"The Three Little Pigs".

The story utilizes the literary "Rule of Three". From Wikipedia -
More - Rule of three (writing) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This book...

Amazon.com: Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting (9780060391683): Robert McKee: Books

...is so hardcore. What can you learn from it? Like everything... for real. This book seems to be the most common answer to the question you've asked (and for good reason).

With that said, I totally dig this book...

Amazon.com: The Art of Dramatic Writing (9781434495433): Lajos Egri: Books

This one is like... umm... kind of like the Claude Hopkins of play/screenwriting. Straight up, down and dirty fundamentals. It's a lot shorter than Story, but it's dense as Hell. I'd read it it twice.

Story telling for conversion requires a unique skill set. Your best bet would be to learn it from an accomplished copywriter.

Troy White offers a product, "Story Selling... The Art & Science of Turning Your Stories Into Wealth" here (not an affiliate link)...

Story Selling... Troy White Shows You How To Turn Your Stories Into Wealth

VL

"Story" by Robert McKee.

Definitely read some copywriting books on the subject - there's some good suggestions in the posts above - but if you want to learn how to tell a compelling story it never hurts to read some compelling stories.

So:

Anything by Ben Elton - I've read 2 of his books (The First Casualty and High Society), and they were both utter tosh, but the man is a rockstar at making you read the next page.

Anything by Iain Banks (with or without the M) - I've read loads of these and I think the man is a genius. It's the same effect as Ben - you HAVE to read the next page - but the stories themselves are far better written.

Banks is a master at using pacing and open loops to create a book you simply cannot put down. Elton may well do the same thing, but I was too busy trying desperately (and failing) to stop reading his drivel to notice.

I'll make this simple. Listen to Zig Ziglar, he's a master storyteller.

For storytelling for business, these two books are worth a read:

The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling eBook: Annette Simmons, Doug Lipman: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

and

Storytelling: Branding in Practice eBook: Baris Yakaboylu: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

For more general story writing, and how to apply fiction techniques to improve non-fiction writing, I found this interesting:

Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies: Amazon.co.uk: Sol Stein: Books

And lastly this recent course by Daniel Levis is getting a lot of praise (I bought a copy at launch, but rather shamefully am yet to start it):

Effortless Influence -- How to Master the Art of The Sales Story

What is your purpose here? Sales copywriting or writing for Kindle? You may use the same process for both.

Jonny Andrews suggested The Hero's Journey as a guide for fiction.

Try "Hooked - Write Fiction that Grabs Reader from Page One and Never Lets Them Go" by Les Edgerton.

It's a fiction storytelling guide book. But definitely useful.
As a fiction writer myself, one of my foolproof method is : open your line with conflict. Conflict will grabs curiosity, and people subconsciously "attracted" to conflict, that's the "hooker".

Pusateri -- I like Vonnegut's no.6! It's almost true to all fictions, and can even be an inspiration to start one. make the thing really worse and see how your protagonist react.

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"Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe!

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I guess it’s time to roll this old donut out again. One of the best ways to work yourself into story telling mode for sales is with the feel, felt, found formula. Here’s a brief example.


From the desk of Itchy Know More…

Hi, I’m Joe from Kokomo, aka Itchy Know More. Are you tired of having those itchy, scratchy, blood sucking parasites living in your Zoot Suit? Man, do I know how you feel. I felt the same way when I was infested with those nasty little creatures. Always scratching, red blotches all over my sorry hide… people calling me cootie man and giggling behind my back.

I was at my wits end. I searched high and low for the answer but found no relief. I was about to give up. But then one day these big fluffy clouds parted and the sun came peeking through. Just then a little voice sort of spoke to me out of the heavens and everything was suddenly different. Right then and there I knew relief was at hand.

Let me tell you what I found…

Then you tell the story of how the underdog had this monster cootie problem and tried and tried to fix it. He was about to give up but then something happened. Ta da! He found the client’s product. It’s nice to paint the poor slob as the underdog because most people relate to the underdog and want him or her to win.

Of course I’m trying to be cute with the cootie example. But this formula can be tailored to fit almost any product and it’s not hard to write. You don’t have to actually use the words feel, felt, found. There are plenty of other ways to use the empathy approach from the personal (first person) perspective or from a friend or user of the product (third person).

Anyway, this is one way you can begin to develop your story tellin’ chops. Good luck.

Read All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin. In my view, it's the definitive guide to storytelling...

Amazon.com: All Marketers Are Liars: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works--and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All (9781591845331): Seth Godin: Books

Also, Vin Montello used to give away a really nice report about using stories. I don't know if he still offers it.

-John

One book you may find useful is not so much about how to write a story as it is about what makes a story that will stick with people. Almost any story that goes viral has most, if not all, of the elements discussed in this book (simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and a good story.

Examples: Jared, the Subway guy (big guy loses hundreds of pounds eating sub sandwiches!); that little kid with the homemade arcade; lots of the myths that Mythbusters has fun with.

The book is called Made to Stick by Chip Heath.

I Love the stuff from Frank Kern he is a great Guy, very funny and has useful Information. (omne trium perfectum) I used the rule of 3 as I often do. It comes naturally to me After years of writing. Story telling is and old form of communication as is music which was used to tell stories of old. The Greeks, Romans, Persians, Egyptians, Celts, Indians and all others told stories of heros, wars and great happenings or events. People understand this form of communication globally and respond to it even today.

I find it a universally accepted form of conveying a message and making a point. It works and ist probably always will.

Anyway Frank sayes use Home town Boy does good, unsung Hero or US against them for your Story line. And keep it factual, Entertaining and emotional and you will get results. He is right. Thanks Frank you are a Buddy and Genius... Mostly a Buddy. ;-))

I know a lot of you are thinking of this as storytelling for sales copy, but I want to write fiction. One thing I am doing is studying stories and movies that have fascinated me - like Monk - and trying to see why that is. I definitely like strong characters who are very flawed in some ways.

Plot is the hardest for me. I think there are only basically a few plots, it is remembering them.

I have had some success by taking Bible stories and rewriting them - all classics. The same with Shakespeare but I don't know that as well.

Try Kick Ass Copywriting Secrets Of A Marketing Rebel by John Carlton. In there he shares a ton of different story one-two-punches. Some examples:

1) Star-story-solution: Bankrupt Computer Geek Accidentally Discovers A Way To Quickly Earn $12,000 A Month On The Web...

2) Put your money where your mouth is: If You Don't Drop 12 Strokes Off Your Next Round Of Golf With These Secrets,,, Then I Will Give You Double Your Money Back

3) Information ad: Warning! Don't call a plumber until you read this:

P.S. Used the rule of three just now

Jay white's emails are a perfect example of story telling-
which is why he writes auto-responders and launch emails
for gurus such as:

Jeff Walker
Alex Mandossian
Bob Bly
Rich Schefren

By next week I'm going to grab his course "Email Copy Made Easy"
and study it. I've heard nothing but great things about this man PLUS
he's on this forum so you can send em' a message.

- Anthony La Tour

Jonathan, Daniel Levis had some interesting takes on Hemingway and speaking your prospect's language in this blog post:
I used to love reading The Killers

Somebody tell Daniel to turn those URLs into permalinks.

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If you want to get really good at story telling learn hypnosis and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming)

and I recommend you learn NLP from Richard Bandler and John Grinder.
and Hypnosis from Milton Erickson.

It will really open your eyes to the potential language has for working magic

Freedom is everything, and love is all the rest.

Here's some good stuff on storytelling from Pixar:
The 22 rules of storytelling, according to Pixar

Here's a few:

#2: You gotta keep in mind what's interesting to you as an audience, not what's fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you'll never share it with anyone.

#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it's poison to the audience.

#14: Why must you tell THIS story? What's the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That's the heart of it.

#21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can't just write ‘cool'. What would make YOU act that way?

#22: What's the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

Hello! If you only want to improve your storytelling skills, I recommend you to try the book "Improving your Storytelling" by Doug Lipman. It's kinda like a guide for good storytelling, for leveling up your skills in this field. I hope that helped you in a way or so. Best of luck mate!

Nice one. Here's some good stuff from Lawrence:
Storytelling Power In Ad Copy

The Copywriter’s Sweet Revenge

3 years ago, I bumped into this master storyteller
at a bar. His face was flushed and he obviously
looked a little drunk... Then he spat out his drink.

Obviously, you're going to feel uncomfortable
sitting beside someone spitting out his drink...

So I got up my chair and started to shift to a more
quiet spot... but that was until I realized there was
something absolutely strange about him.

It freaking hit me like a hammer in the nuts.

In fact, that was the reason why...

[...]

There you go. A story. It's definitely not hard to
write a story, because the basic elements of a story
goes this way:

- Contrast creates attention, and your readers sit
up and are absolutely glued into a trance when they
find something unresolved and out-of-place

It's like writing normal copy as well.

First, you build off with a normal situation. Something
the prospect easily accepts. Something that is
normal and credible...

Until something weird crashes in through the window
and disrupts the whole momentum...

And then you warp the reader into a completely
different place... He's sucked into a tornado of inner
conversations...A place where he seems to take over
the role of your main character.

And of course, you maintain that through contrast.

Plus - My friend John told me there were 3 main
elements to any kind of story. You see, he's a screen
writer... He could literally write things that leapt out
of the screen...

(That was a mini-story).

The 3 elements are:
The introduction context, the development escalating
to a climax, and then a resolution.

Variations can be "The Hero's Journey" as documented
by Joseph Campbell, or various other methods like
screenwriting via segmenting acts/plot-points.

By the way, the master storyteller ended up in the
hospital after something crazy happened there. Want
to know more about how that ended up in a kick-ass
tsunami of cash? Grab your copy at...

Well, those stories weren't real. Just exemplifying.

Winston Tian

Johnathan, check out WritersBeat.com. Although my mainest hangout is here on the good ol Warrior Forum, for story telling that's the place to be. For a forum, it reminds me a lot of the WF. There are good folks there.

When you get ready, submit your short stories to FableShop.net.

Norm

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Story Telling is an Art that comes from living stories that are worthy of telling.

It's not about ramping up some average story, it's about living a great story and then be inspired enough to share it many many times until the words just flow out of your heart every single time.

I first learned to communicate well enough by reading and listening to a lot of audio till I was able to communicate and inspire others with words. Then you add a great experience to the table and soon you see yourself telling stories like the greatest.

I believe that story telling is not something you learn, it is something you create. If you have the communication skills to express yourself with a wide range of vocabulary, then a story can be hyped up enough to affect people, but as already mentioned, the real storytelling isn't superficial, because it comes from very deep, it comes from living and experiencing a REAL story and then being able to transform that feelings into words.

Best wishes,
Demian

P.S. I fly when I jump into the unknown

The best way to learn good writing - ANY good writing - is to study what is compelling to you. The next best way is to write something and have an awesome editor chop it to pieces (and I mean that in the nicest way). Then study THAT. Keep writing and keep getting edited. Look and learn. Pretty soon, it will become automatic. Every good writer needs a good editor!

Great resources in this thread, thanks for sharing!

I saw a TED talk today by filmmaker Andrew Stanton (Toy Story, WALL-E, Finding Nemo) in which he shares his point of view on what makes a great story. I remembered this thread and thought it was a nice and useful addition.

"Don't give [the audience] four; give them two plus two.", Andrew Stanton says.

It's 20 minutes of great tips and tricks on how to capture your audience and on how to get people to care till the end of your account. The speech itself is, I think, a good example of what is preached.

Hope you'll enjoy it!

Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story

Another useful storytelling book that has been mentioned in this forum before is "The Writer's Journey" by Christopher Vogler.

Borrowing part of Amazon's summary from the older 2nd edition (it's up to 3rd now):

"Now in its second edition, The Writer's Journey sets forth archetypes common in what Vogler calls "the hero's journey," the mythic structure that he claims all stories follow. In the book's first section, he lists the different kinds of typological characters who appear in stories. In the second, he discusses the stages of the journey through which the hero generally passes. The final, supplementary portion of the book explains in detail how films like Titanic and The Full Monty follow the patterns he has outlined."

Some might say Vogler's "mythic structure for writers" is limiting, others might say it is all-encompassing. However, there is no denying that many stories, scripts, and films do fit within the outlined framework of The Hero's Journey, sharing many common elements.

One more thing.

Now that we've got all these great references on building stories, what do we do with the stories we build?

To that end, Seth Godin's book "All Marketers are Liars" is actually about using stories to sell things.

For example, let's take Tom's of Maine. Tom sells toothpaste, which is a crowded field that is hard to stand out in. But Tom:

1) found a shared worldview;
2) framed a story around that view;
3) made it easy for the story to spread;
4) created a new market, which he owns.

So the art of story itself is only part of the overall picture - marketers and copywriters also need to be aware of many other factors that influence how the story will be received, perceived, interpreted, viewed, shared, and spread. This book will help to clarify those factors (as will the previously-mentioned "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath - I'd recommend reading both).

This is a really fantastic thread - thank you all so much!!