How to design a story

Longstanding PG’er Leah Baxter and I are wrapping up our new favourite project, a six-week story design project for City of Casey. While we gear up to tell the story of how we wrote the story, I want to warm you up with this classic piece from Sandman author Neil Gaiman. “How Stories Last” is presented at the Long Now Foundation, an organisation with the mission to “foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.”

Before you get into a long and worthy Long Now Foundation internet hole, let me tell you about Gaiman’s talk: it will change you.

He makes the compelling argument that stories are some of the longest living human-made entities. Stories were able to wrap life-saving information in a more attractive, satisfying cover. Communities became emotionally attached to these stories and passed them onto others for their sheer beauty or excitement, helping the information held within them live on for hundreds of generations.

If the overuse of the word ‘storytelling’ at work has made you a cynic, listen to this talk. It will revive your passion for the topic.