Ode: How to Tell a Great Story

For a story to qualify as a story, it requires elements like suspense, stakes, surprise, and humor. Stories are supposed to captivate an audience. Demand their attention. Produce feelings like hope, fear, anticipation, relief, worry, exaltation, and more. Stories should express a certain degree of vulnerability, authenticity, and pathos. At their b

People clump together into common worldviews, and your job is to find a previously undiscovered clump and frame a story for those people.

I’m asking you to invent an entirely new story that is framed around the worldview of an underserved community.

Bernadette shares ten things that good stories do; if the story you’re telling yourself (and others) doesn’t do these things for you, you might need to dig deeper and find a better story, one that’s more true and more effective. Good stories:

Here’s the truth: everyone has stories to tell. The key is framing them in a way that captivates your audience. Whether you’re writing about selling doughnuts on a nudist beach or an everyday moment, your content can resonate if it’s authentic and purposeful.