The document discusses how stories are powerful tools that our brains are wired to understand. It explains that we have a Neural Story Network in our brain that takes in sensory information and shapes it into stories before our conscious mind is aware. Stories are how we make sense of the world. The best stories are relatable as they allow the audience to see themselves in the story. The document then provides an overview of common story structures like narrative arcs and story maps to help make stories effective. It concludes by noting that visual storytelling can be even more powerful since the brain processes images faster than text.

1. The Science of Story
Leah Eustace, CFRE, ACFRE
Blue Canoe Philanthropy
leah@yourbluecanoe.ca
@LeahEustace
www.yourbluecanoe.ca

2. Stories are
your
superpower!

3. Our brains are
helpless against the
gravitational pull of a
good story.
Why?

5. The average
daydream is 14
seconds long and we
have 2,000 of them
every day

8. Neural Story Net
(NSN)
Your NSN is the part
of your brain that
holds the task of
initially making sense
out of this stream of
incoming visual and
auditory information.
~ K. Haven, Story Proof

9. The NSN lies
between your
sensory organs
(eyes and ears)
and your
conscious mind

10. Nothing reaches your conscious
mind before being massaged into
story shape by your NSN

11. What reaches your
conscious mind is
always your own
story-based
interpretation of
what your sensory
organs actually
recorded.

12. When you talk, the story donors see and hear
in their conscious minds is not the story you
said! Their conscious minds hear the story
their NSN created based on the story you
actually provided.

13. The best stories are relatable

14. “A story does what facts
and statistics never can: it
inspires and motivates. The
audience tunes in because
they see themselves woven
into the story.”
~ D. Taylor, The Healing Power of Stories

15. The Story
of One

16. Stats
detract

17. Person #1: Hi John.
Person #2: Shhhhh! I’m not here!
You never saw me. I’m not here!
Person #1: It’s okay. Carol’s gone
home.

18. J FKFB INAT OUP SNA SAI RS

19. How did you do?

20. JFK FBI NATO UPS NASA IRS

21. A thirsty ant went to the river. He was
carried away by the rush of the stream
and was about to drown. A dove, sitting
in a tree overhanging the water, plucked
a leaf. The leaf fell into the stream close
to the ant, and the ant climbed onto it.
The ant floated safely to the bank.
Shortly afterward, a bird catcher came
and laid a trap in the tree. The ant bit
and stung him on the foot. In pain, the
bird catcher threw down his trap. The
noise made the dove fly away.

22. Pete argued that data gathered from a
NASA voyage to Venus called into
question current theories about the
formation of our solar system. Part of his
talk emphasized the importance of mass
spectrometers. He then discussed the
isotopes of argon 36 and argon 38 and
noted that they were of higher density
than expected. He also cited the high
values of neon found in the atmosphere.
He has a paper that is already written,
but he is aware of the need for further
investigation as well.

23. “The initial job of an
effective story is to
anesthetize the part of your
brain that knows it is a
story.”
~ Lisa Cron, Wired for Story

24. In the simplest terms, the
narrative arc is shaped by
the beginning, middle,
and end of a story.

25. Boy meets girl,
boy fails girl,
boy gets girl again

26. Adding complexity
and detail to a basic
story arc is what
differentiates one
story from another

27. Exposition
Climax
Resolution
Impact Story Map
• Setting
• Audience
• Characters
• Mood
• Point of
View
• Connection
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Conflict
• Mood
• Point of
Greatest
Tension
• Conflict
Outcome
• Resulting
Events
• Final
Outcome

29. isual
torytelling
he human brain processes
mages 60,000 times faster
han text, and 90 percent of
nformation transmitted to
he brain is visual.

33. 52% 52%
75%
Happy Neutral Sad

35. Questions?
Leah Eustace, ACFRE
leah@yourbluecanoe.ca
613.608.2890
www.yourbluecanoe.ca
www.thecasewriters.com