Many brands and companies struggle to tell their story – they know what they’re about, but find it difficult to articulate their vision in a way that connects with customers or investors. Likewise, I’ve watched highly intelligent leaders struggle to sift through piles of data and pull out the narrative therein.
There are some great articles floating around about how to craft a compelling brand or product or data story that holds people's attention. But, as a playwright, I’d like to draw your attention to this book by David Ball. The book was written for actors, to help them closely read play texts. But I like to think of it as a manual for writing narrative.
In the book, Ball breaks down narrative into three sections which I find way more helpful than Beginning, Middle, and End. He breaks plot into: Stasis, Intrusion, and the Struggle for New Stasis. This is a much more active way of thinking about story - if Stasis is the status quo, the way things are now, then Intrusion is exactly what it sounds like - a disruption. An inconvenience. And the Struggle for New Stasis is your heroic attempt to solve the problem of the Intrusion.
Next time you have to give a presentation, think like a playwright.
There are some great articles floating around about how to craft a compelling brand or product or data story that holds people's attention. But, as a playwright, I’d like to draw your attention to this book by David Ball. The book was written for actors, to help them closely read play texts. But I like to think of it as a manual for writing narrative.
In the book, Ball breaks down narrative into three sections which I find way more helpful than Beginning, Middle, and End. He breaks plot into: Stasis, Intrusion, and the Struggle for New Stasis. This is a much more active way of thinking about story - if Stasis is the status quo, the way things are now, then Intrusion is exactly what it sounds like - a disruption. An inconvenience. And the Struggle for New Stasis is your heroic attempt to solve the problem of the Intrusion.
Next time you have to give a presentation, think like a playwright.