How to find and tell your story

"The invention of internet has changed the course of storytelling. Nowadays, anyone can tell stories to millions of people around the world.

But, the problem with such an accessible medium is that attention spans are dwindling and the amount of content is endlessly rising.

Which means you have to find the best stories and tell them right.

So, how do you do it?"

Read the full article to view the infographic, created by ReferralCandy, that illustrates:

• what is storytelling
• what it can do for your brand
• why it works
• finding your story
• telling your story
• examples of storytelling that works

"Every year on February 26th, Tell a Fairy Tale Day celebrates the art of storytelling. Though you may not read traditional fairy tales very often any more, chances are that many of the story threads throughout your favorite books and movies have their roots in fairy tales."

Read the full article to find out more about these six ways to have fun with storytelling on Tell a Fairy Tale Day:

1. Take a Trip to Your Local Library
2. Make Fairy Tale Dice
3. Illustrate Your Own Tale
4. Write an Inventive Newsletter
5. Act It Out
6. Eat a Fairy Tale Snack

"Turn the ancient expression of storytelling into an engaging task for your 21st century students by adding a media component. Called digital storytelling, this “is the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component.”  Not only does this help bring your classroom into the new age of educational technology, but it gets kids excited about writing and sharing their work."

Introduce digital storytelling with these nine simple steps:

1. Show the Final Product First
2. Encourage Purposeful Writing
3. Don’t Forget the Editing Process
4. Help Students Write Their Plan
5. Include a Lesson About Copyright and Media Use
6. Explore New Technology
7. Help Students Create Their Narration
8. Add Music
9. Publish

"Humans of New York is a success story worth the airtime. It's also an inspiration that can help you find the heart in your storytelling and communications.

The storytelling best practices that you can learn from Humans of New York are not just about using photos, though there’s certainly a massive power in using visuals in storytelling."

Read the full article to find out more about these storytelling best practices that get to the heart.

1. Embrace the Human
2. Accentuate the Positive
3. Track a Narrative
4. Show a Face
5. Do Something Good

"Nonprofit storytelling can be a powerful tool to recruit and motivate donors. Even more than shocking statistics, a story can spur someone to help because it makes the cause more real and elicits more sympathy from potential supporters.

To tap into the power of storytelling, you need to know how to construct a story and communicate it to your audience. This infographic walks you through the steps of telling an effective impact story."

I have been collecting story starters, you can use them with your class and add some of your own in the comments. Cheers  Rob

"Creating good stories is how companies convince preoccupied, information-overloaded consumers there is something worth their time and interest. Whether a company’s stories engage, educate, or entertain, they encourage a consumer to pause, even if for a short time.

But here’s the key question: How do companies get started with storytelling? The answer: a five-step process that any company can embrace."

Read the full article to find out more about these 5 steps:

1. Everyone Is a Storyteller
2. Stay Customer-centric
3. Create a “Core Story”
4. Look for Stories Everywhere
5. Take the Leap

"No matter the tech, humans have invariably figured out a compelling way to tell each other stories.

That’s not to say we all tell stories the same way. Far from it. As Kay Turner, a folklorist and independent scholar who’s on the board of the New York Folklore Society, notes, “Even if a story is the same, each culture will tell it differently, because each one has its own genres and cultural rules.” That’s led to a host of different traditions and practices beloved around the world. Here are just some of them."

Read the full article to find out more about these storytelling traditions used across the globe:

• Hula - Hawaiian
• Shadow Puppetry - Chinese
• Zagal - Arabic
• Cunto - Sicilian
• Rakugo - Japanese
• Griot - West African
• Bharatanatyam - Indian
• Calypso - Trinidadian

"A friend wrote me asking for resources to find/discover/learn about interactive storytelling. I compiled my list of go-to links and sent her an email, but decided that it may be helpful for all of you too!

So below, I have listed out the sites that I like to go to for updates in interactive storytelling. There are certainly many more (add the ones you love in the comments section) but these are my favorites, and have a bit of a non-fiction slant to them."

Read the full article to access links to a number of interactive websites listed under the headings:

• Resources
• Discover projects through places that award & exhibit interactive media

"We all want to craft content pieces that engage our readers and give them something to talk about. Nonetheless, we are fully aware of the fact that our audiences are constantly bombarded with tons of attractive, informative and palatable content coming from different reputable sources.

In this context, we are desperately looking for the simplest, most concise answer to the following key questions: Why is it so important to work hard to exceed our own content creation efforts on a daily basis? How do we make our writing stand out from the crowd? And most importantly, what are the secret tricks and tips that we could apply to craft eye-catchy, memorable content with a real substance? Let’s find out."

Read the full article to find out more about these 10 ways to craft strikingly beautiful, high-value content:

1. Unleash the Power of Quality Storytelling
2. Create and Publish Shareable Images
3. Craft and Implement Attention-Grabbing 3D Pictures
4. Incorporate Infographics
5. Use Behind-the-Scene Pictures to Add a Sense of Authenticity to Your Writing
6. Add DIY Videos to Your Content Pieces
7. Master the Golden, Unwritten Rules of Text Editing
8. Rely on a Correct Journalistic Approach
9. Use the Right Font to Beautify Your Content
10. Always Write with Your Readers in Mind

"The “Stay Together” campaign is Skype’s creative approach to use its video features -via photographer John Clang- to masterfully capture portraits of a Skype call.

The campaign literally brings together the physical and digital worlds.

For each of the four stories in the Skype “Stay Together” Family Portraits, the brand is completely interwoven in each story and could not be told without Skype.

Instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of the technology, “Portraits” focus on how it affects lives. Each story is wildly different from the next and equally as emotional."

Read the full article to find out more and watch one of the series, “The Impossible Family Portrait.”

""Jay! I'm working on my stories!" Said my friend Janie recently. Her three-year-old son was apparently asking for story after story - about 30 stories a day. At first, she said, it was exhausting, but she quickly started to learn some techniques. For example, she said, "I had to use similar stories for different purposes, to keep them fresh. Then I started using sensory details, and funny, enough, continued to learn again and again: The stories have to go somewhere."

And I'll tell you this is the same lesson I'm always learning: our stories, too, have to go somewhere. They have to take the audience along, through a journey of change, which shifts how the world works. And along the way, our stories don't just tell us what happened; our stories to tell us why it happened."

Read the full article to find out more about these storytelling techniques:

• Scan your journey
• Know the changes
• Own your messages
• Immerse yourself in the experience
• Details, details
• Go into trial, but don't get stuck
• Surprise!
• Use key phrases and metaphors
• Travel across time
• Find the lesson
• Tell it first
• Get your story goggles on

"Here we’d like to share a few of our favorite books. Some of these were written just for filmmakers, helping us understand how each technical decision affects our stories. Others take a more general approach, examining how human beings are wired to respond to narrative, and how you can craft your stories to better engage your audience."

Read the full article to find out more about why these 7 books that will help you to tell better stories:

1. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall
2. Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
3. Wired For Story by Lisa Cron
4. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
5. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
6. The Filmmaker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age by Steven Ascher
7. The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau