I was doing a storytelling presentation recently at a local elementary school, for its “Communication Celebration.” Instead of bringing in a PowerPoint, or showing them a bunch of web work, I decided to do a 30-minute workshop on what makes stories “work.”

The workshop is based on the idea that you start with a core – the essence of the story – and flesh it out from there.

• Tell a story in one sentence.
• Tell the same story in 30 seconds.
• Tell the same story in 90 seconds.

When I have done this workshop with other audiences where there’s been more time, a peculiar thing happens. People get the one-sentence and 30-second versions right, but they’re so fearful of not filling 90-seconds that they fail to come in under three minutes!

On this day, there wouldn’t be time to go with the full 90-seconds, but the principle was the same. [Read more...]