The Perfect Story: How to Tell Stories that Inform, Influence, and Inspire

Stories reinforce values. They demonstrate what is encouraged or discouraged.

He focused on creating an arc for the audience to connect with the characters’ emotional growth. Each musical number had to earn its way back into the movie by meeting specific criteria. Does this advance the story forward? If cut, would anything be lost?

Your characters need two things: to be relatable and to have conflict.

What do the characters feel, taste, smell, or hear? Show us, don’t tell us. Place us in the story by having us feel the gusting wind turn our lips chapped and raw. Describe your friend’s favorite cologne lingering on your clothes after hugging goodbye.

What would make someone your ideal customer?

great story is intentional about how it connects the audience to pleasure or discomfort.

Stories are memorable.

What comes easily to them?

The four-part structure incorporates the nuances of a great story: the context, conflict, outcome, and takeaway.