Let's look at the
structure of a good story. Every good story begins with
a specific time and place. Regarding time, there
are three ways to start at a precise
moment in life. Like when I turned 30
or relative today. It was ten years ago. Or on a specific date, on September 11, 2001 I was. Describing the place
is also important. It's a matter of balance. Enough information to help
people imagine being there. Some sensory elements and specific information
such as the temperature, the smells, things like that. Much more effective than generic or abstract
descriptions. Then the next step, the context. We tell what ordinary life
was like at that time. We present the main characters, the relations between
them in what was normal. Then the unexpected happens. There's always a surprise, an element in the surprise. If that doesn't exist, the story really has no drama. It's this conflict
or this surprise, which really makes
stories great. They need the conflict. It's crucial to
respect the order and not start going
back and forth, not start with the surprise. Going back-and-forth, adding
relevant information about one of the characters
after the conflict, really ruins the plot. Then those who are a bit
distracted will just lose interests totally and the
speech is then lost on them. Then the surprise
generates tension both in the protagonist of
the stories and in ourselves. We describe the risks
that are involved, both in objective terms
or using introspection. How the protagonist
feel about the threat, and how they deal
with the tension. Then the protagonist
takes action. We explain who did what
and how they did it. Then those actions get a result. Either the protagonist achieves success or on the
contrary fails. Maybe fails miserably. Both those scenarios
are effective. Success stories
inspire emulation. You want to follow that. While stories of
failures can convince people to avoid a
specific danger, we have to assess what kind of story we want to tell
and for what purpose. What's important is that the result is the
fruit of the action, not something that just
happened by chance. Finally, the last
step is the takeaway. We don't tell stories
to entertain, but to convey a message
in an interesting way. We tell stories
because they're often the best way to deliver
a message effectively. It's usually most effective if the story has
just one take-away, a single lesson, it's
not lost on anybody. We also have to avoid
being too preachy. People prefer to make
their own assumptions. The carrot is much more effective than the
stick in this case. Instead of saying,
what you should learn from this story is, much better to say, in that circumstance,
I learned this, or I certainly won't
make that mistake again. More than pushing,
it's about pulling. People usually empathize, when we tell them
how we feel inside, what we were going through, the mistakes we made. That's why it's more
effective to explain firsthand how that
experience has marked you. In fact, stories are great
as a source of inspiration, not as mandates, not as rules. Whoever tells the
story exercises a different kind of leadership from the one who
just gives orders. Let's take a look at the
timing in telling a story. The order of the
different parts of the story is also
relevant time-wise. It tells us how much
time we can dedicate to each part so that there's
balance and proportion. For instance, for the story
to be told in a persuasive, convincing, attractive way, the surprise has to be
proportional to the tension. Which in turn, has to be proportional to the
action and so on.