Storytelling Tip: Establish what your story is about. Then go from there

Stories help us relate to each other and build community, says Sarah Austin Jenness, executive producer of the storytelling organization and podcast, The Moth. This is especially true with so much of our creative work at Purdue. Among our most important responsibilities is encouraging our audiences to feel a deeper connection with our university.

In this interview with Elise Hu from NPR’s Life Kit, Jenness shared a number of tips on how to tell a good story. Several of these tips will likely serve as useful food for thought, but let’s focus on one that might help you get started on your next piece:

Boil your story down to one sentence that helps focus what it’s really about.

As Jenness explains, simplifying it to its essence can help you understand how to structure the piece and which details to include to support your narrative. Following this tip can help your story resonate more powerfully by eliminating unimportant stuff that distracts from the point.