720+ days telling stories
How to become a great storyteller in just 365 days or more
2019
Somewhere in Akure, Ondo State Nigeria
I can’t remember these details clearly, but, I had just interacted with one of Seth Godin’s content, either directly or indirectly, but the winning scenario in my head was the interview session he had with Peace Itimi, or Blessing Abeng. On one of those interviews, or maybe it’s one out of the many Seth Godin’s content I had consumed where Seth shared that he has been sending daily emails over 20 years. In 2019, I decided to adopt it.
One thing Seth said about writing everyday was to [in my own words now], choose the path of least resistance. If you begin to make it too fancy, bother about fonts, color, etc, you’re only increasing the number of things you have to get over to eventually write. But, if you just write as Seth does daily, no header, no design, no choice of font, etc., Seth justs writes, daily, and sometimes he writes something new, some times, he writes the same thing in a different way. Ultimately, Seth writes daily, because he just writes.
Asides this, he advised you have a ‘Why’. A “Why” is the strongest motivator to get you going daily.
So, I decided on my why: I wanted to get better at writing, so I was going to write daily.
Ted Dekker told me this in one session I had with him in 2019 also, he said, [in my own words], “Write till all the bad ideas go away”. Someone had asked him how he was able to write such captivating books, he said he usually goes to a Cabin in the mountain, and writes daily for the period he’d be there writing consistently till there are no bad ideas left to write.
So, I had my “Why” to power my desire to write daily.
At first when I started, I had an audience of about 12 people which comprised my friends from secondary school and a few from the university. Gradually, the audience grew and amidst churn, we are currenty at 300 readers.
This article will focus on the lessons I learned by keeping a streak of 720+ days writing daily. I have had a few inconsistencies, and even as I write this, I am no longer as consistent with my daily letters/stories, but the lesson have been ingrained.
I hope they are useful to you.
What did I learn in 720+ days of storytelling?
1. Write to [a single audience] an audience of one
Starting out the issue was not what to write, to who to write to. Because, ‘who to write to’ greatly influences ‘what to write’. When I started writing daily, I wanted to write to everyone, I wanted what I was writing to make sense to as many people as possible, so, I took a longer time thinking what would be beneficial for everybody. Every story has it’s audience and oftentimes we might be compelled to want to write to many people, that’s a trap.
Pick a single person and write to that person.
That person can be a representation of many other people, however that should not bother you. Just bear in mind that you’re writing to one person.
Personally, the easiest person I write to is myself. I often write to the younger version of myself and teach him what I thought I should have known. It turns out stories I write in this manner have a way of resonating with a larger audience.
2. There’s no one way to write a story
To a lot of us, there is a perfect template for storytelling. We often search endlessly looking for a way to tell great stories, when in reality there is no one way to tell a story.
There were days I infused scenes from an anime to butress my point, lines from a movie, pictures, hand sketches, etc. Whatever I believed was relevant to ensure my [audience of one] understood me. The goal of every story is that the audience can understand what you’re trying to communicate, except your intention is to confuse.
So, if poetry works for you, use it. If you love long-form writings, use it, short form, whatever way you believe you can communicate your story better, do it.
3. Be consistent
Some years back, I watched a scene from Naruto Shippuden when this statement was made, “Be stronger that you were yesterday”. I was in JSS 3 when I saw this particular episode.
Much later in a session with Ted Dekker, he spoke of how he got rid of bad ideas, by writing away all the bad ideas. There will always be something that challenges the progress of what you are doing, and oftentimes in the face of these challenges, some people cave in. For storytelling it might be an unexpected reaction from your audience. It might even be outright silence, or no one acknowledges what you have written or the content you have put out.
This moment tests you, if you can push further than this point, then you might eventually improve.
4. Learn Daily
Don’t run away now.
At the sight of ‘learn daily’, some might have already started packing their bags. It’s not a tedious venture, here’s what I mean.
As a storyteller, you need a rich archive of stories and references to draw from. If you live in a choatic neighbourhood, then you might already have all the learning you need. Haha
But, consuming different forms of content makes it easier for you to write eventually. When I write, I often write from anime, church sermons, daily events and conversations with people from time to time. In rare occassion, I translate lessons from my dreams into stories.
So learning implies that you are deliberately getting content into your mind as often and consistently as you can. It might be through reading, seeing movies, or visiting new places. One thing that should happen to you often is learning.
5. Measure your growth
How would you identify if you are getting better?
In 2020 I had what seemed like an existential crisis. I was suffering from a severe bout of impostor syndrome, and I spoke to a few friends and my brother. They made me realize that I was judging my growth with external metrics. This means that I was looking at other people and making a comparison with myself, and that ate deep into me.
On learning the danger of comparison, I set up internal metrics to measure my progress.
So, sit with yourself and decide how you would identify that you have grown.
External validation is good. Truthfully, it feels so good, however, you should not bank totally on recieving external validation. You should be able to do fine whether or not you recieve a pat on the back from someone.
There are many other lessons, but these are the few I consider really important to share at the moment. I hope you find it useful as you work at becoming better at storytelling.
PS: You can share this post with other people who may or maynot need it.
Cheers!
