- When you tell a really good, engaging story
on your channel, you will get more watch time,
more engagement, more views.
But what if you just don't feel like
you have a good, engaging story to tell?
Today, Jeff is a storytelling expert,
and he's gonna show you guys how you can
pull something amazing outta something
that might feel boring.
(computer-generated music)
Hey guys, my name is Tim Shmoyer
and welcome to Video Creators.
This channel's all about helping you grow
your YouTube audience so you can spread a message
that reaches people and changes their lives.
And story is one of the best ways that you can do that.
Jeff, you do storytelling for a living.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
- I got into video production in high school.
I went to a high school of 200 people.
I was the only one who cared at all
about that kind of stuff, so I ended up shooting and editing
and putting it all together,
and now that's what I actually do for a living.
In Los Angeles, I'm a full-time television editor,
and I've worked for companies like ABC and NBC
and Disney and Universal and Apple,
and it's a really cool thing.
And the great thing is, I get to tell stories all the time.
It's amazing. - Yeah,
and it connects pretty well to YouTube,
because you take, like, unscripted content
and you gotta find the story in it and craft it together,
just like a lot of you vloggers are doing.
For example Elle With Food wrote and asked this,
"Problem is I feel like I don't have
"many interesting stories to tell
"or even how to fit them into my types of videos.
"I know a lot of people that do similar videos tell stories,
"but I feel like I have nothing."
Jeff, what advice would you have for Elle and other creators
who feel like they just don't have a story to tell?
- Well the good news is, you have a story.
You are a story, we are all living a story.
That's literally how our life unfolds.
We start at the beginning, and we go through our life
and it comes to an end, at some point.
So the good news is we all have a story,
and the challenge becomes how do you
communicate that story really well?
And the way to do that is,
consider the framework of what a story is.
So Tim's been talking a lot about story
and how important it is, and there's a framework
that we both consider when we're talking about stories.
The story is, by definition, where a character
wants something, overcomes obstacles to get it,
and ends up transformed as a result.
So you have character,
you have a character who wants something,
there's stuff that's keeping them from getting it,
and then when they get to the end,
whether they get what they want or not,
there's always a change.
And that's the essence of any good story.
So, like when we're thinking about our own lives,
Who are we?
What do we want?
And what's standing in our way?
That's the place to start.
- One of the ways that I do this practically
is rather than like sitting down
and like, let's just talk about something
or let's just vlog our life because
our lives are awesome or something.
- I am amazing, look at me.
- You should be like, I want to think
about like how do I craft this vlog,
for example, as a story.
Casey Neistat talks about this a lot.
And it's like I'll just look down, look at my day,
I'm like, what's that character want?
What am I, need to overcome to get it,
or my week, whatever the case may be, and then like,
and how has it changed me?
And I just simply think through that process
before I even start shooting.
How am I gonna tell the story,
what am I gonna say, what are the shots I need to get?
So I don't film all day, and outta the blue
I got like a ton of footage and then I'm like,
how do I piece this together to make something interesting
where I'm not just giving like, short video status updates
about my day, and get bonus points
if the story actually has meaning
for the audience that's watching it.
So, it's not really just about your story
but it's about how your story connects
to someone else's story.
- Then the other element that you can add to that is
once you have the idea of what character is and
what the obstacles are, think about
what we call the story arc.
Think about where you begin,
what's the middle, and where you end up.
So, it's really the most simple story structure,
it's like, the three-act structure
that can get so crazy complex with movies and such,
but really all it is, it's beginning, middle, and end.
Where do you start, where's the middle, and where's the end?
As long as you show a progression, a change,
that's what people want to see,
that's what people resonate with.
- On YouTube, a great way to do this
is just think like every video
needs to have like a self-contained story arc,
character wants something, overcomes conflict, transform.
And then think about like what's the season of life, though?
So what's the bigger story arc?
It gets people to go from one video to the next
and want to subscribe to see what happens next,
that would be like a season of life story arc, so,
you know, like for us, like my wife's pregnant
that's a nine-month story arc.
What are they gonna do now that they have seven?
This is gonna be baby number seven.
How are they going to respond to that, what are the changes?
Like there's tons of conflict in that story let me tell you.
(laughs)
And then what's the resolution?
How are they different now that this baby is born?
What's different about their family?
- And what you're just describing,
it's the exact same thing that we do
when we're talking about a season arc
within a whole season of television.
So much of what happens is you are asking questions
and in any given episode you're answering them,
but you're always asking more.
So the more questions you ask, the longer that hooks
people into keeping watching.
So, with your daughter, who was born blind in one eye,
that is, that's a huge question
that you do not have answers for, so that's--
- Another season of life story arc.
- And it's one of those things where you keep,
you know, do you need another surgery, yes or no?
Then how's she gonna react to the surgery?
It's like so you keep asking those questions,
and the next thing you know,
you have a progression over multiple episodes.
- One of the questions that I start by asking,
just to make it simple for me,
and I don't know if it's right or wrong maybe,
I'd love to hear how you think about this,
was that I usually start with a point of conflict.
Like what is it that the character wants?
And then I try to figure out the story
and the transformation, and all that
kind of around that is that kind of a good way.
- Yeah. - For someone who has
a boring story, is that where they should start?
- That's the great place, - A boring story.
- that's the place to start and the thing is,
the thing, that is one of the first
questions that a screenwriter asks.
- One of the things I been experiencing
the more I try to tell stories
is just how hard it is, I did not expect that.
So I'm really thankful for channels like Story Greenlight,
which is Jeff's channel where he just teaches you guys
how to craft engaging stories from your content.
Link to that down below.
We also have a short playlist you can click on
right here to learn more from Jeff about how to find
really epic stories in really ordinary content.
So subscribe here to this channel,
check out that playlist and we'll see you guys
over in those next videos.