We share some highly recommended sources of storytelling inspiration. Learn which story-driven books and websites regularly spark our creative thinking. Read this for thought-starters and storytelling inspiration.
Stories surround us every day. However, some stand out more than others. The most distinctive stories usually come from those who’ve studied storytelling as a craft.
Much has been written about the craft of stories. Our research into this inspired most of the story-driven content we’ve shared on this site. Plus, our experiences in using those ideas and insights to tell stronger stories.
So, for a bit of storytelling inspiration, we’d like to share some of the most useful sources of storytelling advice we found. We hope you’re as inspired by these ideas and insights as we’ve been.
Let’s start with books. Books are the most common place where we find stories, as fiction books are set up on the premise of telling stories. But there are plenty of non-fiction books where master storytellers share their expertise and ideas.
The fact that new books keep coming out about how to tell great stories suggests no single book has cracked it. But if you’re looking for good places to start, these 3 have been great storytelling inspiration for us :-
John Yorke has impressive credentials as a storytelling expert, having set up the BBC Writers’ Academy in 2005 and shaping the storytelling direction of shows like Shameless, Skins, Casualty and Life on Mars among many others.
While his book Into the Woods prioritises the study of the fundamentals of storytelling, such as story structure and crafting your core story elements, it’s also full of more advanced thinking that can add extra depth and impact to your stories.
One of these we like a lot and haven’t seen much discussed in other storytelling literature is the idea of fractals. Fractals are an idea from nature, often used by artists, where a tiny geometric pattern is repeated over and over to make a much bigger and more complex pattern.
Yorke argues that this applies to stories where the different levels of the story – its acts, scenes and beats can use a similar repeated pattern to create the same sense of artistry and aesthetic appeal.
So the whole story will have a beginning, middle and end with an inciting incident, dramatic challenges and some sort of climax and resolution. But he argues the same thinking should go into each act, and each scene within the act, to keep the story moving.
The book gets really interesting, inspiring even, when it applies this thinking to how the first act (the opening of the story) and the last act (its climax) should mirror each other.
The last act should show the change that’s happened in the overall story.
The Godfather, for example, opens with Michael being truthful at a wedding, and finishes with him lying to his wife at a funeral. Thelma and Louise opens with scenes of the downbeat and fairly oppressive lives the two women lead, and ends with them full of joyfulness and freedom (albeit driving over a cliff).
When you see this mirroring or reflection between the start and end of the story, there’s something inherently satisfying about it. It suggests the storyteller has held the initial thought set up from the start, and over the course of the story has led you to a place where it’s finally resolved.
This creates a feeling of symmetry and balance in the shape of the story,
Something worth bearing in mind when telling your brand story. The climax – the happy customer in most cases – should link back to the original problem, or inciting incident, you set up at the start of the story.
If you’ve searched for storytelling inspiration, chances are at some point, you’ll have come across Robert McKee’s Story.
We’d heard so many positive comments about it, we’ll confess we were a little sceptical that it might be a let-down. But believe us, when we say it wasn’t. It’s an extraordinarily insightful book about storytelling from a screenplay point of view.
McKee argues that film is one of the most challenging media in which to tell a story. In novels, you can add the narrator’s voice and share the characters’ inner voices, but on film, these come across as intrusive and he argues a little lazy.
So films challenge storytellers to show the story using only really the characters’ actions and dialogue. He covers many elements of this, but one of our favourites is his views on the necessity for surprise in any story.
McKee argues that audiences want surprises in their story. Stories that are predictable or simplistic don’t inspire audiences. They bore them.
Surprises in the story help the audience see the world in a new way. To experience something they’ve never seen before. To challenge their expectations.
The key, then, to surprising the audience is to understand what these expectations are.
In “obvious” stories, the audience expects the characters to behave in certain ways and do certain things.
We’re set up to believe good characters always tell the truth, and bad characters cheat, lie and steal. But when something happens that makes us reassess our expectations and perceptions of those characters, it creates a surprise and makes us go back and reassess those characters.
For example, he discusses the Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd movie, Trading Places, as a great example. At the start, Eddie Murphy is begging pretending to be a war cripple (so you think of him as “bad”) and two very affluent men take him in and help him out (in what seems like a “good” act). However, we soon realise that the two old men are only doing this as part of a bored, and entitled bet by the super-rich. (Ruining someone else’s life at the same time to see how they react). And that Murphy’s character is only doing that as a way to survive and has no other choice, and is, in fact, a genuine and caring character. So, our expectations get flipped, and the story works because of the surprise elements in it.
Part of why we included this as storytelling inspiration is that it’s hard to do, especially for brands. Brand owners worry that “surprising” customers might turn them away, so they try to avoid surprises altogether. But this potentially leads to them telling dull, predictable stories, and that’s actually what’s more likely to put customers off.
Brands that deeply understand their customers know what their expectations are. But they can use this to create surprises that positively challenge those expectations. Restaurants that welcome you with a free drink on the house, for example. Hire car companies that bring the car to your door rather than you having to go to them to collect it. Shops that offer no-quibble guarantees. These offers all break expectations and add a surprise element to the brands which offer them.
We originally came across Lisa Cron’s books on storytelling because they combine insights from psychology and neuroscience with the craft of storytelling.
You can get a lot of storytelling inspiration from the ideas she shares about this. However, what stuck out most for us was her idea that stories need to connect to someone’s “inner voice” to have real energy and connection.
We particularly like her analogy that this is like the third (electrified) rail that trains need to move forward.
Your story might have characters and actions, but it’s the hero’s internal struggle as they face problems that draws audiences in.
The character’s inner voice connects the external events, so that we understand the internal consequences and impact of those events.
So, a story might tell us that character A bought character B a gift. But it’s only the inner voice that tells us why and gives this meaning. Was it to woo them? To influence them unduly? Because the character felt guilty. We don’t know unless the character’s third rail inner voice tells us.
It’s a challenging, though not impossible, task to pull off in brand storytelling. Brands aren’t people, of course, so it’s about bringing to life the customer’s inner voice as the hero of the story. It needs to be overt enough for customers to get it easily, but not so overt that it stops sounding like the customer’s inner voice, and instead sounds like the brand’s external voice.
Get this right, though, and as Cron’s book shows, it electrifies your story and, for brands, this lights up the customer’s brain with engagement and connection.
There are way too many other books on storytelling for us to go into here. However, two further inspiring books we’d given an honourable mention to would be The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr and Build a Storybrand by Donald Miller. Both have more ideas and inspiration on the key elements of storytelling and are particularly helpful reads for marketers.
Of course, you can also search online for more storytelling inspiration. There’s no shortage of content out there.
One that we found a good place to start with is the content on Masterclass.
Though it’s a fee-based site, it shares some taster lessons for free, and the calibre of contributors is outstanding. Think Margaret Atwood, David Mamet and James Patterson, just to pick three example high-profile names.
Well worth a look.
Another super-useful site for both writing generally and storytelling in particular is Nownovel.
Their blog is packed full of helpful tips and advice on more advanced storytelling techniques, and can be a great source of storytelling inspiration when you face more specific issues. Like how to write action and add good pacing, for example, or how to add more mood and atmosphere.
Though it’s written with the aspiring novelist in mind, its tips are mostly relatable and transferable for anyone trying to up the quality of their brand storytelling.
Lastly, it’s also worth checking out the blog from The Moth.
This is an organisation that runs storytelling podcasts, events and education events on how to improve the art and craft of storytelling. They also have a book called How to Tell a Story.
Though they’re not particularly business-oriented, they do offer a lot of tips about how to make your story sound more human-oriented and natural. Given this can be a challenge to do from a brand point of view, it’s worth checking out their content on how to make your stories connect at a more emotional level.
Stories are how we learn how the world works, and so arguably, every story you hear teaches you something.
However, the best storytellers understand that it’s a craft that takes skill and practice to master. Getting the basic story elements like heroes and their problems is a good start, but stories can hit harder and stay in the memory longer when they use more advanced techniques.
This article shared some of our very favourite storytelling inspiration books and websites.
Reading and listening to other people’s stories helps you learn more about what does (and doesn’t) make a great story. We hope these sources give you as much inspiration as they gave us.
We believe storytelling is a powerful creative skill that you can use to connect with customers and build your brand identity. With our coaching and consulting services, we can support you with knowledge, ideas and processes to help your brand tell a more engaging story.
Get in touch to learn how we can help your brand’s story end happily ever after.
We explore where to start with marketing psychology. Learn the key marketing areas where psychology gives you a head start. Read this to learn how psychology can smarten up your marketing.
We explore how to be a good underdog brand. Learn the 3 defining characteristics of a good underdog. Read this for ideas on building a better underdog story.
We explore how to find your creative place. Learn how to shape where creativity happens mentally, physically and with your audience. Read this for ideas on finding a better place to be creative.
To hear our latest ideas first, enter your email details below to receive email updates. Be among the first to hear our new marketing, creative and e-Commerce ideas.
Brands that consistently bring the brightest ideas to life build great creative habits and processes.
Check how bright your brand’s creative habits are with our free Creative habits and ideas Quotient (ChiQ) test.
10 questions to learn whether your brand’s ideas are more likely to be “no” or more likely to be “woah”.
Take the test to find out more.
Our mission is to build better brands with brighter ideas.
Get in touch to discover how we can help you create, craft and commercialise better ideas.
