Small Stories about Big Things
A 4-Part Storytelling Framework
Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something - anything - down on paper. - Anne Lamott
Reflect: Think back on significant moments or experiences in your day, week, or over the arc of your life (choose one). What stands out as particularly impactful or meaningful?
Recount: Tell the story of one of those experiences, focusing on vivid details and emotions. What happened, who was involved, and how did you feel?
Relate: Connect the experience to your journey. What does this story mean to you today?
Review: Read the story aloud. Where does the story feel most alive? If that portion is the story’s heartbeat, do the other parts of your story need to be cut, expanded, or changed to ensure that the heartbeat is heard? Also, what would it look like to tie a key image or idea from the opening to your conclusion?
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Rouse (Bonus Option!): If you want the audience to hear their story in your story, take note of your story’s key metaphors and imagery. Use the central one to ask rhetorical questions of your audience.
(e.g. If you told a story of being pushed into a corner, you might eventually ask the audience, “Have you ever felt cornered? Stuck? Wondering if you could get out?” Continue from there with insight, guidance, or direction that is based on what you discovered in your own story)
The audience comes last. It turns out that when you make something truly for yourself, you’re doing the best thing you possibly can for the audience. -Rick Rubin
© Bobby Hulme-Lippert 2024
Storytelling is discovery.
And finding your stories is like walking into a deep forest where there are all kinds of soaring, buried, and beautiful things inside.
Too many of us, of course, forget how to enter.
We get stuck inside our endless churning of checklists:
Ever-doing, never exploring.
Ever completing, never savoring.
Ever-moving, never connecting.
Some even forget the great wild woods exist at all.
Fortunately, the way into your stories is quite simple if you are willing to pause long enough to look for it. It is emotion. Listen for where in your life you feel real emotion about something or someone. Open it up, take courage as you move into the foliage, and start writing.
You’ll notice quite quickly that you’ve entered an expanse far larger than you expected, and much that appears ordinary from afar is, in fact, quite the opposite.
Always, this proves to be a journey. Always there is a surprise. And quite frequently, joy, insight, and even healing are unearthed along the way.
- Bobby Hulme-Lippert