The Why, What, and How of Storytelling: A Science-Based FAQ
By Dr. Troy Hiduke Campbell
Troy Hiduke Campbell is the chief scientist at On Your Feet, a behavioral science PhD, marketing professor, former Disney Imagineer, and founder of Hiduke House.
This is a brief science-based FAQ meant to leave you with some basic and advanced knowledge for one of the most important things in life, art, and business: storytelling.
The FAQ covers provides answers from scientific findings and artistic theories that can help you better know
why story works
what story is
how to tell stories
1. Why should I use storytelling?
Story is the way the brain most easily processes and remembers information.
Some scholars have gone as far as to say that humans’ ability to think in cause-and-effect logic and process events narratively across time is a distinct component of human cognition.
2. What can story do?
Story creates meaning.
Words and ideas alone do not have much meaning. The stories behind them create the meaning. The reason something happens (the backstory, the cause) imbues the idea with meaning.
3. What is a simple definition of story?
Story is cause, character, and change.
Great storytellers, from Pixar, to the creators of “South Park,” to leading academics, such as the author of Narrative, Porter Abbott, and the world’s leading comics professor, Dr. Katherine Kelp-Stebbins, all roughly define story as the causal linkage between the experiences of characters that leads to big and small changes.
Whether you are telling a story about a character that is changed to be forever a better person because of an epic journey they went on in a 300-page novel, or just telling a story about a character that changed to be momentarily happier because they ate some delicious ice-cream in a 30-second commercial, this is the essential story structure.
For the most part, any long, short, or micro story should fit into this template:
The character __________
changed to be __________
because of __________.
4. What is the easiest way to tell a good story?
Use the story spine.
Invented by the improviser Ken Adams and later adopted and popularized by Pixar, this story form takes the essential idea that story is “cause and character” and creates a template for events to continually cause a character’s story to evolve.
It’s not perfect, and it’s not always the best template for every situation, but it is a useful starting place.
Here it is; just fill in the blanks.
Once upon a time there was a __________.
Every day, they __________.
One day things change when, __________.
Because of that, __________.
Because of that, __________.
Because of that, __________.
Until finally __________.
And since that day, everything has been __________.
5. How should I start a story?
Start your story with a portal.
Portal into your story by giving enough direction to let your audience know why and how they should be paying attention and what to expect — even if what you want to do is subvert that expectation later.
A portal is a special type of transition that creates positive anticipation (what to be excited about), facilitates the correct mindset shift (how to be thinking), and establishes or hints at what the overall narrative is (what the big story is).
Here’s a checklist for creating a portal beginning:
The beginning of the story creates:
the positive anticipation of ____________
the correct mindset of ____________
establishes the narrative of _____________
6. How do I choose the right story?
Usually, you should not choose one story but should, instead, tell a core story through multiple narratives.
In other words, use “Multi-Narrative Storytelling” like Nike or Apple, who in their advertisements often tell many different narratives that are conceptually united around their one core story of “Just Do It” or “Think Different.”
The 1978 classic Superman movie also did this by introducing the character of Superman who has a literal core statement, “Truth, justice, and the American way,” and who is introduced through a series of multi-narrative vignettes that illustrate that core: saving people, helicopters, businesses, and cats.
A general template for Multi-Narrative Storytelling is:
The core idea of this person/product/brand is ____________.
One narrative example of this idea core idea in action is ____________.
Another slightly different narrative example is ____________.
And, also, one more different narrative example is ____________.
7. How do I tell a story about a past successful action you took or a future action I think someone else should take?
To create a compelling story behind an action, begin with a goal, share an insight, and then explain the action — in a form called Goal-Insight-Action (GIA).
People tend to skip to action: individuals just say, “Here’s a great thing I did,” leaders just say, “Here’s the action you should take,” and businesses just say, “Here’s what you should buy,” without giving the causal reason, the story behind why. With GIA you create the full story.
Goals are calls to action, motivations, and reasons for being. They establish what needs to be done. The insights are ideas and discoveries that guide and enable the action. They serve as the authority and the clarity. And, finally, the action is how one uses the insight to accomplish the goal. The actions make the insights real and useful. Fun fact: most of this Q&A is in a GIA form where there’s a question (goal), some theory (insight), and then a specific template (action).
Here is the simple GIA model:
The goal is/was ____________
A useful insight is/was ____________
So the action was/should be ____________
8. How do I tell a truly great story?
A great story usually has a sense of destiny to it.
In all good stories, characters change. But, in the greatest stories of all time, characters change into who they were always meant to be. I call this story form the “Destiny Narrative.” In these stories, people are often changing into more of their “true selves.”
We love seeing these types of stories in theaters, and we are personally influenced by stories that frame our personal change as changing to be “more of who we already are.”
The Destiny Narrative usually follows this three-part structure:
I always ____________
I struggled ____________
Until one day I discovered __________
9. When is story important?
Always. Every moment of life, you are listening to, telling, or living a story.
Gaining a better understanding of how story works could not be more important to understanding and engaging with everything.
10. Where can I learn more?
At Hiduke House, where I take a “scientific mind, artistic heart” approach to ideas.
You can learn more about all the story templates and story theory mentioned in this FAQ with these resources:
