Storytelling: the perfect structure

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Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3 are in the top 50 highest grossing films of all time.

The secret of their popularity? Fabulous storytelling.

Emma Coates, a storyboard artist for Pixar the animation firm behind these two barnstoming successes, has listed her 22 rules for storytelling.

In rule number 4, Coates outlines the fundamental structure of every great story. And it goes like this:

Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

Coates’s 22 rules are all well worth checking out - I’ll put a link to them in the resources.

But I particularly love this rule because this structure captures something absolutely fundamental that is vital for a powerful story.

Something happens to your hero.
This idea that every story has a hero and that something happens to them appplies just as much can make or break your message.

Your ability to persuade by telling a great story in which something happens to your hero can even win you elections.

Let’s look at some examples, starting with a truly terrible speech made by someone at the European Commission, shortly before the Brexit vote.

Did you catch all that? How inspired are you feeling right now about the New Urban Agenda?

Has it painted a picture in your mind of what the New Urban Agenda will do for you?

Or has it left you reeling under the weight of all those dull, abstract implementations and localisations and integrated place-based approaches?

Let’s contrast that speech with an extract from a speech that Nigel Farage, the then-leader of the UK Independence Party made to the European Parliament shortly after the UK voted for Brexit.

Now, I’m not a fan of Farage and I’ve never voted for his party.

But I’m convinced the main reason the UK voted for Brexit was because the Brexiteers told a better story.

Whatever your political leanings, we can all learn from Farage.

Now, I’m no Brexiteer and no fan of Farage. But whatever you think of Farage’s politics, you have to accept that the guy knows how to write a speech.

But more importantly, he knows how to tell a compelling story. It’s got people, conflict, drama, change. Farage doesn’t just tell us the people have a voice - he gives them actual dialogue.

And if we look again at that extract, we can see it fits the Pixar template perfectly.

Let’s look at another example - this time from a speech I wrote for a CEO.

My brief was to show his human side, which he felt had never really come across to employees before. So he told me anecdotes about his family life and his childhood, but none of it resonated. None of it had any drama.

And then, almost as an aside, he told me that when he first joined the firm, he felt like the awkward step dad.

Boom! That was the starting point of a great story. Here’s how I spun it out.

Let’s see how that speech fits the Pixar structure.
That speech went down a storm because it told a story.

And as with the Brexit story, it was a story in which something happened to the hero. Something happened that transformed him forever.

Why not try the Pixar structure for yourself?