Storyworthy Summary (C6 & C7): 5-Second Stories

Buy Storyworthy here: https://amzn.to/41yZrmJ

Stories that you tell orally are very different from those you would write down.

Oral stories are usually less formal and have more repetition.

In the rest of the chapters in this book you will learn how to craft your oral story.

Sam’s Note: Chapter 6 of Storyworthy is essentially a sample story from the author, so it has been skipped. It’s a good story though and throughout the rest of the book he refers back to it, using it as a learning tool. You can listen to it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjrlGhAB4a4

Every great story is essentially about a five-second moment in the life of the protagonist.

Everything else in the story has the sole purpose of bringing that five-second moment to life.

For your stories, you are the protagonist, and the five-second moment is when something fundamentally changes you. For example; falling in or out of love, discovering something new about yourself or another person, your opinion about something dramatically changes, you have a massive fail, etc.

Knowing this fact, that a good story revolves around a single moment in time, makes your job as a storyteller much easier. It gives you structure and purpose - something to work around and build upon.

You uncover these life changing moments with exercises such as Homework for Life, Crash and Burn, and First, Last, Best, Worst.

Since the whole point of a story is to serve the one moment of change, anything that doesn’t help toward that goal must be marginalized or removed.

On the flipside, anything that helps to bring clarity to that singular moment is highlighted.

What you think is a story may actually be more of an anecdote or a ‘romp’.

You may have something entertaining, but if there is no reasoning to your story, no five-second moment, then it won’t move your audience in any meaningful way.

This is not truly a story.

A true story will have a lasting effect. It will connect the audience to you.

You may think people will be interested in hearing about that time you backpacked through Argentina. Trust me, they don’t.

No one wants to listen to you recount your itinerary and what you ate.

However, if during that journey there truly was a ‘change’ moment, then you may have a good story that just happens to be set in Argentina. A good way to test it is to ask yourself this:

If I remove the fact that it happened in Argentina, is it still a good story to tell?

Only if the answer is yes do you *potentially* have a story worth telling.

You may think that your near-death experience or that time you met an alien are great stories, but more often than not it is the little moments that shine through.

The key point is relatability. Few people can relate to your big moments. They haven’t experienced anything like it themselves, so it won’t resonate with them.

Instead, seek out those moments when you felt your heart move. These are the moments that are relatable. These are the stories that people connect with.

Read the next chapter here.

Buy Storyworthy here: https://amzn.to/41yZrmJ