Storytellingdelight your readers with heroes, action, and emotion

by Penny McKinlay

Penny McKinlayCommunication, Research, Analysis

Saskatoon, SK, Canadapenny@axonsoft.com

http://www.pennymckinlay.axonsoft.comwww.wanderlustandwords.blogspot.com

Fantasy, adventure, romance, pain

People love stories – from a James Bond movie

full of action and adventure

to the latestneighbourhood gossip.

You have a story to tell

Every organization has a story to tell.

And yet, far too often, we bury it

in technical language and jargon.

“What we yearn for is to listen to

an intelligent and evocative – perhaps at times even provocative –

human being

“who teaches us, or inspires us, or who stimulates us

with knowledge plus meaning, context, and emotion

in a way that is memorable.

“Information plus emotion and visualization

wrapped in unforgettable anecdotes are the stuff that stories are made of.”1

Bring your story to life

Storytelling techniques transform

boring documents by:

Focusing on the peopleBuilding in action and

suspensePainting vivid descriptions

People: your main ingredient

Characters are at the heart of every good story.

“A kindly older neighbor, Fats Johnson was known

for loading donuts onto a long pole,

and giving them away to kids as they rode by

on their bicycles. His dog Tupper was a constant companion,

and always by his side.”

Fats Johnson Pinot NoirGanton and Larsen Prospect Winery2

Let the customer speak

Axon Development Corporation3 sells trucking

software.

Rather than describing the software,

they publish interviews where the customers talk

about their Axon experience.

Action and adventure

“The structure and significance

of stories transforms information

from static and flat to dynamic and alive.”4

Good guys and bad guys

In 2008, the Victoria Police Department

created an online, interactive annual

report.5

Real people tell real stories, and we watch

the action unfold as the police uncover clues or

make an arrest.

“The case began in December 2007, when local police arrested a Nanaimo

man for drug trafficking and seized his 2002 Hummer in the process.

While searching the vehicle, Constables Brent Keleher and Andre Almeida located a man’s shoulder

bag.

Inside was picture ID that featured the same man in both photos, but

two different names….”

Choose your destination

Stories need a purpose or a destination.

The good guys triumph over the bad guys; star-crossed lovers

live happily ever after.

Champagne moment

Choose a simple, concrete goal

so that it will be clear to everyone

when you are successful.6

“I believe that this nation

should commit itself to achieving the goal,

before this decade is out, of landing a man

on the moon and returning him safely

to the earth.”7

Paint a vivid picture

Lively Verbs

Descriptive Phrases

Humour

Surprise

Emotion

“Why do people approach business with such grim seriousness?

Perhaps people take themselves a little too seriously because they are afraid

that others won’t.

“Or perhaps some companies think they need to speak in a certain stiff way to

appear credible….

‘I’d worry less about shocking customers than I would about boring them,’….”8

The colloquial language on this wine label

captures the Prohibition era, and the adjectives bring the

women’s personalities to life.

Colourful language

“The Misfits represent the adventures of three ritzy bearcat dolls

dancing their way to Tin Pan Alley. Not knowing nothin’ from nothin’ but having fun in every juice joint

and speakeasy along the way, they always make sure

they aren’t left holding the bag.

“All dressed up in their glad rags, each doll has her own high hat personality: Semillon, a blonde,

is fresh, sassy and slender; Chenin Blanc, a redhead,

is juicy, fun and voluptuous; and Chardonnay, a brunette,

is luscious, complex and elegant.”9

A dash of humour

Phillips Brewing Company10

Unexpected

Is there really a piece of duct tape

on the cover?

Numbers tell a story

“The right numbers have an important story

to tell. They have to rely on you

to give them a clear and convincing

voice.”11

“Today we’re announcing the first 12GB memory card for cell phones.

It has fifty billion transistors.

Think of each transistor as an ant:

if you were to put fifty billion end to end, they would circle the globe twice.

SanDisk ‘s flash memory card with 12GB of storage

“What does this mean to you?

Enough memory to store six hours of movies.

Enough memory to listen to music while traveling to the moon . . . and back!”12

Emotion

“We are wired to feel things for people,

not for abstractions.”13

Tyler Stableford, Wide Horizons for Children, Ethiopia

“It turns out that donors are moved not by staggering statistics

or photos of mass suffering, but by an image of a single human being.

People feel helpless when confronted with the enormity of Africa’s need

(and for good reason) — yet when presented with the story

and portrait of one individual whose life can be directly improved,

checks are signed….”14

Writing Checklist

Delight your reader by keeping the following

storytelling techniquesin mind when you are writing:

Place people at the centre of your story.

Give customers

a voice.

Add action

andadventure.

Choose your

destination.

Employ colourful language.

Add a dash of humour

or the unexpected.

Bring numbers

to life.

Show you care.

References1. Chip Heath, author of Made to Stick, as quoted in Presentation

Zen by Garr Reynolds2. http://www.axonsoftware.com3. http://www.prospectwinery.com/ 4. Nancy Duarte,

resonate: Present visual stories that transform audiences5. http://www.vicpd.ca/annualreport2008/root.html 6. Chip Heath & Dan Heath,

Switch: How to change things when change is hard7. President John F. Kennedy, May 19618. Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman, Content Rules9. Misconduct Winery

References10. Phillips Brewing Company11. Stephen Few,

Show Me the Numbers: Designing tables and graphs to enlighten12. Carmine Gallo, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs13. Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Made to Stick14. Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider

Images on slides 2, 9, 11, 17 are from iStockphotoImages on slides 1, 3 are by Penny McKinlay