Presented By: Gauri Bhargava

HOW TO TELL A STORY

-Robert McKee

“Our appetite for stories is a reflection of the basic human need to understand patterns of life-not

merely as an intellectual exercise but as a personal, emotional experience.”

Many people don’t put much thought about how the stories are made.

CHARACTERS PLOT POINT OF VIEW

SHOW, DON’T TELL

SETTING THEME

ELEMENTS OF STORYTELLING

CHARACTERS

The job of the storyteller is to bring characters to life and make people care

about them.

“Choose characters that are under pressure to help your audience to feel deeper.”

Ask: what’s that one thing the protagonist wants to achieve.

PLOT

It is the sequence of events that ultimately resolves the major dramatic question of the story.

3 elements to create a successful plot:

PROTAGONISTHe is the main character to which the major dramatic question applies.

HIS GOAL What the protagonist wants is the goal. In this case batman wants to fight corruption and protect Gotham City.

CONFLICTConflict is the obstacle blocking protagonist from his goal.

STORYTELLING ARCS

Should flow relatively quickly; provide the necessary background; establish major dramatic question.

Develop the characters; core action of the movie; protagonists path to achieve the goal is blocked.

Follows the 3Cs pattern- crisis- the point where tension is the maximum; climax-where the tension breaks; consequence-answer to the dramatic question.

POINT OF VIEW

1ST PERSON

2ND PERSON

3RD PERSON

It gives the advantage of no barrier between the audience and the speaker. It can be limited and requires a narrator to make more sense.

Uses the pronoun “you” that addresses the audience. It is challenging and can come off as being gimmicky.

Gives the advantage to enter the mind of any character, describe incidents, provide

historic and future details.

SHOW, DON’T TELL

Storytellers communicate visually. Master storytellers never explain- they do the hard painfully creative thing:

DRAMATIZEDo

Use memory, imagination or

secondary research

Don’t

Avoid clichés.Don’t overload with adjectives

and adverbs

SETTING

Create a small knowable world

The larger the world, the more diluted the knowledge of the writer.

The smaller the world, the more complete knowledge of the writer.

THEME

Theme answers the deep rooted question: “What is your story about?”

It is often referred to as controlling idea which describes how and why life undergoes change from one condition of existence at the beginning to another at the end.

For example theme of batman begins was the rising corruption and no importance to the law of the city

FINDING STORIESOne of the challenges of storytelling is to first find a story.

The easiest way to find a story is to begin by interviewing peopleand creating a story bank.Storytelling is about understanding your own humanity, the moremore you understand your own humanity the more you can appreciate the humanity of others.

STORYTELLING TEMPLATE

STORY TELLING= SITUATION/DESIRE-COMPLICATION/OBSTACLE- SOLUTION/OUTCOME

SEVEN QUESTIONS TO SHARPEN YOUR STORIES

Who’s the protagonist?

What’s the hook?

What keeps it interesting?

Where’s the conflict?

Have you included telling details?

What’s the emotional hook?

Is the meaning clear?

STORYTELLING IN BUSINESSIn her book Corporate Legends and Lore: Storytelling as a Management Tool, Peg Neuhauser says that stories within an organization vary from group to group but usually include:

How the organization was founded? Victories that demonstrate organization’s

effectiveness. What-we-learnt-in-defeat story. An employee performance story.

THE 10 IMMUTABLE LAWS OF STORYTELLING

4. Let your characters speak for themselves

5. Audiences bore easily

3. Stories need to be fixed in time and space

2. The people in your story have to want something

1. Stories are about people

6.Stories speak the audience’s language

10. Stories have a clear meaning

8. Stories don’t tell; they show

9. Stories have at least one moment of truth

7. Stories stir up emotions