Do We Understand Human Storytelling Right?
Stop calling your stories articles. It will help you switch your mindset from article writer to storyteller.
As a technical writer, it’s not that clear what that means when saying Human Storytelling. We just write some guidelines on how to do one or another thing with a particular framework, or technology or just describe some technical topics. Is it still “Human” and should I continue doing this on Medium? The short answer is “Yes”! But let’s discuss this in more detail.
If you shuddered when first heard it from Medium like me welcome abroad. Of course, there is nothing to shudder, but some questions may seem open.
Hmm, Human Storytelling, okaaay? So no more AI, but what besides that? So, should I write my articles in some different way or what?
First of All, Stop Writing Articles, Instead, Tell Stories.
Easier said than done. For many of us coming from different backgrounds, and not familiar with writing, especially for the ones with technical backgrounds, it does not seem trivial at first glance.
So I developed a formula for how to tell a story rather than just write an article.
Medium wants us to go beyond dry fact statements to write down a clean storyline as if a reader were sitting in front of us.
For a moment imagine that situation. Of course, you will not just start talking about Problem A, then Solution A, then B, then C, D, etc., not like a robot or some AI-powered assistant. We should establish a conversation with the reader.
First of all, you should clarify who your story is for. Like in product development, there should be a clean Persona defined with all the necessary attributes. What were your Persona's needs and interests, how much time does your Persona have to spend on reading your piece, will your storyline make sense for the reader, and most importantly, what he/she will take from your story?
At least that’s what makes sense for me, and that’s what I was missing.
Besides that, I found that I can apply the same pattern for other things, like writing technical documentation for the product I work on, presenting topics, initiatives, or problems during business meetings, and some instructions on how to use modules.
I Just Love Writing About Code. How Can I Tell This Story?
Let’s say you have mastered some technology and can now confidently share your experience in it.
Don’t just write down all the documentation explaining every feature and capability of the technology in detail. I’m sure the reader can find all this information in the official documentation and manuals. There must be something else included, and that is your story.
What the reader can’t find in official guides is your personal experience and the story behind it. Tell us why you chose this particular technology and what advantages and disadvantages you found, what problem you solved and why you did it the way you did, how big the problem was, what the business requirements and situation were, and whether it was easy to do. Does the official documentation reflect reality? Are there any shortcomings that it is better to know about in advance and did that meet all your expectations after all?
There’s always a story to tell.
Summary
Meanwhile, this may seem trivial to experienced content creators, but I recently found this simple thing, and perhaps for the ones with the same mindset as me, it can be a time saver.
Your story structure shouldn’t be similar to academic definitions, there are enough black-on-white papers for that. People come to Medium for stories that are written by people for people, telling people’s stories, human stories.
Hope this will be helpful for you and your team and will let you focus on important things!
Don’t forget to share your experience in the comments below.
