Last week on The Public Speaker, I talked about how to create attention getting openings and memorable closes.  I talked about how we can benefit from watching how directors achieve this in movies.

This week on The Public Speaker, I’ll talk about four basic building blocks of any good story. But, that’s just the start!  There is so much more to learn!

Stories are such an important part of presentations and of persuasion, it’s worth investing some time to listen to the experts at telling stories.  John Truby is a professional in the art of screenwriting.  His book, The Anatomy of a Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller describes the specific elements needed for any good story…for a screenplay, for a commercial,  or for a story in a presentation.

I found some clips on YouTube which I think are worthwhile watching of John talking about some of these 22 steps.

Here he talks about plot. There are very specific techniques that can be learned for creating a good plot.

The last clip he’s talking about oppositions when talking about characters.