Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks — Book Summary & Notes
It is my job, my responsibility and my obligation to communicate in a way that people want to listen to me, and are able to retain the information and knowledge that they’ve received so that they have the choice to act upon it.
📑Summary of the Book
Matthew Dicks is a high school teacher and a competitive storyteller. He is one of the leading storytelling experts in the world. In this book, he shares his journey into storytelling and how he uses it to help build connections with his students, making the classes engaging and memorable.
He offers practical lessons on how to find storyworthy moments in life, how to identify the critical piece of the story, and how to craft a story that connects with audiences, leaving them on the edge of their seats wanting more.
🅱️3 Big Takeaways
- Storytelling should personal. The storyteller is the protagonist, allowing them to be vulnerable and share their feelings and experiences of how an event transformed their lives. This is what listeners connect and relate to.
- Everyone has a storyworthy moment. The issue is that sometimes people think that it has to be an over the top event in order to be storyworthy — stories about being arrested and waking up drunk somewhere aren’t that great. It’s the small moments that make for the best stories.
- Stories are powerful because it helps listeners understand cause and effect. It can help connect the dots of a seemingly complex issue in a simple manner that the listener can understand. Furthermore, it allows each audience to interpret it in their own way.
🤹♂️ Practical Applications for Leaders
1️⃣ Use the 3 Frameworks to find storyworthy moments in your life.
📝Homework for Life — Take 5 minutes every day to write down the most storyworthy event of the day. If you had to tell a story from the day, what would it be?
This doesn’t need to be a detailed story. 2–3 sentences are enough. Over time, you’ll develop an awareness of the storyworthy moments that come up and be full of stories to share.
🔥Crash & Burn — This framework will bring memories to the top of your mind that you had forgotten about. Set aside fifteen minutes and just write. Write about anything that comes to your mind. The minute a new thought enters your mind, allow the previous one to burn as you write about the new one.
Don’t judge your thoughts and don’t stop writing for fifteen minutes. If you have run out of ideas, start listing colours, numbers, fruits or something pre-determined until it triggers a new memory. Don’t stop writing.
🥇First, Last, Best, Worst — This last framework uses prompts to trigger stories. Things such as cars, adventures, travel, dogs, kisses etc. are listed and the first, last, best and worst memory that it triggers is recorded. The stories or events that keep popping up or crossing over are those that are worth diving into.
2️⃣ Introduce stakes in your stories through these 5 proven ways
🐘 Put an Elephant in the Room
Clearly state why the audience should listen to the story. Typically used at the start so that they know what they can expect. It gets them to pay attention.
🎒 Make them wear a backpack
The backpack is a strategy where the audience begins to wear the feelings and experiences of the protagonist. They carry the weight, so to speak.
This is when the storyteller shares the fears, and hopes with the audience before the event occurs. Backpacks work best when the protagonist's plan doesn’t work.
🍞 Leave a trail of breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs are left out so that the audience begins to anticipate what may happen in the future.
It is important that not too many breadcrumbs are actually laid out. You want the audience to hang on and see if they were actually right in their guess.
Breadcrumbs heighten the audience's anticipation, but should not reveal any important info.
⏳Flip the Hourglass
The hourglass is used when the storyteller knows that the audience is hooked and cannot stop paying attention.
In this case, the storyteller shares details of an irrelevant item, which ultimately slows down time.
As the audience is hooked wanting to know what happened, the story drags on for a little. As long as the story doesn’t drag for too long, this strategy keeps the audience hooked. This is similar to a slow-motion scene in a movie.
🔮Let them use the Crystal Ball
This strategy is used to preview a possible prediction of the story. It is important that the reveal has the possibility of being true, however, more often than not, it won’t be.
3️⃣ How to add humour to your stories, even if you aren’t naturally funny
⚾ Milkcans & Baseballs — The concept is based on the funfair game, where milk cans are stacked up and a baseball is thrown to knock them down. The higher the cans are stacked up and the more accurate the throw is, the bigger the impact of the laugh is.
Introduce milk cans throughout the story and then when the time is right, throw the baseball and knock them down.
👶 Babies & Blenders — The second strategy makes things funny because two things that shouldn’t be compared together and being brought together. Babies shouldn’t be compared to blenders just as cars shouldn’t be compared to cereal boxes.
By doing so, the storyteller creates a memorable image in the minds of the audience and induces a laugh because of the differences between the items.
Top Quotes
“If you had a moment that was actually storyworthy while you were on vacation, that is a story that should be told. But it should not include the quality of the local cuisine or anything related to the beauty or charm of the destination.”
“Every great story ever told is essentially about a five-second moment in the life of a human being, and the purpose of the story is to bring that moment to the greatest clarity possible.”
“The goal of storytelling is to connect with your audience. It’s not a rollercoaster ride of excitement. It’s about bridging the gap between you and another person by creating a space of authenticity, vulnerability and universal truth.”
📝 Summary & Notes
- Simple Moments Create Connections 🖇️
To say that Matthew Dicks has had an interesting life is an understatement. Pronounced dead twice, having a gun to his head and being arrested on false charges are just some things that he has experienced.
Yet, it is the simple stories he tells that resonate with the audience the most. In order for an audience to be captivated, they need to be able to relate, therefore, Matthew uses the big events in his life to uncover the simple things that the story is really about.
The best stories are ones that the audience can relate to and connect to
- Evolution is necessary 🧬
Stories should evolve over time. Matthew Dicks states that a good story is one which allows an event to fundamentally change your outlook on the world.
This shows an evolution of some sort. By the end of the story, you see the world differently than you had at the start. This change doesn’t need to be massive, but change needs to exist within your stories.
Stories aren’t just a series of remarkable events
- Immerse the audience 🎦
A good story has the power to transport the audience to a different world. When this happens, do not interrupt them and remind them of where they are currently.
Allow them to feel and experience things as the story unfolds. Asking rhetorical questions, mentioning the word “story” or using props are things that can bring them back to their current room, which is not something you want.
Create an immersive experience with your stories
- Expectations aren’t your friend 🧑🤝🧑
Most people start telling stories by setting expectations. They say things such as:
“you won’t believe what happened?”
“This is the best thing that ever happened”
etc.
This sets the bar too high almost immediately. Don’t set expectations.
Let the story speak for itself.
- Introduce Stakes early 📌
Stakes are strategies that are used to captivate the audience and keep them hanging to the edge of their seat wanting to hear more. The five types of stakes were introduced and explained above.
- Lying within your stories 🤥
Lies shouldn’t generally be told, but there are no stories that are completely true. These can be for various reasons such as faulty memory, an exaggeration to enforce a point or minor lies such as changing details to protect the identity of someone.
Matthew Dicks emphasises that lies or minor manipulations should only be made if it makes the story better or if the audience wants us to lie.
The lies shouldn’t add anything new to the story, but they can remove things that don’t add to the story
Dicks tells the story of a couple arguing after a first date on the car drive home. The story paints a picture that they were the only two people in the car. In reality, there was a third wheel in the back seat, but that person is irrelevant to the point of the story, so is left out.
If it is irrelevant to the story, it can be left out
- Storytelling isn’t a stand-up comedy routine 🎭
Humour is always a good thing to get the audience to relax, contrast scenes and change emotions. However, storytelling isn’t about getting the audience roaring at the edge of their seats. This is not a stand-up comedy show.
You are telling a story, you are taking them on a journey. This journey will involve the audience feeling several emotions and humour is just one of those emotions.
Humour doesn’t make stories interesting, so use it cautiously.
- Everybody roots for David 🤏
Everybody roots for David and no one roots for Goliath. This is a universal truth in every story. Everybody loves the underdog.
This is why stories often take you on the journey of the protagonist struggling and failing a couple of times first before eventually succeeding.
Underdogs are supposed to lose, so when the win is unexpected.
- Would you tell this story at dinner? 🍖
In crafting a story, you should ask yourself — would you tell this story at dinner with the family?
If the answer is no, you need to change your story. You would have no problem telling a good story, so craft a good story that removes profanity, vulgarness and anything that is inappropriate for dinner.
