How do you hold the reader’s attention in a time of information overload? And how do you tell a layered story both on- and offline? We are all meaning-seeking creatures. With everything we see and experience, we look for connections, and turn it into a story in our heads. In a time of information overload, storytelling is the way to hold your audience’s attention.

I came under the spell of storytelling in 2008, when I started reporting from Iraq and looked for ways to make the reader here sympathize with its people. In the Netherlands, I became one of the co-founders and was for 5 years director of the Stichting Verhalende Journalistiek (the Initiative for Narrative Journalism in the Netherlands). I now have years of experience in on- and offline storytelling, often on multiple stages. dit verhaal, dit verhaal of dit verhaal.

And then?

Storytelling is a way of structuring information. One that connects to how our brains work; our brain is always thinking “and then…”.

Tension arc

When telling a story, you consciously choose a perspective and a narrative style. You think about who your main character is, which scenes are crucial and what tension arc you want to maintain.

Heart
The best story connects head, heart and gut feeling, thus adding an emotional layer to the information.

Facts
Storytelling gives context to facts. The facts are the facts, but what do they mean?