Story Systems

On this episode I speak to Roberta Ravella about finding joy in your story. Roberta is a friend and former client, and founder of 'The Joy Experiment' podcast. We discussed seeing value and significance in your story, and why joy really does matter in the telling of it!

For more about my work head to https://wiseechoes.com/

Roberta's podcast is at https://thejoyexperiment.live/

Conflict is inherent in life and one of the tools in your storytelling toolbelt to keep people reading.

We remember the conflicts that challenged us and forced us to grow. Including conflict in your story is a natural way to engage your audience and make them wonder what the outcome will be! (In this way, conflict is the flip side of suspense).

This episode looks at simple ways to include conflict in your stories. The three ideas I discuss are physicality (or lack of), reflective conflict, and character change.

As I outline at the end, conflict is a fractal phenomenon. You can talk about big challenges you've faced over your life, or you can talk about the regular challenge you faced this morning getting the kids ready for school. Both relate well on different levels.

Whether you're primarily a verbal or written storyteller, you can never take the attention of your audience for granted. Every sentence should make them want to hear the next. Suspense is one of the tools in your storytelling toolkit to achieve this.

By my book, intrigue and suspense are different levels of the same thing: making the reader curious to know what comes next.

This episode offers practical tips for lacing suspense into your stories. The first idea we cover is specificity. The second idea is tense. And the third idea is that your suspense should be unstated.

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For help telling your story, check out my Jumpstart Service for purpose-led entrepreneurs.

It’s a bold step, putting your story out in front of relative strangers. I used to think the main story blocker was inspiration – knowing what to say or write. But I now think the key blocker is being seen.

If you regularly set an intention to publish only to stall or second-guess yourself, this episode will offer specific pointers to help put your story out into the world.

After all, if you don't share your story, you can't have a positive impact on someone who needs your help.

The three ideas discussed on this episode are:

1. Story Space
2. Term Time Publishing
3. The Public Schedule

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For help telling your story, check out my Jumpstart Service for purpose-led entrepreneurs.

We get writer's block when we've failed to sufficiently research story ideas. But in recent years, I've discovered that up-front and ongoing research is only part of the story...

The flip side of the coin is developing the confidence to share your story on an ongoing basis. Sharing develops your requirement for ongoing conscious research, so you're never scrabbling around at the last minute for ideas.

Writer's block is one of the key challenges we face as storytelling changemakers. If you ever suffer from writer's block, or if a blank Word document gives you the shivers, this episode is for you.

The three ideas discussed on this episode are:

1. Deep-dive research
2. Image reviews
3. Journalling

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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For help telling your story, head to https://storyrob.com/jumpstart-service/.

Editing is the final human step in the story production process. Editing itself is a trap because a story can easily enter editing and never emerge on the other side!

I originally covered editing back in 2021. This episode reshares that content, and provides some updated thoughts for 2026 (and beyond). The key editing question remains: how can we make our stories as interesting and well-written (or well-spoken) as possible, without delaying publication?

If you're a writing perfectionist, this episode is for you!

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For help telling your story, head to https://storyrob.com/jumpstart-service/.

You've had a story idea. You've planned the story and selected a 'One Idea'. You've created a Spoken First Draft and got hold of the transcript.

Now it's time to make sensible use of technology to grease the wheels of editing that transcript, which is what I call the 'AI Second Draft'. This is a refinement, not a generative step. You're leveraging technology to assemble a good quality second draft - without the hardship.

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My current Claude prompt for editing the transcripts of these episodes (mentioned on the episode):

Please act as an expert transcript editor, editing for grammar, repetition, conciseness, and readability. Write in UK-English using short direct sentences. Avoid starting a sentence with the word 'and'. Do not summarise and stick to the original text. Remove lines with speaker names and timestamps. Do not use the word 'ensure'. Remove any instances of 'kind of', 'sort of', 'I think'. Put all references to Story Systems in title case. Please add two or three subheadings for new main sections, and for the recap.

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For help telling your story, head to https://storyrob.com/jumpstart-service/.

You've got a story you want to tell. You've planned it on a timeline (see EP24). You've established a clear 'one idea' to finish your story on and bridge into your message (see EP25). Now comes the hard part: writing it!

Or does it?

For a long time, my first step in the story production process was the 'Speedy First Draft'. But with recent developments in AI, the first step in assembling a story is now the Spoken First Draft.

Other than the ever-increasing quality of AI transcripts, there are several reasons why you should verbalise a story before writing it. The single biggest reason is that it's much faster!

If, like 99% of the planet, you find it easier to talk than to write, this episode is for you!

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For help telling your story, head to https://storyrob.com/jumpstart-service/.

Stories are how you show, rather than tell. You're telling your story to illuminate and showcase your message. But in practical terms, how do you bridge between story and content, without making the story feel forced or crowbarred in? Ideally, your audience will never notice the shift from story to content.

The answer lies in the "One Idea" bridge concept.

The One Idea is the final point of your story and the beginning point of your content. Mastering this technique allows you to use almost any story to illustrate any message. You make the story relevant to the message by changing the One Idea.

I originally recorded this episode in 2021. I've top and tailed the original content with a 5-year reflection from 2026.

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For help telling your story, head to https://storyrob.com/jumpstart-service/.

A small degree of planning goes a long way when you're telling a story. The main story planning technique I use with my clients is the 'timeline' technique, where you plan the sequence of events on a page, napkin, post-it note, back of an envelope, or whatever else you have to hand! (Maybe your arm?)

The timeline allows you to select events in the telling that lead to a clear, single 'bridge' idea to your content, plus it acts as a visual check to keep your story interesting.

I originally recorded this episode in 2021. I've top and tailed the original content with a 5-year reflection from 2026.