4 Tips and Tricks About Storytelling from Doris Kearns Goodwin
If you had time to sit down and have coffee with Doris Kearns Goodwin, she might give you some advice. As a Historian she loves stories. Especially great and interesting stories about the past.
She might give you some advice that sounds like this:
“Take time to learn how to tell a great story about a loved one.”
“Allow time spent with them to turn into fun, funny, and inspiring stories that can be written or told orally to showcase some of their sparkling personality.”
Presidential Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin says, “Stories keep people alive…”
She has written Amazon favorites like (Affiliate Links):
- Leadership: In Turbulent Times
- Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
- No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
- Doris Kearns Goodwin: The Presidential Biographies: No Ordinary Time, Team of Rivals, The Bully Pulpit
She also appears in masterclass which I highly recommend if you love learning.
I’ve personally been enjoying it for years now and they keep getting better. I can’t recommend it more.
As a historian, she has learned not only the importance of storytelling but how it can accelerate your life and career as well as keep the memory of someone important to you and others alive.
1. Understand who you are talking about.
Ask questions to find out about your ancestors and who they were.
– Where did they come from?
– How did they get here?
– Who did they let along the way?
– What challenges did they face?
– How did they overcome those challenges?
– What did they learn from those challenges?
These are all important questions that will lead to great bones for a story to be told to your kids and grandkids.
2. Have empathy.
What is empathy?
It’s the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person.
Empathy is a powerful tool in many settings.
It’s especially powerful in telling a story.
If I can understand what my subject is feeling and thinking, I can share that with my audience and, in turn, get them to understand what my subject is feeling and thinking.
If I’m not practicing empathy to understand others how will I be able to share that with my audience?
3. Dig out the gems.
Abraham Lincoln would say that all humans experience bad emotions: anger, malice, jealousy, revenge.
But he said these emotions were not good to dwell on. That it was better to use self-discipline to try to let these feelings go, so he had a certain practice he would use to fight against doing something foolish with his anger especially.
He would write what he called “Hot Letters.”
These hot letters would be to people that had made him angry.
In these letters he would really let them “have it!”
Saying everything he was angry about and why and maybe at times even “what he was gonna do about it.”
He would then put the letter aside and let time pass by.
He almost never sent these letters. We even have some to look back on.
General Mead failed to meet up with General Lee after the victory in Gettysburg.
Lincoln was furious with Mead and wrote one of these “hot letters” to him to tell him how if he would have listened to his orders the wear would be over but now it’ll dredge on for months or years because of his mess up.
Lincoln realised this letter would cripple his General so he never sent it.
Now I want you to realize that I just told you a story about Abraham Lincoln.
This is what you call “Finding a Gem.“
I found a piece of information about his life that is fascinating and also tells us as readers a lot about his character very quickly.
I didn’t have to tell you he was a man who tried to practice patience with others.
You got to see it retold in his regular practice of writing hot letters.
So now you understand Abraham Lincoln as a person a little better. You saw things about him that he thought no one would ever see. You saw the way he thought and felt about important things like emotions and how they affect self and others and even armies, wars, and nations.
And now that you’ve read this small gem about him, you can share it too.
“Find the Gems” and share them with others.
4 Tips and Tricks About Storytelling from Doris Kearns Goodwin
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4. The importance of relevance and timing.
Teddy Roosevelt once warned American citizens, whether in different cultures, states, races, or religions, that if we started to see each other as outsiders to what’s going on and not as all American citizens that our democracy would start to crumble.
He warned of a day when we would allow ourselves to judge each other instead of seeing everyone as equals and working together as American citizens.
This warning could be a warning against “labeling” and how it divides people and does not unite them to a common cause and benevolence (the quality of well-meaning and kindness).
Teddy used to dress himself up as a police officer and go into the streets to make sure the police were doing their job and this gave the country extra accountability and stability to know that it’s common citizens weren’t being abused by power and were receiving help and justice they were paying for with their taxes.
This story of Teddy Roosevelt and his leadership qualities is timeless.
But notice how even then, the President of the United States knew that he had to keep a close eye on the accountability for his police force to make sure they weren’t abusing their power.
At a time like this, this story is powerful and poignant.
Keep memories like this in mind and use their timeliness and relevance to bolster the power behind them. Use these insights to give your stories new life for your audience.
Hope this helps!
Happy writing!
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4 Tips and Tricks About Storytelling from Doris Kearns Goodwin
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