Let's take a look at this seven mortal sins of storytelling. The most frequent mistakes we commit when telling a story. The first insufficient
presentation. If the people listening
to us aren't able to put themselves in
the protagonist shoes, it's going to be quite difficult for them
to connect because there's simply not living
the same emotional process. When you're watching a film and you keep confusing characters, that's not a good sign
and not a good story. The next one, weak conflict. Weak conflict or no
conflict, that's a mess. Conflicts are the
energy of any story. There have to be risks. If there's no danger, the story doesn't work. The more drama people
have to overcome things, the more compelling the
story is going to be. Then another problem, the
absence of sensations. To allow people to put
themselves into the situation of protagonists describing it from an intellectual point of view
is simply doesn't do it. We have to explain
their sensations, what they were feeling, the senses, the temperature, somebody climbing a
mountain, how cold? What was the internal sensation
of panic, fear, anguish? These elements are
all really important because the psychological
process of a story. The more sensitive elements, the easy it is for people
to feel the same way. Also, it helps in our
non-verbal language. If you're talking
about how cold it was, or perhaps how hot it was
or how nervous you are. You are sweating
bullets, people say, you can also express that non-verbally
and it's very rich. Another problem, telling
it from the outside, we connect more if we look
at the events from within. From the outside,
there's a distance, that's all there is to it.
There's less connection. If we see what's going on
inside the protagonist heart, inside their mind, it's much easier to be
pulled into that story. Then the luck factor, things happened by luck. If there's something
that happens by chance, story really teaches nothing. There's no struggle. Nobody has to overcome
something, no suffering. There is no transformation. Luck does not work in stories. Then a huge problem. More than one plot, trying to tell several
stories at the same time. The audience just
loses attention. There's no connection at all. There's nothing but confusion. Then more than one take-away, a single lesson is enough. That is the way to do it. The best way to get
your message across. What you want to remember
here is these are things you want to avoid in order to be
telling a good story.