HOW TO TELL A STORY

-Robert McKee
Presented By: Gauri Bhargava

Our appetite for stories is a reflection of the basic

human need to understand patterns of life-not merely

as an intellectual exercise but as a personal, emotional
experience.

Many people dont put much thought about how the

stories are made.

ELEMENTS OF STORYTELLING

CHARACTERS

PLOT

POINT OF
VIEW

SHOW, DONT
TELL

SETTING

THEME

CHARACTERS
The job of the storyteller is to bring
characters to life and make people care about
them.
Choose characters that are under pressure
to help your audience to feel deeper.

Ask: whats that one thing the protagonist

wants to achieve.

PLOT
It is the sequence of events that ultimately resolves the
major dramatic question of the story.
3 elements to create a successful plot:
PROTAGONIST

He is the main character to

which the major dramatic
question applies.

HIS GOAL

What the protagonist wants is the

goal. In this case batman wants to
fight corruption and protect
Gotham City.

CONFLICT
Conflict is the obstacle blocking
protagonist from his goal.

STORYTELLING ARCS

Should flow relatively quickly; provide the

necessary background; establish major
dramatic question.
Develop the characters; core action of the
movie; protagonists path to achieve the goal
is blocked.
Follows the 3Cs pattern- crisis- the point
where tension is the maximum; climaxwhere the tension breaks; consequenceanswer to the dramatic question.

POINT OF VIEW
1ST PERSON

It gives the advantage of no barrier between

the audience and the speaker. It can be
limited and requires a narrator to make
more sense.

2ND PERSON

Uses the pronoun you that addresses the

audience. It is challenging and can come off
as being gimmicky.

3RD PERSON

Gives the advantage to enter the mind of any

character, describe incidents, provide
historic and future details.

SHOW, DONT TELL

Storytellers communicate visually. Master storytellers
never explain- they do the hard painfully creative thing:
DRAMATIZE

Do
Use memory,
imagination or
secondary research

Dont
Avoid clichs.
Dont overload
with adjectives and
adverbs

SETTING

Create a small knowable world

The larger the world, the more diluted the knowledge of
the writer.
The smaller the world, the more complete knowledge of
the writer.

THEME
Theme answers the deep rooted question: What is your
story about?
It is often referred to as controlling idea which describes how
and why life undergoes change from one condition of
existence at the beginning to another at the end.
For example theme of batman begins was the rising
corruption and no importance to the law of the city

FINDING STORIES
One of the challenges of storytelling is to first find a story.
The easiest way to find a story is to begin by interviewing people
and creating a story bank.
Storytelling is about understanding your own humanity, the more
more you understand your own humanity the more you can
appreciate the humanity of others.

STORYTELLING TEMPLATE
STORY TELLING= SITUATION/DESIRECOMPLICATION/OBSTACLE- SOLUTION/OUTCOME

SEVEN QUESTIONS TO SHARPEN YOUR

STORIES
Whos the
protagonist?
Whats the
hook?
What keeps it
interesting?
Wheres the
conflict?

Have you
included
telling details?
Whats the
emotional
hook?
Is the meaning
clear?

STORYTELLING IN BUSINESS
In her book Corporate Legends and Lore: Storytelling as
a Management Tool, Peg Neuhauser says that stories
within an organization vary from group to group but
usually include:
How the organization was founded?
Victories that demonstrate organizations
effectiveness.
What-we-learnt-in-defeat story.
An employee performance story.

THE 10 IMMUTABLE LAWS OF

STORYTELLING
1. Stories are about people
2. The people in your story have to want something
3. Stories need to be fixed in time and space
4. Let your characters speak for themselves
5. Audiences bore easily

6.Stories speak the audiences language

7. Stories stir up emotions
8. Stories dont tell; they show
9. Stories have at least one moment of truth
10. Stories have a clear meaning