Developing Great Stories for Presentations: Two Critical Insights
Posted on Wed, Dec 14, 2011
By Scott Weighart, Director of Learning and Development
The other day I read a story called “Where Donkeys Deliver” by Susan Orlean in Best American Travel Writing 2010. Within the first four paragraphs, I was reminded of some powerful principles of storytelling that all of us should keep in mind as we keep our radar up for stories we can develop and deliver to our important audiences.
Years ago, Orlean was travelling in Fez, Morocco, when she bumped into a small donkey that was lugging a herculean load of six big, boxy television sets that were secured across its body “in a crazy jumble by a tangle of plastic twine and bungee cords.” The donkey walked steadily by her with an endearing expression of serenity, weariness, and determination.
Then it was gone… but the experience stuck with her. She wasn’t sure why, but she trusted her gut and dug deeper and deeper into the incident, trying to understand it. Eventually she had an epiphany. The donkey was the perfect metaphor to describe contemporary life amidst the ancient walled city of Fez: “It was seeing, in that moment, the astonishing commingling of past and present—the timeless little animal, the medieval city and the pile of electronics—that made me believe that it was possible for time to simultaneously move forward and stand still. In Fez, at least, that seems to be true.”
Reading this masterful bit of writing—just the opening vignette in a longer story that is loaded with evocative detail and interesting insights-brought to mind two important principles of storytelling.
When a memory is powerful enough to bubble up repeatedly over months and years of time, trust that there is something there that is definitely worth exploring, mining, and developing to get to What It Means.
When we teach storytelling in our Bates Communications workshops, we have people close their eyes while we read a list of words that serve as memory triggers. We encourage people to just let things bubble up without worrying about what the point might be. Often we end up hearing amazing stories that work beautifully in presentations—despite the fact that it was something the person hadn’t thought about in years. If it bubbles up, then there’s likely something work exploring.
The epiphany, resolution, or lesson of a story needs to simultaneously be surprising yet totally organic to the story.
This is something I learned many years ago while participating in fiction writing workshops, but I hadn’t thought about for a while until I read the donkey story. When listening to a great story or reading one, we usually can’t quite guess where the story is going to land in terms of the resolution or insight. But when a good writer or speaker gets there, we go, “Of course!”
What do I mean by “organic” to the story? In the best stories, the lesson emerges from careful scrutiny of actions, thoughts, and feelings. It’s seldom as convincing to choose your theme in advance and then contrive a story to prove your preconceived point.
The trick is to avoid jumping ahead. Instead, try to capture every iota of what happened—you can edit out the superfluous details later—and then don’t settle until you’re reached a carefully crafted and unique insight.
Mastering these two skills is essential to developing powerful stories that will resonate with your important audience. If you keep after it with the stoicism and determination of a Fez donkey, you’ll end up with a heavy load of stories that you’ll be able to plug into all sorts of communications.