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Overview #

• The authors of this book are storytelling directors at The Moth, a storytelling group that has become nationwide
• They help shape stories that people will tell on open mics at events

Book Notes #

• Everyone is entertained by and can relate to a train wreck
  • Failure is a powerful story to tell
• Unrelated to storytelling but a great quote
  • “Sometimes you have to figure out who you’re not before you can become who you are”
• A strong ending is critical for a good story
• Stories must be true – your audience will be able to tell
• A story must have stakes
  • The story must have action and the action must have consequences
  • What is gained or lost? What is the urgency? How did the action change or shape you?
  • Part of your job as a storyteller is to show the audience why the stakes matter to you
  • Clear stakes compel the audience to root for you and champion you
  • Stakes are truly the key to everything
    • Why does the story matter? If it was a bad day (e.g. losing your luggage) what was in your luggage that you lost that matters for you?
    • If you overslept and were late to work, what trust are you breaking? How long does that trust take to build up? etc.
• Finding your story requires sifting through all of your life experiences, phone calls, deadlines, breakups, stumbles, epic fails, home runs, and stupid luck
  • You wawnt to identify the significant moments when you felt most like yourself or the self you could finally see you wanted to become
• Do not let trauma or the sruggle be the story, but rather to make the context of the story
  • Stories always need to go beyond “a bad thing happened”
• Powerful stories hinge on one key decision
• Telling people your accomplishments in life is an easy way to lose your listener
  • You are talking at people rather than inviting them in
  • It’s way more interesting if you talk about your stumbles along the way
  • Starting a story at your lowest makes the audience like you a lot more if you then share successes
• What stories really come down to is vulnerability
• You have to dig deep and find why a story matters to you and to convey this to your audience
• Most stories are about change – what is the story arc? How did you change from the beginning to the end?
• Find your “one sentence” version of your story to use as your roadmap (but don’t include it in the story)
  • The one sentence should include the plot and the arc
• Scenes are the building blocks of stories and always begin at a moment
  • If you quit your job, don’t just say you quit your job. Show the audience where you were, what you were thinking, etc.
  • Details, even obscure, make your story more relatable
  • These details have to be relevant to your story though, and you don’t want to overdo it and distract your listener
• In common events or situations (like falling in love, the birth of a child) you want to find the details that make the story uniquely you
• Backstory can be woven throughout. Downloading all the backstory at the start can be a little exhausting
• You want to show your emotions when telling a story – the audience will feel them with you
• Humor is tricky. Sometimes people use it to hide being vulnerable. Sometimes it may confuse your audidence. But sometimes if delivered well it’s a hit
• Stories – especially those that revolve around times you’ve felt pain – need time to develop
  • “Preach from your scars not your wounds”
• Your end to your story should leave your audience feeling that the story is resolved and they understood where you’ve taken them
• Your first and last lines can parallel each other
  • The last line can resolve the questions brought up in the first
• The ending can make or break a story
  • Endings are often rooted in the change you experience – state your change
  • Don’t end with something like: "Well that’s it"
    • This takes the air out of the whole story
• Endings to avoid
  • The perfect ending (e.g. everything is great)
  • Telling the audience exactly what lesson to take away
• If your story is about something greater, you can add a call to action at the end
• Stories can make data much more compelling – they give a voice to the data
  • We are 22 times more likely to remember a fact if it’s wrapped in a story
  • You can open up a data presentation with a story to set the why

Story Structures #

A story is composed of a set of puzzle pieces which can be put in any order. This section details some common strategies for ordering those puzzle pieces

• Chronological
• Two chronologies in tandem
  • Going back and forth between two stories that unfold simultaneously
  • They eventually resolve together
• Flashback
  • Temporarily flashback to provide context to allow a listener to linger in excitement when you’re at a compelling moment
  • Don’t take too long to get back to the scene you want to describe

Telling your story #

• You don’t want to memorize your story, you just want to be familiar with it and what you’re trying to convey
• It is good to memorize the first and last lines of your story
• Say it out loud to yourself in a mirror to practice
  • Stand when telling your story! Standing activates your brain in a different way
• If you have 10 minutes to tell a story, allocate time buckets to different parts
  • e.g. 2 for beginning, 5 for middle, 3 for end
• Talk in normal words – no need to get fancy
• Silence can be as important as the words you say
  • If something is a big deal, put a pause after it to give it some extra weight
• Use I instead of you – don’t generalize your experiences into general tropes
• Don’t include spoilers like “and then something happened that changed my life forever”
• You have to be aware of what context your audience already has (e.g. are they all software engineers, doctors, etc.?) and bring in any needed context to the story if the audience doesn’t already have it