I’ve been reading the work of JD Lasica and came across a link to Digital Storytelling: A Tutorial in 10 Steps
The whole piece is good, but step one is a great place to start for any author who wants to share stories:
Step 1: Decide on the Story You Want to Tell You probably already have a person or subject in mind. Think small. Focus. Don’t get caught up trying to convey all the aspects of someone’s life — you’re not writing the great American novel, you’re creating what will optimally be a three- to five-minute work that recounts a personal tale and reveals a small truth.
What form should your story take? In their decade of leading workshops, Lambert and Mullen list these main varieties of digital stories:
- The story about someone important. Character stories center on a person who’s touched you in a deep way. Often, these stories reveal as much about the narrator as about the subject of the piece. Memorial stories pay tribute to someone who passed on but left a lasting impression.
- The story about an event in your life. Travel stories — stories about a personal journey or passage — can be effective if they result in the narrator being transformed by the experience in some way. Accomplishment stories about achieving a goal, graduating from school, or winning an honor can easily fit into the framework of the desire-struggle-realization structure of a classic story.
- The story about a place in your life. Our sense of place serves as the focal point of a great many profound stories.
- The story about what I do. People find value in their work, hobbies, or social commitments and can weave wonderful stories from their experiences in each.
- Recovery stories. Sharing the experience of overcoming a tragedy, challenge, or personal obstacle is an archetype that always has the potential to move audiences.
- Love stories. We all want to know how someone proposed, met a spouse, experienced the birth of a first child, or came to terms with a parent. Exploring these kinds of relationships helps affirm our own.
- Discovery stories. These stories probe how we uncovered a truth or learned how to do something.
Now, choose one type of story that appeals to you.
