Advanced Storytelling: Tactics and Themes

Summary

Great storytellers have an unfair advantage. They are better leaders and more effective professionals. Their organizations have stronger reputations, attract elite talent, and create a healthier, more cohesive culture. In this class, you’ll learn the tools to improve your storytelling from good to great, giving you—and your organization—a competitive edge. You’ll craft “Signature Stories” and know how to use them in your job and your everyday life, and you’ll be encouraged to share your own works-in-progress (social-media posts, memos, press releases, brand messaging, presentations, personal narratives, etc.) to workshop in real time, taking your stories to the next level.

Learning Outcomes

• Storytelling tactics including structure, suspense, pacing, humour, vivid description, character, imagery, style, motif, and point of view

• Developing a ready-made selection of stories to use across a variety of professional situations

• Showing vs. telling—what “show, don’t tell” means and why the distinction may be misguided

• Gauging audience reaction to revise and adapt your material

• Guided self-editing, using before-and-after comparisons from experienced storytellers

• The shapes and textures of stories

• How to write stories for harmony and resonance

• How to create and choose effective metaphors

• Building precision and elegance through careful word-choice

• Tension vs. action—the important difference, and what it means for the “forward motion” of your stories

• Storytelling with greater nuance by answering tough questions of prosody