Unit 1

Introduction

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Exercise Introduce
1 Yourself
Introduce Go to the “Introductions” thread in the community section of the course and introduce
Yourself yourself.
1. Tell us your name, where you live, and what
you do. 2.What makes you different from others in
your field?
3.Your goal for taking this course? What do you
hope to accomplish through storytelling?

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Unit 2
Finding
Your Story

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Exercise Reverse Engineer The
2 Story
Audience Desires 1
Make a list of your audience’s
most common pains and
desires. What problems are they
2
trying to solve?

See if there are any myths around

these problems. (i.e. they think
3
cheaper solution will save them
money, but it will cost them more in
the long run.)
4

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Exercise Reverse Engineer The
2 Story
Unique Selling Points 1
Write down all of your unique
selling points. What makes you
better than your competition?
2
Think about how your unique selling
point can be the answer to the
myths that your audience believes.
3
(i.e. by paying more and doing it
right the first time, they actually
save money)
4

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Exercise Your Unwritten
3 Diary
Your Stories 1
Think about things that happened in
your life that taught you a lesson
about the myths your audience
2
believes. How did you learn the
truth?

Try to think of a specific event

3
rather than a general time period.
Include “ when", "where", and
"with who”.
4

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Exercise Your Unwritten
3 Diary
Find Your Go through the 3 lists you made ("Audience Desires”, “Unique Selling Points”, and “Your
Story Stories”) and find a combination with one item from each list that relates to each other. Write
them below.

Audience
Desire

Unique Selling
Point

Your
Story

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Exercise Story
4 Structure
1. Hook
Talk about the pain or desires of
your audience. (i.e. “ Do you
struggle with
?” or “Imagine one day you ”.)

Introduce yourself and the story

you’re about to tell them.

2. Premise
This is the beginning of your hero’s
journey. Talk about the the old
“ you”.

What were you struggling with?

What were some things you were
ignoring and didn’t realize it?

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Exercise Story
4 Structure
3. Trigger
What's the incident (or series of
incidents) that triggered you to deal
with your struggle?

There should be a clear moment

when you were forced to make a
decision or take an action.

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Exercise Story
4 Structure
4 . Outcome
What was the unexpected outcome
of your decision or action?

5. Lesson
What's the lesson you learned from
this incident? How did it help you in
your career or life?

6. Conclusion
How is the lesson related to your
unique selling point? How does it help
your audience?

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Journey
Exercise Your First
5 Draft
Your First Write the full story from the 6-part structure in a Word Doc or Google Doc. Make a note of
Draft each part so you know where they begin and end.

Tone of Write the way you talk. See if the tone of voice is consistent with how you talk/write to a
Voice close friend. If not, fix it.
A good way to test this is to say each sentence out loud and ask yourself how your friends
would react. Would they say "that sounds like you” or would they say “why do you sound so
proper”.

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Journey
Unit 3
Being
Relatable

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Journey
Exercise Character Flaw &
6 Conflict
Character Flaw Try to find the internal character flaw in your story. It should be something the “old you” were
doing that the “new you” stops doing by the end of the story. If the character flaw isn’t clear, fix
it so it becomes clear.

Strong Conflict Is there a strong conflict in the Trigger part of the story that confronts your character flaw? A
strong conflict should force you to do something that the “old you” normally wouldn’t do
because of the character flaw. If the conflict isn’t clearly shown in the story, make sure it does.
Remember, at any point during this course, if something doesn't work in your story, it's okay to
go back and come up with a different story. Writing is process of discovering and re-writing.

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Exercise Show, Don't
7 Tell
“Show” Examples 1
Think about the struggle in the
Premise part of your story. What are
some examples of things you did
that show the struggle?

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Exercise Avoid
8 Cliché
More Examples 1
Try to come up with some more
examples of your struggle that's
less cliche.

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Exercise Being
9 Vulnerable
Even More Examples 1
Come up with some more
examples that you feel
embarrassed or uncomfortable to
share.

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Exercise Vulnerable
9 Story
Add To From the list of examples you came up with, find one (or more) that you think is the most
Premise vulnerable and original. Add it to the Premise part of your story.

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Exercise Balancing Humility &
10 Authority
Remove Read your story and remove any part where you’re bragging or humble-bragging. This includes
Bragging talking about your talent, how much people like you, or what kind of college degree or awards
you have.

Demonstrate In Premise or Trigger part of your story, try to add specific example or statement that
Expertise demonstrate your expertise. The goal is to make it believable that you’re an expert by
explaining something only someone with experience would know, but is simple enough that a
common person would understand.

Use Mixed If there are any general criticisms made in the story, rewrite it in 1st person plural. For
Perspective example, instead using 3rd person:

Most people are selfish. They always talk about themselves.

Include yourself in the group:

Most of us are selfish. We always talk about ourselves.

Name Drop At The Try to add achievements like credentials, reputable clients, or awards in the Lesson part of
End your story. Talk about how the lesson helped you with achievements in your career and life.

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Unit 4
Storytelling
Techniques

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Exercise Building
11 Tension
Spoil The After you introduce yourself in the Hook, you can tell them exactly what's going to happen at
Ending the end of the story. For example: "My name is and here’s a
story of how I ”
Cliffhanger After each part of the story where tension is resolved, add a line that will build tension for the
next paragraph.

The Ticking Is there a ticking clock or a deadline you can impose on your story to create tension? If so,
Clock add it into the story.

Something Add an unusual scenario in the story. For example, in the Outcome part of my story, I get a text
Unusual from my client 2 weeks after the project was complete telling me to come downstairs, which is
unusual.

Mystery Gun Is there a mystery gun you can plant earlier in the story that doesn't make sense until it’s resolved
later in the story? If so, add it into your story. For example, earlier in my story I talk about guitars
with my client's husband and later they give me a guitar as a gift.

New Obstacles Try to incorporate a series of obstacles in the story, not just one. As soon as you get over
one obstacle, a new obstacle should be introduced.

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Exercise Writing
12 Techniques
Actions Over In Trigger and Outcome part your story and look for any sentences that are thoughts or
Thoughts feelings. If you can, try to rewrite them as actions that demonstrate those thoughts and
feelings. Here's an example of a thought:

Leslie was so nice and accommodating.

And here’s an example of actions that explain that thought:

As soon as I walked in, Leslie greeted me with a big smile and a glass of
homemade lemonade. While I was working, she would often check in and ask
“do you need anything Sun?”

Describe The In Trigger and Outcome part of your story, try to add anything that can bring the audience into
Environment the story by describing the environment. Make them picture the story as it’s happening in their
mind. For example, stead of saying:

I went downstairs and she surprised me with a gift. It was an electric guitar.
Be more descriptive:

It was snowing, but I saw her waiting outside her car with the trunk open. She
had a big smile on her face. I walked over and saw a brand new red Fender
Strat inside a guitar case as she yelled out “surprise!”

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Exercise Writing
12 Techniques
Use The audience can imagine the character’s personality by showing how they talk. Try to convert
Dialogues any conversations in the story into a dialogue. For example, instead of describing what they
said:
She told me her husband also plays the guitar and asked me if I want to see
his guitar collection.
Put it in dialogue to show how they said it:

With a pleasantly surprised look on her face, she said “my husband also plays
the guitar!” Then she pointed at the door with her thumb and asked “do you
wanna see them?”
Name Characters Try to name any characters in the story to make it more believable. It helps the audience
picture them in their mind and keep track of who said/did what. For example, this can get
confusing:

My boss asked my co-worker if it can be done sooner. He said it was

possible. Then he turned to me and started yelling.
Naming them makes it more clear who did what:
My boss Jerry asked my co-worker Dan if it can be done sooner. Dan said it
was possible. Then Jerry turned to me and started yelling.

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Exercise Writing
12 Techniques
Use Present When describing actions, try to use present tense. It makes the audience get into the story as
Tense if it was happening now. For example, instead of:
He walked over to my desk, so I looked up at him. Then he said…
Make it present tense:
He walks over to my desk, so I look up at him. Then he says…

Describe Physical Wherever you can in the story, describe the physical emotions of how things felt in your
Emotions body. It brings the audience into the story. For example, instead of just describing how you
felt:

I was exhausted. As soon as I sat on the couch, it felt so comfortable

and I couldn’t fight the urge to stay awake.
Try to describe how you felt in your body:
As soon as I sat on the couch, the soft cushions just pulled me in. It felt like a
huge teddy bear was hugging me around my shoulder and neck. I was trying to
stay awake, but my eyelids were getting heavier and heavier.

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Exercise Writing
12 Techniques
Dramatic Add pauses in your story through line breaks to control the tempo and build more tension.
Pause For example, here’s a paragraph without any pause:
After being honest about what happened, I thought for sure he was going to
fire me, but then a miracle happened. He said “thank you for being honest
with me.”
Here’s the same paragraph with dramatic pause:

After being honest about what happened, I thought for sure he was going to
fire me, but then…
A miracle happened!
He said “thank you for being honest with me.”

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Exercise Writing
12 Techniques
Make If you're using series of examples, put it in a list so it's easier to read. A good place to do this
Lists would be in the Hook when you describe audience pain/desires. For example:
Do you want to work with a designer who:
• listen and understand your goals
• actually meets deadlines
• pays attention to details
• most of all, care about your project

Then you might want to hear this story.

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Exercise Writing
12 Techniques
Change Perspectives It gets repetitive and boring when everything is written from 1st person point of view,

like: I heard the doorbell ring. I saw him come in. I didn’t panic. I was

surprised. Try to mix between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person point view:
The doorbell rang. He came in. You might be surprised to hear that I
didn’t panic
Change Sentence Using just short sentences can get boring and monotonous. For example:
Lengths
I made the zoom function. I spent three nights. I didn’t mind. It was my best
work. She was surprised. It was worth it.
Try to use mix of short, medium, and long sentences to make it interesting:

It was the best website I’ve ever made. It was a masterpiece. I even stayed
up three nights in a row trying to make a magnifying glass zoom function
so I can surprise her. I didn't mind. It was all worth it.

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Unit 5
Writing For
The Web

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Exercise Headlines
13
Write Headlines 1
Write headlines you can add
throughout the story to grab people’s
attention.
2
Ideally there should be a headline
for each of the 6 part of the story,
but it's not mandatory. Watch Unit
5/Lesson 2 for more tips on how to 3
write catchy headlines.

Test Read your headlines to see if you get a rough idea of the story from reading only the
Scannability headlines.

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Exercise Test
14 Readability
Cut Anything Cut out anything that doesn’t directly support the story. Don't add anything just to prove a point
Unnecessary or show off how smart you are. For example in this sentence, the first part is just me bragging:
As I mentioned in my storytelling masterclass, write as if you’re talking to a
12- year old.
It can be cut out altogether:

As I mentioned in my storytelling masterclass, Write as if you’re talking to a

12- year old.

Read It Out Read the story out loud or have someone read it out loud. Notice where you get stuck with a
Loud word or phrase where you have to go back and re-read it. Re-write those sentences to make
it simpler. For example this sentence is difficult to read:

The realization that I came to was that for whatever reason, I had a tendency
to make my stories unnecessarily long and complicated.
Make it easier to read by simplifying it:
I was making my stories long and complicated

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Exercise Test
14 Readability
Write For 7th The average American reads at the 7th grade level. Try to avoid difficult words or long
Graders sentences. Test the reading level of your story by pasting it into Hemingway
(https://hemingwayapp.com/). It will tell you the readability grade level as well as notes on
how to improve readability. Try to get the reading level below Grade 8.

Rinse & Writing is a process of rewriting. Read your entire story to test readability and keep repeating
Repeat until you feel that it's tight as it can get. Try to read from a fresh perspective and see if it makes
sense from a stranger's point of view. We tend to overlook things that are obvious to us, but
might not be for someone without background knowledge.

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Final Project
Share Your
Story

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Exercise Evaluatio
15 n
Step 1: Self The next 3 pages have a Rubric Scoring Guide you can use to evaluate your own writing. Go
Evaluation through each of the 9 criteria in the guide and give yourself a score, then add up the total
score.
Step 2: Share Your Go to the Final Project lesson and click "Create your project” to share your
Story story.

Step 3: Peer Now read and evaluate stories from other students (at least 3) using the Rubric Scoring Guide.
Evaluation Try to find stories that have less than 3 comments. Leave them a comment with their score
and your feedback. Try to answer the following questions when leaving your feedback:
• What parts of the story were most relatable?
• What parts of the story kept your attention?
• What areas of the story need improvement?

Self Re- After you've evaluated 3 stories, come back and re-read your story and re-evaluate it. See if
evaluation your evaluation has changed or stayed the same.

Share Your What did you think of the course? Did you accomplish the goal you set in the introduction?
Experience What were some of your favorite lessons? Please share your experience in the review!

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Rubric Scoring
Guide
4 3 2 1
Excellen Strong Satisfactory Needs
t Work
Story has a very clear 6-part Story has a very clear Story has a very clear Premise and Lesson are
Structure structure (Hook, Premise, Premise, Trigger, Outcome, Premise and Lesson. The not really clear.
Trigger, Outcome, Lesson, and Lesson. The rest isn’t rest isn’t really clear.
Conclusion). really clear.

Audience Desire and Selling Point is clear and Audience Desire and Selling Audience Desire and Selling
Relevance Selling Point are very relevant to the story, but Point are not really clear or Point are not really clear or
clear and are relevant to Audience Desire isn’t really has little relevance to the has no relevance to the
the story. clear. story. story.

Premise shows a perfect Premise shows a good Premise describes the The struggle isn’t really clear
Show vs. example of the struggle example of the struggle struggle through adjectives, in the Premise.
Tell through actions and not just through actions and not just but doesn’t show an
adjectives. adjectives. example through actions.

Example of the struggle Example of the struggle Example of the struggle Example is a cliché that’s
Originality is vulnerable and is vulnerable, but also isn’t vulnerable, but a sob been used a million times.
original. kind of cliché. story.
Something that everyone
thinks but no one says.

Writing The story uses all of the 10 The story uses most of the The story uses few of the The story doesn’t use any of
writing techniques (in Unit 4/ writing techniques, but not writing techniques. the writing techniques. It
Lesson 2) to draw in the all. doesn’t draw in the reader.
reader.

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Rubric Scoring
Guide
4 3 2 1
Excellen Strong Satisfactory Needs
t Work
The story constantly raises Some parts of the story The story raises and release The story never raises
Tensio and releases tension from raises and releases tension, tension only once (during tension, not ever during
n start to finish. but is not constant from start Trigger & Outcome). Trigger & Outcome. It’s too
to finish. predictable.

When reading the story out When reading the story out When reading the story out When reading the story out
Readability loud, you never get stuck on a loud, you get stuck on a word loud, you get stuck on a word loud, you get stuck on a word
word or sentence. or sentence about 1 to 3 or sentence about 4 to 7 or sentence more than 7
times. times. times.

When scanning the When scanning the headlines When scanning the headlines When scanning the page
Scannability headlines quickly, you get quickly, you don’t get the gist quickly, you get the gist of the quickly, you don’t really get the
the gist of the story and it of the story, but it makes you story, but doesn’t make you gist of the story and it doesn't
makes you want to read the want to read the details. want to read the details. make you want to read the
details. detail either.

Focu The story supports one The story supports one The story has two or more The story is trying to say
s single lesson. There are single lesson, but it can be lesson. To focus on one too many things and it's
zero unnecessary words or tighter. There are few lesson, big part of the story hard to follow the point of
sentences. unnecessary words or can be removed. the story.
sentences.

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Rubric Scoring Guide: Total
Score

31-3 6 23- 30 14-22 9-13

Excellent Strong Satisfactory Needs
Work
Congratulations! You've You've written a solid You're almost there. Feel No worries. There’s
written a hero's journey story you can start free to start telling your always room for
story that’ll have your sharing with the world. If story, but I recommend improvement in
audience on the edge of you want, you can going back to the lessons storytelling. Go back and
their seats. Go out continue to get feedback and see what you can re-work the exercises
there and start telling and improve your story. apply to keep improving until you get it right.
your story! Great job! your story.

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Journey