I’ve been working hard lately on my new book, tentatively entitled Being Real:  The Four Steps to Authentic Communication, and so I’ve been slacking off on the blogs.  But here goes on storytelling:  the basic themes.

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I’ve talked and written quite a bit about the basic stories, because understanding them is key to understanding why some stories grab you and some don’t.  We have 5 stories hard-wired into us from an early age, because they’re fundamental to Western culture and thus the way we think about ourselves. 

The most fundamental is the quest.  We’re ready to go off on a quest at the drop of an even slightly possible hat.  We cast ourselves in the role of the hero, we charge off, encountering obstacles and help — and mentors — along the way, and then we finally reach our goal and the celebration we’re entitled to.  It’s so fundamental, in fact, that we don’t think of it as a story, but more like a frame of mind, a way of thinking about reality.  They say fish don’t see the water they swim in; we’re that way when we’re on a quest.  It’s just what we do. 

So when you’re telling a story, if you can turn it into a quest, everyone will get it and your work will be that much easier — and more successful.

After the quest, there’s the love story (LS), stranger in a strange land (SIASL), revenge (R), and rags to riches (RTR).  Each has its own structure and emotional states associated with it; you know these stories deeply if you’ve watched TV, read books, gone to the movies, and listened to politicians at some point in your life. 

The love story is again one that we don’t see as a story, but as a part of life — it’s what happens to us (or doesn’t).  We fall in love, we fall out of love, we’re happy, we’re sad — it’s what we do. 

The other stories are equally basic — we’ve all been thrown into a new situation where we don’t know the rules (SIASL), wanted to get back at someone who’s wronged us (R), and many of us have worked our way up from nothing to something (RTR).  The point is that, in addition to being life experiences, these are stories, which means we will shape our experiences, and certainly our memories of our experiences, to fit the conventions these stories demand.  If you doubt that, listen to yourself the next time you tell one of those tales to your friends that you’ve told many times.  Where does the exact truth lie, and where do you start to shade things ever so slightly?  Around the conventions that the stories demand, that’s where.  You’ll find yourself shaping life to fit the construct.

All of which is simply to say that these basic stories are powerful, people get them, and therefore you should structure your presentations around them, because they will make your speeches much more memorable, easy to grasp, and satisfying for your audiences.