How to craft great stories

Here’s a practical guide on how to become a better storyteller.

Our brain work the way that we remember stories much more than the raw facts. That's why the most interesting content is based on stories: transformations, that people can relate with.

As a storyteller, your goal is to win the audience attention and hold it for long enough.

Make your listeners experience your story. Relate with them.

Be vulnerable to the listener, be sincere.

Base your stories on small "5-second" events. But add deep personal details.

Many people struggle to find the great stories in their lives.

In his book Matthew claims that anyone can develop “storytelling lens”. But it requires hard practice and discipline.

Spend 10 minutes every day to write down your best moments. Matthew calls it "Homework For Life" [see his 17 minutes TED Talk]. Write down the moments as soon as they happen to catch them.

Great stories are similar to great movies.

Make your story cinematic:

Tell your story using simple words, the way you’d tell it on the family dinner.

Use present tense to emphasize important events.

Connect sentences with “but”, “therefore”, but not “and”. They signal the change and add energy to the story.

Don’t overload story with jokes. The goal is to make audience remember the story, not to have fun.

Negative statement works better than positive."I dumb, I ugly" → "I’m not smart, I’m not attractive".

Use 2 words that normally won’t go together:"My grandma is a sadist".

A shorter story is often a better story. Avoid extra events and noise.

When you're performing on the stage, meetup, pitching to investors or recording a video — put your listener inside your story.

Being nervous is often beneficial, as people will naturally relate and support you.

Don’t memorize the whole story — memorize scenes. Make sure you know how to open and close well.