The 10 Principles of Storytelling

Bobette Buster teaches the art of telling powerful stories.

In Do Story, Buster uses short stories on a variety of subjects and unpacks what makes them great, demonstrating a range of effective narrative techniques. Vivid, enlightening, and brimming with practical tips, Do Story unlocks the secrets to becoming a captivating storyteller.

Read on for the basic principles to a successful story!

1. Tell your story as if you’re telling it to a friend.

This applies no matter where you are or who your audience is.

2. Set the GPS.

Give the place, time, setting, and any relevant context. Keep it factual, short, and sweet.

3. Action!

Use active verbs or, as I like to say, “Think Hemingway”: spice up your verb choices but keep them succinct. Invest in a thesaurus (or a free app). Avoid multisyllabic, erudite, four-dollar words, overintellectualizing, philosophizing, qualifying. See how many I just used? It’s boring to keep reading them, isn’t it?

4. Juxtapose.

Take two ideas, images, or thoughts and place them together. Let them collide. Remember German philosopher Friedrich Hegel here: that in posing two opposing ideas, a whole new idea is created (thesis + antithesis = synthesis). This tool wakes up your audience, and is the root of all successful stories.

5. Gleaming detail.

Choose one ordinary moment or object that becomes a “gleaming detail,” something that best captures and embodies the essence of the story. Make the ordinary extraordinary.

6. “Hand over the Spark”

Reflect on the experience or idea that originally captivated you, and simply hand it to your audience as if it were aflame. Carry the fire.

7. Be vulnerable.

Dare to share the emotion of your story. Be unafraid to ask your audience what you questioned along the way so they share your doubt, confusion, anger, sorrow, insight, glee, delight, joy, epiphany.

8. Tune in to your sense memory.

Choose the strongest of the five senses in your story and use it to make a deeper connection with your audience. There is always one primary sense that dominates every memory.

9. Bring yourself.

A story is as much about you as anything else.

10. Let go.

Hand over your story, letting it build to its natural, emotional punchline, and then end it and get out fast. Leave the audience wanting more. Less is more.

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Dive into each of these principles in Do Story by Bobette Buster, available here.