Circle of the 9 Muses

Chapter 4

Use these ideas when you want to make your stories better! Improve your craft as a storyteller by drawing from the deep body of knowledge about what makes great stories. Pick a story that you want to make better, and connect it to timeless structures that are proven to connect.

For this exercise you will need:

• Awareness of a specific story that you would like to improve.
• Note that this exercise works even better if you share your progress with a trusted friend. Consider finding someone to share feedback as your story evolves through a series of incremental improvements.

Elsewhere in Circle of the 9 Muses, I have made the point that it is better to tell the right story, the strategically chosen story, than it is to tell the story well. That's true.

But a killer, beautifully delivered story would be even better, right? This is especially true for leaders who communicate directly with the marketplace or the media. And if the CEO is going to be in the audience of your next presentation, it would be nice if you could knock it out of the park.

Fortunately, in our quest to develop knockout stories, there is no shortage of material to draw from. Professional story makers in Hollywood invest in a high-stakes pursuit of understanding which stories connect and why. (And it is a testament to the endless nuance of the craft that they still get it wrong so frequently.) Increasingly, ...