A great tip from Elmore Leonard to tell more compelling stories.
Transcript
Storytelling is rather simple if you follow this advice
Speaker:from writer Elmore Leonard.
Speaker:He said that a story is real life with the boring parts left out.
Speaker:Simple, right?
Speaker:Just leave out all the boring parts and voilà, your story is ready.
Speaker:But what, if you can’t leave out the boring parts.
Speaker:Because, let's say, it's a really dry topic with lots of
Speaker:facts or statistics or laws.
Speaker:It sounds like bad luck, doesn't it?
Speaker:I mean, you can’t just leave the facts out when it's about the facts, do you?
Speaker:You're basically doing two big giving a boring talk.
Speaker:Well, unless the premise is wrong which I believe it is.
Speaker:Facts are facts.
Speaker:In and of itself, a fact is neither boring nor exciting, but.
Speaker:If the facts relate to our lives, if the facts have an impact on our
Speaker:lives, even if it's just an impact on your business's bottom line,
Speaker:then we're back in Leonard's domain.
Speaker:Leave out the boring parts, i.e.
Speaker:those facts that don't relate to the point we're trying to make about our lives.
Speaker:Facts make for a boring story, if, and only if you write
Speaker:real life out of the story.
Speaker:And if you waste your time on the facts without making
Speaker:the connection to real life.