LFS:Workshops/Storytelling

Structure

Dramatic Structure

The Inverted Pyramid

Diagram by Christopher Schwartz CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A story...

is someone doing something for a reason
builds tension
has stakes
has a beginning middle and an end
has a hook

One simple way to test whether your story is worth telling on the radio is to tell it to your friends, and notice how you feel. Do you feel like you’re dragging through one tedious moment after another, always on the verge of losing their interest, and sometimes you’re not even sure what the story’s about or why you’re telling certain parts? Or are your friends laughing and buying you drinks and begging you for more details about the characters? When you’re done, does everyone at the table launch into an excited discussion of similar things that happened to them? Heed these signs. If you can’t tell the story compellingly to a friend, it means either you haven’t figured out what the story is really about, or much more likely it never will be possible to tell this story compellingly over the radio.
(Also notice, incidentally, the way you tell your friends the story: where you begin it, what background facts you feel compelled to throw in and where you throw them in, what parts of the story you tell in what order, what parts of the story you leave out, what parts of the story seem weaker when you tell them. The way you tell the story to your friends is often the best structure for the story on the radio. Sometimes, when someone’s stuck on writing a story for our show, I or one of the other producers will have them put down their notes and logs and just tell us the story, to hear the structure they naturally use in telling it aloud.)
And yes, there are ways to get a story to work. Often this means you have to think about what the heart of the story is about, and figure out how to make that more present. This can involve adding moments and scenes that build up the central conflict (and pruning away the ones that don’t). It can mean making explicit what the story means, stating more directly what the point of the whole thing is. More about that below.
— Ira Glass, Transom “What’s A Story?”

It pays to imagine the story you will find

What is an alternative to narrative: http://transom.org/2013/hafid-is-free/

Scripting

Storyboarding

Penn State's guide
Common Craft's intro

Writing for the Ear

Print vs Radio

One thought per sentence
Be concise
Active verbs
Say what you mean
Telling detail
Logic
The Mouth Edit

Interviewing

Sawartsky's Seven Deadly Sins

The Riddler

Asking a non-question
Asking a double-barreled question
Overloading your question
Putting remarks into your question
Including trigger words in your question
Including hyperbole in your question
Asking a close-ended question

One thing I learned early on as a reporter, that it’s a lot better looking stupid to your sources than looking stupid to your readers. Throughout my career I’ve confronted people who have said something to me in a very offhand way as if I should know exactly what they are talking about. And I’ve said, ‘Wait a minute, what are you talking about?’ I think sometimes their esteem for me fell a little bit as a result of asking the question, but I’d much rather have that than having to write around some point to camouflage the fact that I didn’t know what I was talking about or else get it wrong.
— Peter Rinearson, The Seattle Times

Before

Be prepared
- Equipment
- Questions�
- Punctuality
Plan for your location
Be friendly
Explain your purpose

During

“Why?”
Silent response and eye contact
Get the interviewee to show you, it may trigger enriched descriptions and anecdotes.
Don’t worry about flubbing your questions. Get the right question
On and off the record
Expected the unexpected

After

“Is there anything you’d like to add?”
Keep the tape running
Other people to talk to
Ask about follow-ups
Thank your interviewee
Raw sounds and ambient noise

Other Resources

Podcasts

Digital Storytelling

The Center for Digital Storytelling

Books

Websites