Story first!

& seven other Lessons I learned on Storytelling in the Digital Age

This article will take 8 minutes to read. It has five links to read more about storytelling pros and 1 about coding for people like me. Oh, and I am Dutch and English is not my native writing language. (Also view lesson 6).

Recently I have been learning from the best, when it comes to storytelling in the digital age. Among them are 19-year old students I worked with at a 48 hours storytelling hackathon. And then there’s the pro’s, I was lucky enough to be learning from: Upworthy editorial director Amy O’Leary, datajournalist John Keefe from Radiolab, Wall Street Journal datajournalist Lam Thuy Vo, Julie Shapiro from Radiotopia and art & technology hacker Hay Kranen from Volkskrant.

Halleluja! From the best in the business, I learned that they don’t know exactly what they are doing either.

There I was at these meetings, sitting with my little notebook and pen, always feeling slightly intimidated by the pace and possibilities of all things ‘web’. But Halleluja! From the best in the business, I learned that they don’t know exactly what they are doing either. They are always trying, tinkering, failing, starting over, getting frustrated, trying something else, calling people in for help and in the end creating beauty.

So, in the spirit of a hackathon and of sharing knowledge to become better together, here is what I took home from my days of learning on storytelling in the digital age:

1. Focus on the story first.
   It might not be the most revolutionary insight ever. But still: without a great story, gifs, sounds, maps, video’s and animations are just a lot of echoing brouhaha. But if you get your story straight, a map, visual or podcast might be a better way to convey it, then your ol’ fashioned article.
2. Nobody knows exactly what they are doing. They just do.
   How big was my relief to hear from self proclaimed human Suiss army knife Lam Thuy Vo that she doesn’t know what she is doing half of the time. Here I was, 37 years old, thinking it was all on me, that I feel intimidated and overwhelmed by the endless possibilities techniques give us. On top of that, techniques to me are somewhere in a parallel universe I never go to, afraid as I am, to be eaten alive. No reason at all for my angst. “People always seem to think that I know what I am doing, because I know how to code. I can tell you. I do not.” Tech wizard Hay Kranen said exactly the same. 
   John Keefe convinced me even more that technique isn’t scary. He showed in a real time presentation how you can set up data collection with google forms and a little coding in literally a few minutes. There I was, looking at the phone in my hand, entering data in a form, projected on a live screen John created seconds ago before my eyes. It is not magic! It is technique that these people taught themselves. And they convinced me, that I, a person who has a thorough hatred for things as simple as excel, can do it to. So after finishing doing what I do best, which is creating long reads like this, I go to codeacademy.com and look into this coding miracle.
3. Mine the web and don’t be afraid of the ever changing landscape of ever more new social media.
   You don’t need endless courses to keep up with what the web has to offer when it comes to new services. Yes, we face the first time situation that our professional umfeld is constantly changing with new techniques and platforms. Don’t go all spastic about it (which is what I did. I either thought, I don’t understand it, so it is stupid (Instagram). Or I tried to understand it by reading a lot of articles about it.)
   Just go and use what is there. Experiment, try, experience and know what is usable for what. But remember: you can’t choose a form, before you know what your story is. So don’t focus on new media like this: “Here we have this snapchat/facebook/Instagram/twitter/whatsapp-thing! It is new, teens are using it, we have to put out our stories there to reach them, or else our newspaper/radiostation/ magazine will surely die! (sound familiar, right?). Just use and browse through social media yourself. And when a story comes along, you’ll know what the best way or medium is, to tell that particular story.
   And, maybe even more important: social media are a great source to find stories. Or to find data that can help built your story. Lam Thu Voy showed a powerfull example of a desperate mother’s facebookmessages to her son, who choose to leave to fight with IS in Syria. I don’t think I have ever read an interview with a similar topic, that was as hard hitting as just showing the grieve, despair and fear these messages show. It made me understand more about how terrible it is to loose a child to ideological ideas, than a 2000 word article ever could.
   So, also after finishing this ever growing story of lessons learned, I shall install snapchat and go fool around with it a little. Busy afternoon ahead!
4. Your story starts, before you say a word.
   John Keefe made a powerful statement on how to involve people before the story is there. Social media and our access to peoples pockets through their smartphones gives great possibilities to engage people in getting data to create a story. Keefe asked New Yorkers to help locate abandoned bikes, by asking them to take geotagged pictures. The huge amount of data and locations, was presented to the city council, who previously stated there was no problem with abandoned bikes. People become journalists themselves and they help you follow up and continue the story.
5. Coders and developers are people.
   Don’t view coders and developers as a different species who you don’t understand and who don’t understand you. And never just throw your story on their desk, believing they know what you want without an explanation.Hay Kranen made a strong case for developers, designers and storytellers to work together from the outset. And I have experienced how powerful the result can be, by joining a hackathon. Yes, technique can be intimidating. But no, it is not as intimidating as you might think. At least talk about it. Go sit down with a coder for an hour and let him or her explain to you what is and is not possible in a certain format or program. And surprise yourself with the sheer beauty you can create when you join forces.
6. Manage expectations about your story.
   Online, our attention is constantly distracted. People literarily have millions of other things they might want to read/watch/listen to. Help them weigh if they want to spent their time on consuming your work. Tell them how much of their time it will take. And don’t confuse them with a avalanche of links that lead them away from the story they made a conscious decision to read. Make sure text and image are congruent. Don’t confuse people even more than the web does in itself.
7. “We are in a streetfight for human attention.”
   Amy O’Leary explains how it is perfectly understandable that we want to attract attention to our stories, using all ‘weapons’ the digital age has to offer.
   We sometimes forget, that the main attention grabber remains the story itself. The web gives us almost endless ways to present that story in an attractive, beautiful, moving or humorous way. As long as people are able to share stories, they want to know: what happens next? Never forget how powerfull a great story, told with the right emotion, is in itself.
8. “Stories have the power to change the way we think about the world.”
   Stories don’t exist in a vacuum. Every story is part of the bigger narrative of human development. Stories are ongoing, continue to touch each other in different ways and reflect on one and other. It helps us to gradually understand the world better and maybe that helps us to make it a better place.

We all want to break through the noise that is all around. We have the weapon of storytelling. It is a superpower.