Storyteller Bobette Buster gave a lecture at this year's "Do Lectures Festival" in Wales on the nature of storytelling. She came from a place where storytelling was natural, went on to Hollywood and worked in development and teaches how to create stories for cinema.
The lecture is 23 minutes long, so get yourself a coffee or tea and settle in. If you don't want to watch the video, I've written some of her key points below it.
Key points:
To create a great story: Take us to a world we've never been to before. Take us on a quest. Show us how the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Cinema has evolved into the story of transformation.
The key moment in a story is when the character has to cross a threshold, leave the world in which he is comfortable, and do something he's never done before. Follow the character's greatest fear and magnify and expand the moment when he seizes control of his life.
It's often by daring to examine your own darkest times that you will discover your best story. What was the one moment that you had to leave your comfort zone? Even if it was a failure, the fact that you survived could embolden someone else to take their step.
Some of the greatest stories are tales of people who finally wake up and dare to resist the status quo and take a step toward their true destiny.
(If you want friendly guidance in telling your story, get a copy of my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It gives you writing advice from some of the greatest writers of all time and helps you apply it to telling the story you want to tell. It's published by Nichoals Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)