An article on HOW To Tell a Story. it may seem like an easy task but involves a lot of tasks such as imagination, innovation and visualization. This presentation has been made giving an example of the Batman trilogy in mind.

1. Presented By: Gauri Bhargava
HOW TO TELL A STORY
-Robert McKee

2. “Our appetite for stories is a reflection of the basic
human need to understand patterns of life-not
merely as an intellectual exercise but as a personal,
emotional experience.”
Many people don’t put much thought about how the
stories are made.

3. CHARACTERS PLOT POINT OF
VIEW
SHOW, DON’T
TELL
SETTING THEME
ELEMENTS OF STORYTELLING

4. CHARACTERS
The job of the storyteller is to bring
characters to life and make people care
about them.
“Choose characters that are under pressure
to help your audience to feel deeper.”
Ask: what’s that one thing the protagonist
wants to achieve.

5. PLOT
It is the sequence of events that ultimately resolves
the major dramatic question of the story.
3 elements to create a successful plot:
PROTAGONIST
He is the main character to
which the major dramatic
question applies.

6. HIS GOAL
What the protagonist wants is the
goal. In this case batman wants to
fight corruption and protect
Gotham City.
CONFLICT
Conflict is the obstacle
blocking protagonist from his
goal.

7. STORYTELLING ARCS

8. Should flow relatively quickly; provide the
necessary background; establish major
dramatic question.
Develop the characters; core action of the
movie; protagonists path to achieve the
goal is blocked.
Follows the 3Cs pattern- crisis- the point
where tension is the maximum; climax-
where the tension breaks; consequence-
answer to the dramatic question.

9. POINT OF VIEW
1ST PERSON
2ND PERSON
3RD PERSON
It gives the advantage of no barrier
between the audience and the speaker. It
can be limited and requires a narrator to
make more sense.
Uses the pronoun “you” that addresses the
audience. It is challenging and can come
off as being gimmicky.
Gives the advantage to enter the mind of
any character, describe incidents, provide
historic and future details.

10. SHOW, DON’T TELL
Storytellers communicate visually. Master storytellers
never explain- they do the hard painfully creative
thing:
DRAMATIZE
Do
Use memory,
imagination or
secondary
research
Don’t
Avoid clichés.
Don’t overload
with adjectives
and adverbs

11. SETTING
Create a small knowable world
The larger the world, the more diluted the knowledge of
the writer.
The smaller the world, the more complete knowledge of
the writer.

12. THEME
Theme answers the deep rooted question: “What is your
story about?”
It is often referred to as controlling idea which describes
how and why life undergoes change from one condition of
existence at the beginning to another at the end.
For example theme of batman begins was the rising
corruption and no importance to the law of the city

13. FINDING STORIES
One of the challenges of storytelling is to first find a story.
The easiest way to find a story is to begin by interviewing peopl
and creating a story bank.
Storytelling is about understanding your own humanity, the mo
more you understand your own humanity the more you can
appreciate the humanity of others.

14. STORYTELLING TEMPLATE
STORY TELLING= SITUATION/DESIRE-
COMPLICATION/OBSTACLE- SOLUTION/OUTCOME

15. SEVEN QUESTIONS TO SHARPEN YOUR STORIES
 Who’s the
protagonist?
 What’s the
hook?
 What keeps it
interesting?
 Where’s the
conflict?
 Have you
included
telling details?
 What’s the
emotional
hook?
 Is the
meaning
clear?

16. STORYTELLING IN BUSINESS
In her book Corporate Legends and Lore: Storytelling as
a Management Tool, Peg Neuhauser says that stories
within an organization vary from group to group but
usually include:
 How the organization was founded?
 Victories that demonstrate organization’s
effectiveness.
 What-we-learnt-in-defeat story.
 An employee performance story.

17. THE 10 IMMUTABLE LAWS OF STORYTELLING
4. Let your characters speak for themselves
5. Audiences bore easily
3. Stories need to be fixed in time and space
2. The people in your story have to want something
1. Stories are about people

18. 6.Stories speak the audience’s language
10. Stories have a clear meaning
8. Stories don’t tell; they show
9. Stories have at least one moment of truth
7. Stories stir up emotions