This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Unleash the Power of Storytelling" by Rob Biesenbach. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here.
What makes a story interesting? How can you, as the storyteller, humanize yourself to your audience? How can you communicate a message that transcends the plot?
You can think of a character, a goal, and an obstacle as the basic requirements for a story. But, even with those elements in place, not every story holds a listener’s attention. Rob Biesenbach says a story needs four additional characteristics to make it engaging.
Read more to discover the power of these four elements that keep your audience tuned in to your story.
#1: An Emotional Appeal
What makes a story interesting? First, an interesting story appeals to the listener’s emotions. An emotionally relevant story feels more compelling in the moment and remains more memorable later on. Biesenbach points to research findings that memories of emotional events tend to be stronger (and stick around longer) than memories of events that don’t have strong emotions attached. So we remember a story that engages our emotions—for example, one where we felt happy for the character’s success—more clearly than one that doesn’t.
(Shortform note: A growing body of research confirms that an emotional story engages us by activating a wide range of processes in the brain. Brain regions that process language, emotion, and complex information activate in response to stories, as do parts of the brain involved in prediction. The brain waves of the listener also synchronize with those of the storyteller. That might be why Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling, says that storytelling is a way of “communicating with emotions rather than facts.” He explains that the most engaging stories appeal to emotions like hope and tap into narratives that people want to be a part of.)
#2: An Accessible Theme
Next, a good story has a theme that people relate to: Even though listeners might have never experienced the situation you’re talking about, the story should call on a universally relatable experience to create common ground. For example, you don’t have to live in Brooklyn or own a bookstore to know what novelist Emma Straub is talking about when she says that she hopes her bookstore will appear on “children’s internal maps of their neighborhood.” Her story about opening Books Are Magic appeals to themes of community and belonging.
(Shortform note: Though Biesenbach is primarily talking about telling a story rather than writing one, writers tend to agree with his advice to find a theme that will resonate with your audience. In On Writing Well, William Zinsser explains that you need to find humanity in your story: a shared experience or a deeper truth that lies beneath the specific situation. Zinsser thinks that humanity is why we read books about people who find themselves in circumstances we’ve never experienced ourselves: Their resilience in the face of challenges or their persistence in their search for meaning feels relatable to us.)
#3: A Point of View
In addition to telling your listeners something about themselves, a good story tells them something about you. Biesenbach explains that by revealing something about who you are, the right story humanizes you. It illustrates how you see the world, communicates how you’re unique, and makes you memorable. For example, a childhood story about how you accidentally caused a neighborhood blackout could either reveal how your love of electrical engineering began or illustrate why you never do electrical work: It all depends on your point of view.
(Shortform note: Your point of view isn’t incidental to the story you tell: Experts agree that it’s a crucial part of how you tell the story and why you tell it. In On the Origin of Stories, Brian Boyd argues that evolutionarily, fictional narratives serve the crucial purpose of helping us understand how other people experience the world. This helps us increase our capacity for empathy, a skill that’s necessary for cooperation and thus survival. Some social animals, like honeybees, even have a rudimentary form of narrative that helps them understand each other.)
#4: An Appeal to Values
———End of Preview———
Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Rob Biesenbach's "Unleash the Power of Storytelling" at Shortform.
Here's what you'll find in our full Unleash the Power of Storytelling summary:
- How telling a story can make any message more compelling
- The unique power stories have to influence us and shape our emotions
- The crucial pieces that make up a story (other than the beginning, middle, and end)
Very interesting post. Loved Reading this.