Storyworthy Notes

Below is a stream of notes I took while reading Storyworthy.  I think this list of advice on how to craft a story is a better way to recap this book than my normal style, and I intend to constantly refer back to it as I continue to write.

1. Story must reflect change over time. You start out as someone and end someone else.
2. Has to happen to you (can be somebody else’s story, but you need to be the protagonist)
3. Dinner test. Tell a story like you would at the dinner table
4. Small moments that connect = stories
5. Daily story journal
6. Crash and burn. Stream of consciousness writing. No rules, just write. Evaluate later. Pen never stops moving. List things: colors, numbers, countries, girlfriends etc. ten or 15 minute timer.
7. First, last, best, worst - kiss, car, pet, trouble, injury, gift, travel
8. Every story is just a 5 second moment in a persons life.
9. The 5 second transformation comes at the end.
10. The opposite of the first 15 minutes of a movie is the end of the movie.
11. Start as close to the end as possible
12. Start with forward movement
13. Don’t set expectations
14. Stakes are the reason the audience listens to the next line
15. The elephant - change its color
16. Backpack - laid audience up with your plan. Plan shouldn’t execute perfectly
17. Breadcrumbs
18. Hourglass - slow time to build anticipation, then flip the hourglass!
19. Crystal balls - ??
20. Lie only if it benefits audience, not you
21. Lie of omission
22. Nobody wants redemption.  They want a clown.
23. Lies of compression
24. Lies of assumption
25. Lies of progression changing the sequence of events
26. The lie of conflation pushing everything into a shorter timeline
27. Transform A moment into THE moment
28. You should present a fully realized cinematic experience in the mind of your audience
29. Always provide a location for every different location of the story. Physical location is the key
30. Action. Specificity. Setting.
31. The word AND results in terrible stories, but & therefore are better conjunctions (and all of their synonyms)
32. This is not a story: First we went here and it was amazing and then we went there and it was amazing and then we went there and it was amazing. I.E. I don’t want to hear about your vacation.
33. The power of the negative it is more effective to see what you are not then what you are.
34. Authenticity, vulnerability, universal truth
35. Brevity is the soul of wit
36. Surprise is the only way to elicit an emotional reaction from your audience
37. An opening thesis statement ruins all surprise
38. Utilize the stakes to enhance the surprise
39. Plant a bomb. Hide critical details to enhance the surprise
40. Obscure major plot points by hiding them as small hidden details
41. Place details that are important to the surprise far away from the surprise
42. Hide plot details in a laugh
43. Try to get the audience to laugh within the first 30 seconds of your story
44. Make your audience laugh right before you make them cry
45. Milk cans and a baseball analogy for humor
46. Words with a K sound or funny for some reason
47. Create humor using the “babies in a blender method” - put opposites next to each other. One of these things is not like the other in a list of three words the last one is nothing like the other two. For example a family reunion with games pineapple ham and despair
48. Present tense is King. Past tense is Queen (use for backstory)
49. When telling your hero story malign yourself and understate your accomplishments. People love the underdog.
50. Don’t ask rhetorical questions. Don’t even address the audience.
51. Don’t use anachronisms
52. Don’t use props
53. Don’t use the word “story”
54. If you are speaking to a group - you have a duty and obligation to be engaging and entertaining.
55. A hook is an attempt to be entertaining, surprising, daring, engaging, thought provoking, etc.