This document provides guidance on effective storytelling for speechwriting. It discusses how stories can make ideas understandable and relatable while appealing to reason, emotion, and character. Anecdotes and narratives are described as powerful storytelling tools. A good story has structure, conflict, characters, and details. Storytelling techniques like Marshall Ganz's public narrative framework, which incorporates a story of self, story of us, and story of now, can help translate values into compelling speeches that motivate action. The document stresses the importance of developing a story bank and working with a speaker to craft their overall narrative.

1. SMPA 6201: SPEECHWRITING
Week 3
Storytelling

3. OXYTOCIN

4. STORIES HAVE POWER
• Stories are how we think
• Stories hold an audience’s attention
• Stories are memorable and repeatable
• Stories can make complicated ideas understandable and
relatable
• Stories can appeal to reason, emotion, and character – all at once
• REASON: Drawing a link between choices and outcomes
• EMOTION: Making the audience empathize with someone else
• CHARACTER: Connecting the speaker with the audience

5. ANECDOTE
• A story that paints a picture in the
service of an argument
• “I met Mildred Nystel in Waterloo, Iowa.
Because of our welfare reform, she's left
welfare and found a good job training
electricians - and she's become a proud
member of IBEW Local 288. Now she
dreams of sending her daughter Irene to
college.”
• Accumulated through research
• A story that establishes the structure of
an argument
• At its best, America has never shied away
from taking on challenges. But over the
last eight years, we’ve become complacent
and avoided tackling the big issues. It’s
time to turn the page on the Clinton-Gore
administration, and I’m offering the
American people bold new solutions to
the problems we face.
• Developed through reflection
NARRATIVE
STORYTELLING AS…

6. A GOOD STORY HAS STRUCTURE
• A beginning, middle, and end
• Gives the audience a sense of order and momentum
• “Once upon a time…
• “…until one day…”
• “…and they lived happily ever after!”

7. BAD SPEECHWRITING TIPS
“Put your best stuff up front so the audience
doesn’t miss it!”

8. A GOOD STORY HAS CONFLICT
• Raise the stakes as high as you can
• Gives the audience something to root for
• Man vs. man
• Man vs. nature
• Man vs. society
• Man vs. self

9. A GOOD STORY HAS CHARACTERS
• Gives the audience someone to identify with
• Enough detail to help us understand who they are and what they want
• “Mary is hard-working. She works two jobs to provide for her family.”
• “When Mary finishes her shift at the plant, she takes two buses to get to her
second job at the convenience store. Those 40 minutes in transit are the only
time between sunrise and midnight when Mary’s not on the clock. And she
spends the time listening to podcasts about entrepreneurship because she
dreams of opening her own little store someday.”

10. DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS…

11. LENNY SKUTNIK

12. THE ANECDOTE SANDWICH

13. BAD SPEECHWRITING TIPS
“I love to quote Churchill!”

14. BUILDING A STORY BANK
• Involve other staff: communications, scheduling, advance
• Correspondence – people want to share their stories!
• Who’s monitoring inbox@yourorganization.org?
• Vet your stories and keep in touch with your “real people”
• Include their phone numbers in drafts so your speaker can reach out
• Help your speaker remember details to tell better stories:
• Do you remember what your dad was wearing that day?
• What’s the memory that sticks out when you say your mom was loving?
• Who would play that guy in the movie?

15. NARRATIVE
What’s the story we want to tell?

17. THE SHINING CITY ON A HILL
• Matthew 5:14: ”You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hidden.”
• John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity” (1630): “For we must
consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are
upon us.”
• Ronald Reagan (1980): “I believe that Americans in 1980 are every bit as
committed to that vision of a shining city on a hill, as were those long
ago settlers.”
• Ronald Reagan (1984): “Four years ago we raised a banner of bold colors
-- no pale pastels. We proclaimed a dream of an America that would be
‘a shining city on a hill.’”

18. A TALE OF TWO CITIES

19. METAPHORS
• Sports and war: the Coke and Pepsi of political metaphors
• Use what you (and your speaker) know
• History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme

20. MARSHALL GANZ’S PUBLIC NARRATIVE
Story of
SELF
Story of
NOW
Story of
US

21. GANZ’S PUBLIC NARRATIVE
• Story of SELF
• A personal story that explains your choice to act
• Who are you? What brought you here?
• Story of US
• A collective story that defines a shared purpose or shared set of values
• What unites us? How do we define our community?
• Story of NOW
• A story about the challenge we face together
• What are we called on to do? What is the choice that must be made?

22. PUBLIC NARRATIVE
• Story of SELF + Story of US = connecting you with your audience
• Story of SELF + Story of NOW = establishing your purpose/perspective
• Story of US + Story of NOW = conveying the urgency of collective
action
STORY OF SELF + STORY OF US + STORY OF NOW =
A story that translates values into emotion into action

23. MICHELLE OBAMA, 2016 DNC

24. JAMES CROFT’S PUBLIC NARRATIVE

25. WHOSE STORY IS THIS?
• America is a great nation because of its capacity for renewal and change.
Each generation does its part to bring us closer to our ideals, and
although we may seem divided, we share the same values – and we
must believe that we can achieve the change we want. My unlikely story
is an example of what’s possible when we work together, but only if we
all share the work can we overcome our differences, heal our divisions,
and build a brighter future.
• America was once proud, but corrupt politicians,, out-of-touch elitists,
and dangerous foreign elements have robbed us of our economic
strength and cultural identity. I’m an outsider who isn’t afraid to stand
up for the forgotten people in our country, even when it means refusing
to be politically correct, and that’s why I’m the only one who can restore
our greatness.

26. HELPING YOUR SPEAKER DEVELOP A
PUBLIC NARRATIVE
• Quantity time > quality time
• Unstructured time: in the car, after the event, over a drink
• Ask for stories, not self-examination: show, don’t tell
• Moments when everything changed
• Challenges you overcame
• Decisions you had to make
• Be an outbox: collect anecdotes, clips, stray thoughts
• Keep asking the big question: What’s the story we want to tell?

27. WHAT’S THE STORY?
• In 100 words or less, how would you summarize the story your
candidate wants to tell?
• Where does your candidate think we are as a country? How did we get
here? Where are we going?
• What are the stakes your candidate lays out? What do we gain if we
act? What do we lose if we don’t?
• Who are the characters in your candidate’s story? Who are the good
guys? The bad guys? The victims? The heroes?
• How does your candidate connect a story of self, a story of us, and a
story of now?