The Most Important Skill You've Never Been Taught: Storytelling

The most important skill you’ve never been taught:

Storytelling

10 dead-simple tips to help you become a better storyteller:

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

Cut the fluff

Most people amble on in backstory for 10 minutes or write an intro paragraph.

This is a waste of time.

Find the interesting parts of your story, jump right to it, and provide as little backstory as possible.

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

Start with the end in mind

What do you want the outcome of your story to be?

• Investor giving you money
• Customer buying a product
• Reader loving a certain scene in your book

If you start with the end in mind, the intro and middle naturally funnel to that target.

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

"What happens next?"

Neil Gaiman says you can sum up great storytelling with those 3 words.

They should be the first thing a reader (or listener) says if the story is stopped at any point.

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

Make it emotional

People remember how you make them feel

And make decisions based on emotion.

But it’s impossible to make your audience feel everything.

Nail down 1-2 emotions and direct the entire story to amplify those.

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

Keep a story log

You have story moments every day — but you’ll forget it you don’t write them down.

Simple fix:

Create a spreadsheet with 2 columns: date and story.

Each evening, take 2 minutes to write the best story from that day

You’ll start spotting stories everywhere.…

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

Combine ideas

The show Yellowstone combines elements of:

• Classic American westerns
• Medieval kingdom dramas
• Political thrillers

Alone, none of those are new.

But together…

“When you combine things you’re not supposed to combine, people get interested.” - @Naval

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

Talk to a niche

Great stories aren’t told to everyone.

They’re told to the specific group of people who will resonate most with them.

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

“But, Therefore”

The creators of South Park say:

“If we take the beats of your outline, and the words ‘and then’ belong between those beats… you got something pretty boring.

What should happen between every beat you’ve written down is the words ‘therefore’ or ‘but.”

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

Structure your story

Humans like structure. Luckily there are tons to wrap around your story:

• Hero’s Journey
• StoryBrand
• Three Act

Here’s the structure JK Rowling used for the 5th Harry Potter: pic.twitter.com/K6OZ6UEYyU

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

Nail the hook

It doesn’t matter how incredible the rest of your story is if nobody is paying attention.

A few guidelines:
• Punchy
• Unique
• Short

But remember if the rest of the content sucks then it’s clickbait.

Here are 10 exceptional hooks from literature: https://t.co/IMKrMYoDX4

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

Boom — hope you enjoyed that!

I write fiction, and share with you what I learn about storytelling.

For more like this, follow @nathanbaugh27.

And RT the top tweet to save it and help others find it: https://t.co/OnEyfQy7fV

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023

If you want to become a better storyteller, try my free newsletter with 66,538 others.

1 storytelling tip each Saturday morning: https://t.co/kLhhQmUg4A

— Nathan Baugh (@nathanbaugh27) June 1, 2023