The Ultimate Storytelling Guide [Infographic]

Do you remember the moment you started to tell stories? Most people don’t as we do it naturally since childhood. Does this mean that every person is good at storytelling? Unfortunately not, otherwise this article would have no sense.

If you are reading this introduction, you want to improve your storytelling skills and I will try my best to help you. Herein under you will find an infographic featuring 6 golden great storytelling rules I advise you to stick to. You can start to study it immediately or read this text first. It also contains some awesome stuff on the topic.

People frequently ask me how I write my articles. It’s rather difficult to explain as the stories are like dragons living under your bed. If you won’t release them from time to time, they will simply devour you. Just kidding :).

OK, let’s talk about “how to release and make friends with dragons”

Photo by Tarik Haiga on Unsplash

Every story has a plot and a hero. The authors often do one and the same mistake. They think up too twisted plots with multiple characters that are difficult to follow. I know it’s hard to say good-buy to some details that are uber important for you. But you must let them out if they confuse the audience.

Write simple, cover the points that not you but your audience is interested in. Tell about your character’s actions, the challenges they overcome, as the process is more important to people than the result.

I always step into my character’s boots and try to feel what they feel, think how would I act because honesty lends credibility even to the most unbelievable situations. Remember that coincidences that get your character into trouble are cool moves, but you should avoid coincidences to get your character out of trouble because it looks like cheating. Don’t forget to say what will happen if the character doesn't succeed to raise the stakes.    

By the way, do you know how to find hot topics that will go viral by all means?

Watch this video, it shows one of the multiple ways.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJxwrsBloho&w=560&h=315]

Besides, it would be cool to grab a decent SEO toolset to make your story rank high on Google. For instance, I often use Keyword Generator from Ahrefs when choosing the main keywords for my articles.

Now I would like to tell you a few words about the ending. As a rule, I know what will happen in the end before I finish the story. This is not a bad practice as writing endings is a tough work.

Besides, I get my ending ready beforehand because I need a good reason to write the story. It must teach something, must make people think about the things they didn’t think of before. You can be proud of yourself if people don’t stop to recollect your story after they finished to read it.

Finish your story and let it go even if you believe that it’s far from perfect. We don’t live in the ideal world, we constantly learn and next time you will do better. Sometimes I just put off my story for later but never do the work in vain.

Sometimes you get stuck, run out of inspiration… What do I do on such occasions? I think about the events that would never happen next and the material shows up.

Don’t write commonplace. Don’t be obvious, surprise yourself. Dig deeper thаn your 1, 2, 3, 4, and even 5th thoughts.

Well, my final tip is - if you have a clear answer to the question “what is the essence of your story” - you can start building your text around it. But please take a look at my infographic first.

Over to you

I hope my guide to storytelling will help you become better at the trade. Now I would be happy to hear your hacks, tips, and advice on the topic that are not on the list. Your feedback is welcome in the comments section.

Helga Moreno

Helga Moreno is a passionate content creator and marketer at Ahrefs bold enough to believe that if there’s a book that she wants to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then she must write it herself.

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