3 ways to find the details that make your story lively
There is nothing like flying into Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and looking down and seeing the particular Dutch landscape. As the plane descends over the North Sea, the coastline comes into view and as it flies ever lower, the shapes of fields and cities emerge. If we’re lucky, our flight path goes over Haarlem and I […]
When a Simple Question Makes You Freeze
You know that thing where you’re in a group and someone asks you something that seems innocent like “where are you from” or invites you to “tell me about yourself” and you just freeze? Yeah, me too. My mind races. I’m trying to analyze my audience, gauge the situation, and figure out how much energy […]
A Story Structure for Your Personal-Professional Story
Every workshop I give starts with a story. You’d expect as much. But every workshop I give starts with a personal story, one that often includes my family members and that tells people both who I am and what story can do. For me, there’s no other way to go. When I give a workshop […]
The Learner’s Journey
This spring at the SIETAR Europa Congress in Leuven, I met Bastian Küntzel. We got to chatting about “what do you do” and “what do I do” and when I told him about my cool new idea to develop a method for using story structure to teach, he said, “I just wrote a book about that.” […]
Your Story Climax
Let’s look at how to create a great climax for your story. You’ve been working on your story for a while now and have figured out who the hero is and what their goal is. Your hero’s been through the beginning, a turning point, and the middle of the story. Now that you’ve gotten this far, […]
Navigating the Middle of your Story
The middle of a story seems like it could be intuitive. It’s the “and then, and then, and then” part of the story where you tell your audience about the series of events that leads you hero from the beginning, through the turning point, and on to the climax of the story. Now, if you spend […]
The turning point: linking the beginning and middle of your story
Kick your story into gear In every story there comes a moment when the audience has gotten to know your hero and the world they live in. They understand the norms that hero lives with and have an idea of how the hero fits into that world. They know this because you crafted a strong […]
Start your Story Right
My friends, this post is part of a series about story structure. You can catch the overview of story structure and separate posts about the hero and goal in your story by clicking those links. They’ll help you out if you haven’t read them already. We’re going to talk about the beginning of your story. […]
Pick and describe your hero to kick-start your story
Last week, I introduced a story structure that you can use to tell all kinds of stories. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to take a closer look at the different parts of that diagram. Together, this series of articles will give you a strong foundation for any story, so I hope you’ll stick […]
The Story Diagram at the Core of the StoryCraft Method
Today, I want to give you a tool for improving your stories. It’s a diagram to show you what your story should look like. I draw it on chalkboards and flip charts and white boards and paper everywhere! This diagram is the core of my approach to storytelling. I use it to plan my stories […]