Master These Key Storytelling Techniques For Success (Part II - Narrative Structure)

There are endless things to tell about telling tales... so today we continue with part II of the 'quick' lowdown, focusing on narrative structure and content tips. The first article can be found here, and number three here. It's nowhere near as complete as the book The Whole Story is of course, but it'll move your story forward! Without further ado, lesson number two...

A little extra storytelling magic

8. Sell the hole, not the drill

In his seminal article called 'Marketing Myopia' (1960, Harvard Business Review), business guru Theodore Levitt famously describes to 'sell the hole, not the drill'...

Imagine you're a salesman going door to door trying to sell a drill. Yet at every house you stop, you get the door slammed in your face. Why is that? Especially if you are selling a perfectly fine drill? The answer is that people aren't interested in the drill itself, but only what it represents: the hole you can make with it and what you can do with it. So, now imagine that you go door to door and explain to people that with the right hole, they can hang pictures of their loved ones on the wall.

Levitt of course means to say that you should sell the answer to a customers' need, not the tool or product that gets them there. This also reflects our very first point in the first article, that you should identify the primary emotion your story wishes to convey first. That principle however, applies more to you as a sender of the message. When you look at it more from the receiver's side, there is a need that can be fulfilled, and your story can be adjusted to it, just like that salesman's tale.

9. Story content is always about change and transition

In our salesman's example, he strives for a behavioral change in the people he approaches, so he changes his own approach to them. And this idea of change drives all storytelling. Characters in fiction for instance, always go through some sort of change - even to the point of a full transition - before they story ends.

In Eat, Pray, Love we transition to first learn to love ourselves (just like in Siddharta). That's the journey, not all the traveling, but the inner change. In The Shawshank Redemption our main character Andy Dufresne transforms from hopeless to resilient and ultimately being redeemed. Frodo Baggins loses his naivety in Lord of the Rings, with Aragorn going from 'lost' ranger to full-on king and Gandalf even going through death to transform into a new magical being of sorts.

And it also applies to non-fiction. In A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, we follow his transition from bare-knuckle fighter to a fighter for - and through - peace. The examples are endless. Just think of Arminius, the boy-prince from Germanic 'barbarian' tribes in Roman-era history: he goes from hostage to successful roman leader, to switch back to his Germanic tribe members (a traitor or hero, depending on your view) and become the first to successfully deal the Roman empire a real blow, possibly setting up its fall centuries later.

This of course harks back to the principle that the journey is more important than the goal and adds a deeper layer to that journey: what is the change that my character(s) and/or persona(s) goes through?

10. Character development

If you find it hard to create the right change, transition and journey, what helps is to flesh out your 'persona' first. I deliberately use the word 'persona' because we can fill in every character (fiction or non-fiction) but also every entity (as in company or organizational form with brands, services and products) plus all other possible personifications (such as physical areas, cities and places, or objects and other).

All these types of personas can be viewed roughly the same way: what are their characteristics? Feelings? Visual cues? Traits? Behaviors? Their goals and their outlooks? And most importantly: their values?

Determining the values of a persona - the long term things that the persona strives for - will also give you inspiration on what values will need to change. The more values you attribute to a person, the more complex and less cliché or one-dimensional it becomes. We've found that for entities, organizations and companies (more on their storytelling here), a good number is four values, as to not make it too complex but also not too one-sided. But for main characters in fiction and non-fiction, more is usually better.

A simple business example would be the transition into green and sustainable storytelling from a 'non-green' place. That's a clear value change, often also describes as purpose or purpose change. The deeper the change, the easier the storytelling, the better the audience connection and subsequently; the lower the marketing costs.

For fine art forms, the change in values is often referred to as 'the change in perspective'. Art is meant to give people a different perspective on things, so it 'changes minds'. Traditional storytelling such as in books, films and series, is often about the lessons we can learn from the changes that main characters go through - good and bad - and what the key moments and contexts are, that force the change.

So, within your story, what are the changes you see need to happen?

11. Stereotypes, archetypes and fleshing out characters

Unlike what is often thought, it is actually quite okay to use stereotypes in storytelling, as long as they serve a simple purpose. If you want people to feel the brunt of NY traffic in rush hour, you can show the clichéd stereotype of a yellow-cab taxi driver yelling out of their window in a Brooklyn accent. These personas usually don't need much, or indeed any, change and just serve as mood setters.

One level higher in persona creation is the archetype, something that is often used in business positioning as well as well as fiction: a more complex persona that has certain - very recognizable - characteristics. For instance, we can create a very feminine woman, almost like the goddess of Hera, that borders on a cliché or stereotype, yet with a few values added that make her unique. She serves as the archetype of women - the positive clichés of mother care but also the negative ones such as 'scheming' against her (also archetype) husband Zeus. Yet by giving her a few discerning extra traits, she can become more engaging.

To give you an example, in murder mysteries, archetypes are often used. Most episodes in televised murder mysteries don't have time to completely deepen all the suspects, so they use archetypes to set the mood, and to through you off track. For instance, the archetype of the 'sensitive and slightly cocky artist' is often used. Or the 'handyman' is also almost always kind of the same, just like the 'grieving at first, but later scorned woman'. All you have to is add a couple of extra values or traits (you give one a limp, another a love for tennis, a third a motorcycle with a dark helmet...) and you have enough interesting characters to fill the mysteries.

The level above the archetype is to have a real, complex character. Usually this is reserved for the main persona(s). Obviously in novels, films and series this is always present, but my experience is that it can also be used in the real world, with organizations and other entities. It's okay if they are more complex as well because it gives brands character and depth, which in turn saves you energy and money when they need to be promoted in some fashion.

12. Placing personas in context, with action and reaction

The step after this can be to place these personas in a context. Think the boardgame Clue: 'The Professor (archetype) with the candlestick in the kitchen'. Adding this context forces actions and reactions in personas, both in fiction and in the real world. The classic example I often use is that of the rollercoaster.

John Doe and Jane Doe step into a rollercoaster together. John Doe has been brought up very conservatively and was never allowed to climb trees. Jane Doe has been brought up very freely, and climbed all the trees she wanted. When you put these two differing characters in the rollercoaster, John gets uncomfortable and scared, while Jane gets excited and thrilled. So, when the rollercoaster starts, you can immediately see actions and reactions start: Jane nudges John in excitement. John puts his hands in front of his eyes. Or they both start to scream, yet John's scream sounds like terror and Jane's like fun.

Here we can demonstrate adding values and traits, and thus complexity, and how this plays out. If for instance we gave Jane the extra trait of being a little mean and overconfident, the action shifts to her making fun of John. If however, we gave Jane another trait called kindness, we see the action shift into comforting John. And if it becomes even more complex, we can get Jane to first be mean... but then go through a swift transition where she ends up being comforting (action). And maybe because of that, John relaxes and enjoys the ride more (reaction to Jane).

These are the changes and transitions that occur when you add values and traits (complexity) and also add a context, such as a place or a moment. This goes for real life storytelling too... if you have a green company speaking at a conference of the oil industry you'll have interesting friction for sure. Yet out of that conflict, valuable lessons can be learned. Add one or two more values and traits, and your conference is going to be rocking. Emotion works in those fields just the same.

What you are then building is the famous story arc.

13. The Arc and rising tension

A great way to pinpoint those changes into a storytelling whole, is to connect them to moments within your story and map them out beforehand (if that's your style...). We usually refer to that as the creation of a story arc, where on different points in the beginning, middle and end of the arc, key moments are defined, with key actions and reactions by our key personas.

The basic structure is this: The first moment is usually the status quo, where no value changes have occurred yet. Then comes an inciting incident, which forces the status quo to chance. In the middle of the arc all kinds of other moments follow from this incident, all types of situations with conflict, resulting in ever rising tension. Then in the climax or the finale, the tension gets to its highest 'boiling' point before the value changes and transitions occur that need to occur for the meaning of the story to be shown. A new status quo is then reached.

Again, this goes for all kinds of storytelling forms. It applies to a scientific paper as well, with a status quo in the field, a research question as the incident challenging this status quo, the research points leading up to the finale of the conclusion, with a new status quo in the respective field reached at that point.

And your average washing detergent commercial has the same arc: first everybody's together and all is okay (status quo). Then the tomato sauce hits the white shirt (inciting incident). Some washing attempts and shocked-looks later (rising tension) the finale is reached when the value changes with your 'magical detergent' brand, washing away the stain (finale and new status quo). You could even apply the principle on an average business meeting... but I think you're catching my drift.

14. Logical resolution

An important thing to remember in the resolution part of your story - the climax and the new status quo together - is that the outcome needs to always, without fail, be logical. It needs to have come from all the information you have given before the resolution, or else it doesn't make sense.

If in that washing detergent commercial all of a sudden a new car is promoted, it is not the logical outcome of what has been shown to the receiver before. Just as Frodo didn't climb in an F16 to bomb the crap out of Sauron... that information isn't given and wouldn't be logical in the setting. I'm exaggerating a bit here, but that's to make my point very clear. Everything about your resolution has to make sense in the world you have created - however big or small or for whatever category of fiction or business or otherwise. It needs to also fit the characters and their transition.

This sounds hard but it usually already occurs automatically when you've followed the steps of change, values, character building, contexts and situations. It tends to just follow from that, so don't worry too much about it. Just make sure you do the final check on logic when you're done!

Also, there are many different resolutions possible, with the classics of course being a happy or sad ending, or something in between we usually refer to as ambiguous. There are open and closed endings, sequel setups or finite finales... it's up to you really, however the muse and the universal creative energy feels for you. Just make sure it makes sense!

The content of the story

These seven principles can be used to flesh out the story you are building. Feel free to pick and mix of course. We'll continue shortly in part three where we concentrate in nailing the story and its success.

Love, as always,

Rogier

And if you really want to hone the craft... check out my book The Whole Story - The Ultimate Guide to Storytelling!