Brain Sturm, PhD
Brian Sturm lectured on Storytelling Theory and Practice in a lecture series for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he is a professor. The entire lecture is worth a watch, but I just wanted to highlight one brief comment from this almost forty-five minute lecture. The comment is this: if you think of random dots, story is what connects those dots. Though his comment almost certainly relates to understanding what a story is, it can also be applied in storytelling technique.
To make this point, the included film (below) from Camp4Collective opens with a seemingly unrelated narration that in the end ties the underlying story together. It’s a brilliant piece of work and you should take fifteen minutes and watch it.
A few sample questions to ask when crafting your story: What dots are you trying to connect? What seemingly unrelated dots could you introduce to help pull the story together? What dots could you introduce to add interest and an outside perspective?
Happy storytelling!
Curiosity from Camp 4 Collective for The North Face