The Basics Of Storytelling For Podcasters and Content Creators
Storytelling is a powerful way to engage audiences and keep them interested in what you have to say whether you are a podcaster or not. It’s not just for novels or movies, it can be used by content creators as a marketing tactic too.
Download the first chapter of The Storytelling Series: Beginners’ Guide for Small Businesses & Content Creators by Obehi Ewanfoh.
We are not just talking about telling stories; it’s all about creating an experience for the audience. Your audience will want to know the protagonist, their struggle, and how they overcome their challenges. They will need the context of what led up to the climax and then they will want to know how things wrapped up. All of that is storytelling.
When you are crafting your content, think about who your audience is, and what are their motivations and goals? What are they trying to solve? How do they feel when they encounter problems? What are their hopes and fears? This will help you create an authentic experience that really works.
What is a Story?
A story is a narrative that is presented in a sequence of words and sentences. It can be about something that happened or something that might happen in the future but presented in a logical sense and can trigger an emotion.
The history of storytelling goes back thousands of years to oral storytelling.
Some of the earliest representations in storytelling date back as far as 30,000 years ago. The first stories were animal fables, which depicted animals and humans interacting with each other. These texts were carved into caves and stone tablets, and are still preserved today.
A story has a beginning, middle, and end. It also has characters, a setting, and a plot. A good story should have a compelling protagonist and antagonist with the conflict between them.
Really, storytelling is as old as human civilization. Cave paintings and oral storytelling were the first means of conveying information about the world and our place in it. Storytelling began with a natural impulse to share our experiences and what we learn with others.
As a content creator, you can take storytelling even further by controlling the narration and using it in your favor. To be effective in this, make sure your stories are relatable and impactful and with a good structure.
You don’t know what is structure in storytelling. Then let’s talk about it.
The Importance of Structure in Storytelling
The structure of a story is the foundation for everything that follows. The first sentence, paragraph, chapter, and so on are all built up to form the final narrative.
A good story needs to have a strong beginning and an end. A strong beginning means that it should be interesting enough to keep people hooked and reading through the end.
A strong ending is one that satisfies readers by answering any questions they may have had throughout the work.
There are 7 basic elements of all successful story and they are:
- A compelling protagonist,
- A clear sense of what the protagonist wants and how this relates to the conflict,
- A plot that is driven by a series of escalating events,
- A setting that is vivid, specific, and appropriate to the plot,
- Dialogue that reveals character and moves the story forward,
- Descriptions of what characters think and feel about each other and themselves,
- And a satisfying ending.
How to structure your story the right way
The structure of a story is one of the most important aspects of storytelling. It is what makes us want to read on or stop reading altogether.
In order to understand the structure, it is important to know that there are two main types: linear and non-linear.
Linear stories are those that follow a storyline in chronological order and have a beginning, middle, and end. Non-linear stories, on the other hand, tend not to follow a strict timeline and can be more complicated than linear ones.
To create good storytelling, your narrative structure should tell a story. It should help you organize the plot points and reveal them gradually to the readers.
Most stories often have a single question that is the focus of the story. Will Harry Potter defeat Voldemort? Could Romeo and Juliet end up together? Could Frodo destroy the Ring?
The narrative structure of a story is created by the series of events that follow the originally important question. This is why it’s important to structure your story the right way.
Plotting Your Storytelling
Plotting your story is a crucial step in the storytelling process. It will help you to stay on track and have a clearer vision of where you are going with the story.
Plotting a story usually centers around your protagonist’s primary goal or challenge, the central obstacle. This is what leads them to their climax where they either succeed or fail to resolve their personal issue.
Now, here is the most common plot summary formula to adopt in your storytelling:
- Introduce the protagonist and the problem,
- Set up the stakes for the protagonist and introduce the antagonist,
- Complications arise, and the protagonist has to overcome them
- Protagonist succeeds (or fails) depending on how they overcame their problems
In terms of the ultimate goal or ending of the story, there is no single, way to plot it. There are different ways to go about it, depending on what kind of story you are telling. For example, in a mystery, the challenge might be to solve a crime. In a romance, the goal is to find true love.
Let me point out that understanding your story plot is fundamental to the success of your storytelling. Will it be a story about conflict with an external or internal threat? What genre will the piece be?
The common types of plots in storytelling are 7. They will be explained in detail in a later article in this series, but here they are listed for your consideration:
- Tragedies,
- Comedy,
- hero journey,
- Rags to Riches,
- Rebirth,
- Overcoming the Monster,
- Voyage and Return.
Planning your stories can help you craft better content
Effective content marketing is all about storytelling. And as I have already stated, storytelling is the art of telling a compelling story that builds on what has been said before and moves the reader forward to create a narrative.
In order to successfully tell stories, you need to plan your story well in advance. This will allow you to create an outline for your story that will help you write more efficiently and with more clarity.
This means you will have a better idea of where your story is going and how it should be structured. For more about story structure, remember what we discussed a while ago about story structure.
Setting the Stage
As the name implies, correctly setting up the stage for your storytelling is absolutely fundamental for your success.
In the first sentence, you want to grab the reader’s attention and make them want to continue reading. The first sentence will be the one that they will remember and that is why is mostly referred to as the hook.
Talking of a good hook, consider the following opening lines from “A Tale Of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”
The opening of a story is also very important. You want to set the stage for what is going on. You can do this by giving background information and introducing characters or you can use dialogue to show what is happening in the present time.
Character Development
The process of developing a character is an important one. It can be the difference between a compelling story and one that falls flat. Character development is about more than just giving them a name, it’s about giving them depth, personality, and even flaws.
Character development is an important part of any story because it helps readers to invest in the story. The way you develop your characters can make or break the reader’s connection with them.
A few things to consider when developing your characters are their personality traits, their past, and their motivations for being in the story in the first place.
One of the keys to making your protagonist relatable is to create a central goal that generates personal stakes. For example, rather than trying to save the world, your protagonist might be struggling to save someone they love or trying to keep their business afloat.
It’s important to figure out the motivations and drives of your character in order to make their story interesting the whole way through. You don’t want readers to forget about them, right?
Plot Development
Plot development is the process of structuring a plot in a way that has a beginning, middle, and end. It creates an emotional arc for the reader. The plot is usually developed through the use of three major arcs:
- Exposition: This is the introduction to the story, setting up what will happen in the rest of the story.
- Exodus: This is where we see how things are going wrong for our protagonists as they are confronted with their antagonist and their own personal demons.
- Redemption: This is where our protagonist overcomes all obstacles and finds happiness or peace.
The importance of storytelling for content creators
We are living in a time of intense change. New technologies are being developed at an exponential rate, and our interaction with them and our fellow human beings are ever-changing.
As a result, the way we consume content has changed too. The traditional model of advertising is no longer working. People are now tuning out and switching off from traditional TV and radio ads, instead opting for more interactive content online.
To keep up with these changes, content creators need to tell stories that resonate with their audience. They need to keep up-to-date on the trends in their industry or risk becoming irrelevant.
When it comes to creating compelling content, storytelling is one of the most vital skills. We want people to be interested in what we share, so we need to engage them with a captivating story.
As content creators, one of our main responsibilities is to tell that story well and make it worth their while.
How to tell your Story Effectively as a content creator
Telling a story is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience. The human brain processes stories much more easily and quickly than facts and figures. Stories are a great way to engage your audience, get them interested in your product or service, and inspire them to take action.
A good story will also help you create more compelling content that can be shared on social media or through other channels. And it’s not just about telling a compelling story – it’s also about knowing how to tell it effectively.
To tell a good story, consider the following recommendations:
- Observe good storytellers and learn from them
- Choose a clear central message for your story,
- Define a clear structure,
- Add your personal experiences,
- Narrow the scope of your story to your central message.
Another thing to consider is that in order to tell your story effectively, you need to understand the audience that you are targeting. You should be able to know what their problems are and what they want. You should also be able to show them how your product can solve their problem in a way that makes them want it.
You should have a strong voice, and make sure that your content is authentic and has a personality. The more you can show the benefits of your product, the more likely people will buy it.
Conclusion on the basics of storytelling for content creators
Storytelling is the most effective way to communicate a message to the audience. It is an art that many people have mastered and it can be used in any type of content – from a tweet to a blog post.
Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools that content creators have at their disposal and it can be used to create captivating stories for any audience.
For example, take a look at Nike’s “The Last Game” campaign, which tells a story about athletes who are still competing even after they know they won’t win anything because they love what they do so much.
This story resonates with everyone who feels like they are giving their all even when things might not be as bright as it should.
Storytelling is not just about telling stories, but also about understanding them. The best storytellers are those who know how to convey emotions and engage their audience with the story they want to tell.
Download the first chapter of The Storytelling Series: Beginners’ Guide for Small Businesses & Content Creators by Obehi Ewanfoh.
