I’m going to do a series of quick blogs about storytelling – 5 in 5 days.  Everyone seems to get these days that storytelling is important, because we’re awash in data and information and can’t remember it all.  But we do remember stories. 

They’re even more important than that.  They are how our brains work.  For example, they are why we all feel that it’s safer to drive than fly, even though the statistics prove the opposite.  We remember the horrifying stories of plane crashes, and forget the stats.  Our brains are constructed that way.  So storytelling is essential if you want to use the brain the way it's meant to be used.      We remember the emotional, the particular, and the violent especially. 

OK.  Let’s start with what storytelling is not.  Let’s clear away the detritus and get to the core.  5 blogs, 5 days, 5 ideas on storytelling. 

Storytelling is not about beginnings, middles, and ends.

My favorite wrong cliché about storytelling is the oft-cited, “it has a beginning, middle, and an end.”  Well, yes.  But so do pencils, as my good friend from the IBM learning world, Peter Orton, is fond of saying.  As a definition, this one is not specific enough to be helpful.  Airplane flights, dentist appointments, and pencils all have beginnings, middles, and ends, but they are not stories.  They might become the fodder for stories, but stories in themselves they are not. 

Forget this one.  It’s not helpful.  Tomorrow, what storytelling is.