The basic rule of storytelling is 'show, don't tell.'
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Show, don't tell, is a mantra repeated by tutors of creative writing courses the world over. As advice for amateurs, it is sound and helps avoid character profiling, unactivated scenes, and broken narrative frames.
My shows are not narratives.
In my family, telling stories is just a way of life.
Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.
By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths.
The magic happens when you take facts and figures, features and benefits, decks and PowerPoints - relatively soulless information - and embed them in the telling of a purposeful story. Your 'tell' renders an experience to your audience, making the information inside the story memorable, resonant and actionable.
Everybody's got a different way of telling a story - and has different stories to tell.
Storytelling is a very old human skill that gives us an evolutionary advantage. If you can tell young people how you kill an emu, acted out in song or dance, or that Uncle George was eaten by a croc over there, don't go there to swim, then those young people don't have to find out by trial and error.
Storytelling is about two things; it's about character and plot.
When you're writing for a show, you're writing part of the script. You have to tell the story.