked” before they finish speaking. Although a short speaking slot can be challenging, we can use it for change.

Which of the storytelling steps do you enjoy most? Mine is testing and revision. I read a quote about revision by Louis D. Brandeis when I was starting as a storyteller, and I still remember it: “There is no great writing, only great rewriting.” I start with major structural revisions. I reconcept, recast, reorganize, and undertake radical or significant alterations. An outstanding example was when I used the entire conclusion as the introduction, which worked perfectly! I revise the story’s flow, style, perspective, and voice; above all, I edit my work for grammatical correctness. For the spoken word, I reinforce the rhythm, pace, and clarity. I read it aloud, listen, and judge if it’s ready to be shared with the world.

Keep the backstory skinny and the conflict fat. Only include background details for a story that are absolutely essential. Many inexperienced or unsuccessful storytellers kill their stories by getting bogged down in the backstory. The conflict is what makes the story a story -- one or more agents in the story are being denied what they need, and as they try to reach what they need, obstacles arise. Talk about that. Hold back details to foster curiosity. Give the mild, workplace-appropriate cues that convey the emotional tone of the story -- sad, or infuriating, or exciting, or terrifying, or something else. Lean backstory, vivid conflict, and emotional notes that are enough but not too much.