How to Tell a Story
I’ve no idea how to tell a story! Let alone how to do it online. Story-telling is not my natural habitat. Perhaps it needs to be. I’ve found this simple formula which may be helpful and will share it because you might find it helpful.
I don’t remember where I first saw this but the idea is that you can write in four modes. The first is the most popular with writers and least read by site visitors. The fourth is the hardest to write but is more popular.
Theory
Most writers, myself included, write in the theoretical mode. I trained as a scientist and so that cold distant, objective approach comes naturally. I have no problem writing in this mode and the words flow. I suspect those who attempt to read it have difficult staying awake.
As I’ve explored this I see the value of this style of writing as a resource I can adapt to other styles in the future. When the words flow, I can at least capture them and then work out how to use them later.
Technique
This style answers the question, how? I have a post category called Technique and on Thursdays I try to focus on the practicalities of looking after a website. This style of writing is more popular than theory because people often need to find instructions about how to do things.
Transformation
This style answers the question:what change do you want to make in the world? This is not mission statements (Theory!) but genuine accounts of change I have witnessed or change I hope to see. This is where telling stories is the primary style of writing.
Transcendence
This final style answers the question: why? Occasionally a story touches on something deeper. It is at those moments that a story will go viral, because it moves people when they read it. Perhaps it is not possible to set out to write such a story. But it is where a story somehow communicates how things are or perhaps a possible future. These stories reach out and touch the lives of their readers or hearers.
How have you learned to write stories that transform or transcend?