How to Write a Story That Moves People

Hollywood screenwriter Robert McKee, whose students have written, directed, and produced notable films such as "Forrest Gump", "Erin Brockovich", and "The Color Purple", said this:

Essentially, a story expresses how and why life changes. It begins with a situation in which life is relatively in balance: you come to work day after day, week after week, and everything's fine. you expect it will gon on that way. But then there's an event - in screenwriting, we call it the "inciting incident" - that throws life out of balance. You get a new job, or the boss dies of a heart attack, or a big customer threatens to leave. The story goes on to describe how, in an effort to restore balance, the protagonist's subjective expectations [desire] crash into an uncooperative objective reality [tragedy]. A good storyteller describes what it's like to deal with these opposing forces, calling on the protagonist to dig deeper, work with scarce resources, make difficult decisions, take action despite risks, and ultimately discover the truth. All great storytellers since the dawn of time - from the ancient Greeks through Shakespeare and up to the present day - have dealt with this fundamental conflict between subjective expectation [desire] and cruel reality [tragedy].

Robert McKee, "Storytelling That Moves People", Harvard Business Review, June 2003, 6.

Learn from the Best and Create Your Own Puppet Play

Looking for Puppet Play ideas? Watch this classy cartoon presentation of the gospel message, then rewrite it for your theatre and puppeteers. This is the standard of entertainment you should aspire to. Notice use of sound effects, scenery, and props, and that even though there is a lot of dialogue, the action never stops.

4 Steps to Giving Your Platform Event MORE IMPACT

Workshopping a simple story into a great speech

My Dad is an expert at reading stories expressively, but he is determined to improve his speaking skills and make his storytelling even more memorable. I was thrilled when he included me in part of this process. Now I'm including you.

Have you ever heard a speaker tell a great story but at the end you were left wondering what was the point?

David Worboys wasn't going to let that happen to his audience. His chosen story was the Norwegian folk tale, "Boots and His Brothers" (a version of which may be found here).

To this he applied one of Craig Valentine's Speaking Tips* -- "Tap, Tease, and Transport".

Step 1: TAP. Tap into your audience's mind with a you-focused question or statement. Make them curious.
David's opening statement was, "Have you ever faced a seemingly impossible task?"

Step 2: TEASE. Tease them to want to know more.
"What would you do to find a solution?"

Step 3: TRANSPORT. Jump straight into your story.
David jumped in. The folk tale was too long, so he skimmed over the brothers' involvement with a narrated summary.

He had a great opening and an entertaining story that moved along smartly...but it still wasn't enough. The story needed an application that the audience could take home. The application would be generated by the foundational phrase that the whole speech was based on.

What was the speech based on? We didn't know, so we went looking for the point of the story, in ten words or less. We discovered,

"The solution is often outside the square."

This foundational phrase unified the presentation and provided the take-home application for the closing. The story now had a point. The audience would remember the story, and when they remembered the story, they would remember David's point:

"When you face an overwhelming task, look for the solution outside the square."

Your solution to the task of giving your expressive reading more impact is this:

1) Tap your audience's interest with a you-focused question or statement;
2) Tease them to want to know more;
3) Jump straight into your story and tell it with expression and enthusiasm;
4) Give your audience a take-home application based on your foundational phrase.

If you do these four things, you can be sure your presentation will be remembered.

*These tips and more can be found at www.52SpeakingTips.com, courtesy of Craig Valentine, 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking.

Be 3x better than the speaker you are today!

Do you feel alone, isolated in your preparations for a speaking invitation or contest?

I won many ribbons and medals for my Student Convention platform events through enthusiasm, practice, and self-critique, but there was so much I didn't know. The best performance training I gained as a teenager was from ACE's six Speech PACE's. While they are an excellent start, there is much they don't cover. My writing advantage came from a thorough grasp of English from the PACE's, reading books and more books, and again, self-critique.

These are all good things, but there was one missing ingredient. A mentor. The wisest man who ever lived wrote in his book of Proverbs that without counsel we fall, but with counsel is success. Solomon was taught by his father, and made sure that the knowledge he gained was passed on to his son. Remember how it goes? -- "My son, hearken unto me..."

Here is the best knowledge that I have gained through my years of writing and performance. Get yourself a mentor, someone who is successful in writing or public speaking and willing to share their knowledge and skill.

I fully understand the challenge this presents to schools and homeschoolers in isolated locations. I was homeschooled in a town with a population of 6000, yet I still didn't know how to find such a person.

But don't despair. I have a solution for you. Do you have an internet connection and an email address? Then you have the ability to tap in to a free mentoring resource specific to speakers and applicable to writers.

Craig Valentine blew into my isolated world in April 2010 via audio download of the speakers' bootcamp "Lady and the Champs" and in just one week I learned so much from listening to his tuition that I knew my life was changed forever.


Craig immediately impacted my writing, and I looked forward to speaking opportunities so I could practice what he taught. I signed up for his free audio postcards, which are adding to and reinforcing what I learned from Lady & the Champs. I eagerly await the next week's five-minute installment and love that I've got a whole year of it to enjoy!

What I love most about this material is that I'm listening to a world class speaker (1999 World Champion of Public Speaking) presenting excellent material that I can read as he delivers it with great verbal skill, then he analyzes the segment and gives me practical applications, ways in which I can build these principles into my own work. Craig gave me more useful content in ten free emails than I got from two years of college diploma.

Do you want to connect more deeply with your audience? Do you want your message to be remembered and repeated? Whether you're a writer or a speaker, you will benefit from this free mentoring resource. Sign up now for Craig Valentine's "52 Speaking Tips" and be three times better than the speaker you are today. Click here: http://www.52speakingtips.com/

Learn more about Craig Valentine and what he can do for your presentation skills. Visit his homepage now: http://www.craigvalentine.com/

Learn from Craig on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/cvalenti30

A 4-Step Formula for Making Your Speech Stick and Shine

Click on the link below for writing tips from Craig Valentine, 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking.

Most people spend their time complaining about not having the right tools or know-how to achieve excellence and so they never achieve their dream. Those who do achieve excellence know the importance of grabbing an opportunity when it's front of them. Which type of person are you?

You can achieve your dream to become a better writer and speaker. Click here now!

A 4-Step Formula for Making Your Speech Stick and Shine

Play-Writing Tips from Marc Klein

Do you have a book or story you want to transform into a play for stage or screen?

You're taking a tale written for the page and turning it into one dependant on audio and visual impact. The following 8 tips from an expert will help you make that transformation.

SCREENWRITING TIPS
By Ridley Scott (director) and Marc Klein, writer of "A Good Year" screenplay from Peter Mayle's book of the same name.

1. Heighten characteristics, because you don't have as much time as a book does. I.e. Mildly annoying character becomes very annoying.

2. Combine characters.

3. Make hero reluctant. There must be conflict.

4. Force the character into a corner from which there's no going back.

5. Keep the audience engaged toward the end -- not thinking, "This is the end, time to gather coat and hat." The SCORE will keep them aware the story is still moving.

6. To get a laugh/humour, cut to a dog or a baby.

7. Avoid whimsy - i.e. He and She have their first date at the village dance. Instead, invent a Cute Meet - i.e. he's fallen into a deep, dry swimming pool, she finds him there and instead of getting the ladder, turns the tap on so the swimming pool will fill (slowly) and he will float to the top.

8. Avoid "The Dinner Table" - a scene where He and She sit across from each other and talk. Create dramatic structure and charactization in a non-cliche manner.