More important than reading books, is taking the kind of notes that allow you to integrate it back into parts of life that actually matters. Here is my Storyworthy Book Review. 

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Stories reveal the design of life's structures

If you really want to get to understand what a person thinks, dreams, and hopes for in life, you have to listen to their stories.

Who is this book for?

• Creators

Writers

Comedians

Storytellers

• Influencers

Sales Professionals

Parents

Teachers

What did I like? 

I love the idea that your entire story is told within a 5 second moment. Everything else about your story is to build towards and support that 5 second moment in your story. Now when I think about telling a story I think of the 5 second moment that created change in me as a result of that story. 

I can ahonestly say that I have been telling much better stories since reading this book and I am using this skill at every speaking opportunity I get.

What was meh?

Do not read this book if you are looking for an instruction guide on how to tell stories, trust me. This book is 90% stories and 10% instruction. The author takes story breaks throughout the book to keep it engaging...and he does a great job at it.

Takeaways for parents:

My biggest takeaway for parents is the Homework for LIFE activity.

The Idea here is I have to take 5 minutes every day and force myself to remember a moment from the day that I could make up a story.

Write it down in an excel document, I will show you how I do it using Roam Research a noting taking tool.

It doesn't have to be a good story but I just need to write something.

Over time you end up with a long list of meaningful memories.

This is going to be crucial for parents.

For example, there was a moment I recorded the other day:  

1. My oldest was dangerously climbing a table to get a spider, 
2. My middle child was 3 feet away from him deeply involved in imagination land with a broken car and stick 
3. All while my 16-month-old was 3 feet away from him dancing to a song in his head. 

What a perfect snapshot of their personalities. I would have missed this as a parent if I did not write this up at the end of the day.

If parents want to do a good job of tracking and being aware of the journey of their family doing something like this would be incredibly helpful.

Book summary

The book is broken down into 7 points:

1. Change is the most important part of storytelling-

Change has to happen in your story. It is not a story unless change happens

2. Test your story-

You should tell the story as if you are telling it to close friends over dinner. If it is off-brand or inappropriate in that context, it would not be a good story to share.

3. Generating your stories-

Homework for LIFE, see above

4. The beginning of your story should create momentum, movement and be as close to the end as possible

5. Use stakes to make your story interesting.

Employ tools to increase the stakes like where the story is heading, change where it is heading, get the audience invested, hint at a possible direction, slow down at the climax, give a possible but false prediction and use humor.

6. You can lie about somethings to keep the story clean

It is permissible to leave out characters, compress the timing, take an extra step to inform assumption,s and change the order in an effort to make your story more effective

7. Tell your story in an engaging way.

To create an active and engaging narrative it is important to give a scene for every part of your story as well as use the principle of But and Therefore to keep things moving.

Tell your story- Keep surprises in your story to make the 5 second moment more devastating

Final thoughts

Storyworthy is a really engaging read. The author, [[David Epstein]], does a fantastic job telling his stories and using those stories to help you learn to better tell yours.