When you write or tell a story, you should try to break it into three acts. This is especially true for business storytelling, so often derailed by boring bullet-point and slide narratives. Ugh.
Try this.
Introduce characters, plot and tension.
Your readers, your listeners, like that.
They like to see matters in chunks.
And you can do it like a play – no matter what it is – even if it’s a business story.
#
Act 2
End Act 1 with a dramatic teaser, then use a bullet or a ## to show a break. Follow with a bold sub-headline leading to Act 2.
Get to the meat of the story in Act 2. At the end of Act 2, something dramatic happens again, either a low point or a high point or a tease that more is coming in Act 3.
And then comes a bullet or a # and then the final segment of your story.
###
Act 3 Wrap with power
It all comes to a beautiful conclusion during the climax of Act 3. This style is powerful. It helps audiences learn and remember. Opera works like this. Indeed, good stories are like opera. Lyrical. Dramatic. Told in distinct scenes and parts.
Stories have worked like that for thousands of years. Take advantage of a winning formula to communicate better in business.
Great talk by storyteller/columnist @DaveLieber tonight at University of Charleston. Touching, funny, humble, human. pic.twitter.com/RThPjrTkB3
— vicburkhammer (@vicburkhammer) March 18, 2015
More from Dave Lieber on Business Storytelling
If you tell stories for a living, here's how to get better
For storytelling in business, here's how to ‘show and not tell'
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