Live Lit Storytelling Mistake #3. You Don’t Anchor Your Story in Scenes.
I’m going to help your writing sing.
Last year I did 1k free, hour-long storytelling training.
I’ve taken what I’ve learned from that experience and am creating the ultimate guide to storytelling mistakes. 101 Storytelling Mistakes You Know You’re Making. Why you’re making them, and how to fix them. And I’m publishing them here on Medium 1st.
When your audience is confused, the number 1 reason is you’re not placing your story concretely in scene.
Matthew Dicks, in Story Worthy, pushes the idea that when he’s telling a story, he’s trying to create a movie in the listener’s mind. If you think about how you listen to podcasts, it’s almost as if your eyes are closed. The images fill your mind, and you FEEL present. You're there with the storyteller, seeing what he sees.
Anchoring Your Story in Scenes is Hard.
When you are telling a story that you’ve lived through, your mind does the work. Your imagination is filled with concrete details so it doesn’t feel necessary to say it out loud.
When you tell someone about the first time you jumped off the high dive. Your imagination takes you back to that place. You feel the diving board under your feet. You remember the color of the board and how it complemented the clean blue, outdoor swimming pool below. Your imagination is so powerful you feel the wind and the sun dry the drops of water on your skin. Some of you can smell the chlorine!
Since you’re feeling all those lush, vivid, sensorial details it seems ridiculous to repeat them out loud.
Live Literature Storytelling is about accessing that imagination and then speaking it into existence for the audience. That’s when the magic happens. That’s when you transfer the scene from your mind, into the minds of the audience. Suddenly, not only do they see it, but they are there, standing on that diving board with you. They feel what you feel.
Through the power of story, they discover it with you!
Set these 3 Details to Make Your Audience Feel Comfortable Following the Story.
- Set the story in a specific time and location.
You aren’t driving in a car.
Instead, you’re sixteen. Driving a 75 silver Cadillac South on 94 because you’re heading into Chicago with your friends for the first time.
Giving your audience a snippet of detail anchors them in the scene and then THEIR imagination can fill out the rest of the details without you having to give the rest. Some of them will imagine the window is down. Some will imagine you blasting music. That’s okay. It makes it richer for them.
But when you simply say, “I’m driving a car.” Instead of filling out the details with their imagination, your audience ends up with questions. What kind of car? When is this? How old are you? Etc.
- Center your scenes in action.
You’re the protagonist of your own story. Set a strong desire right off the bat and your scenes should be placed so we feel it. Maybe the desire leads to conflict. But we are seeing you striving to get what you want.
Cut scenes where your motivations seem confused.
- Scenes need to serve the dramatic arc.
Arlene Malinowski in her class on Goddesses & Storytelling hammered home that stories need to have two arcs. There’s the news and what we think about it.
(If you are ever looking for a 1-on-1 storytelling coach, or to build out a full-length solo show, seek her out.)
That is to say, there’s the plot, the scenes, and the action that ensues, but there’s also an emotional core to every story. Each scene and each setting should be placed intentionally into the story so that it serves those two arcs.
This is most famously explained in the rule of Chekhov’s Gun. If the audience sees a gun in act 1 then that gun must go off by act 3. Don’t introduce details or scenes that are superfluous to the plot and the emotional core of the story. If the story is about how you overcame your fear of heights and jumped off the high dive! Skip the scene where you’re driving with your friends to Chicago for the first time.
If your story is about how you felt freedom by stealing your grandpa’s 75 Cadillac, skip the scene of you on the high dive.
Once you get good at rendering scenes, they will become seductive to the audience. Especially those who want to help you workshop your stories. Make sure you’re always checking in with yourself to see if the scene fits with your theme statement.
I enjoy ending my pieces by saying thank you.
You have a story to tell. Experiences, you think about every day. Little moments and scenes from your life you ideate on. That’s your heart telling you there’s a story there. Join my mailing list, The Feedback Loop, and you’ll get access to a free offer for 1-on-1 coaching where I’ll help you find the story’s meaning. Help you turn your story into a gift for the audience.
