Digital Storytelling, Capturing Lives, Creating Community is a book by Center for Digital Storytelling founder, Joe Lambert that outlines many of the techniques they use in their workshops to teach people how to tell stories. In the book, Lambert gives a short summary of his life, as well as the life of the tradition of storytelling. He highlights the fact that storytelling has evolved to be an “outsider celebration of the ordinary,” (Page 10) which is why we relate to it so much. The two play well off one another and peak the interest as he delves into techniques for creating story. The last few chapters are an interview with the founders of the Center for Digital Storytelling. Reading the author and his coworkers’ direct quotes after a polished book was a beneficial resource that also helped the reader feel like they were actually a student at the Center. Something that I found interesting in particular at the beginning of the book was the description of how our brains work differently when we are hearing or telling a story. This set up of biological reactions to a seemingly arbitrary concept, gives the reader a sense of the important place that story can play in our lives. Conceptual illustrations aside, Lambert gave very practical advice to storytelling, and digital storytelling specifically. The book is a mixture of his and his student’s creative writings, alongside his heartfelt advice, and instructions (even bulleted lists). He gives seven components or categories of a digital story: Self Revelatory, Person or First Person Voice, Lived Experience, Photos more than moving images, Soundtrack, Length and Design, and Intention (Page 38). This book is useful for seasoned storytellers and beginners alike. A refresher for some, and a starting point for others, the book contains a little something for everyone with real-life examples. Lambert encourages his authors to “participate in the narrative” (Page 60) in order to connect to their audience. On a more practical note, he also discusses how to choose an image for a story, and why storyboarding is important. In addition to his “digital media” advice, he also gives advice for authors in general. I found the chapter with storytelling prompts and advice on connecting most useful. This book could be used for an aspiring writer, a seasoned professional, or a freshman journalism student. It’s advice seeks to stand the test of our ever-changing times as well as incorporate their website for tutorials and help.
This book taught me a lot about storytelling, something that I have been studying for the past few years. I chose this book because telling story is something that I feel I struggle with. I still have trouble recognizing when I have a good story and when I don’t. I think many of the instructions in this book will help me figure out my place in the story telling world. Something that I already knew, but not in so many words is that, for a story to connect to its audience, it must connect to their emotions. This is not just because we, as humans are emotional creatures; it is a biologically sound fact. On page 8, Lambert describes the process in this way:
“As it turns out, if we have an affective relationship to the sensory information – if that information is connected to the part of our brains that processes our emotions – then the pathways become even stronger.”
To read more about the research that has been conducted in this area, the findings that are cited in this book are available online as a PDF of Eric Kandel’s book, In Search of Memory.
These findings relate to my projects in that, I knew that I wanted to create an emotional story, I just didn’t understand why the more emotional the story example, the more successful they seemed to be. Now that I understand the biology behind it, I will be able to make more successful stories.
In my time at Marshall University, learning about storytelling techniques, there has always been a disconnect in my brain between the “story” element and how to transcribe it to a “digital” element. Chapter 4, in particular in this book gave me a greater understanding of this broad term.
This is the chapter where Lambert gives the “seven ways to define digital storytelling,” but that is just the beginning. He goes on to talk about what the definition of story itself is, and he came to the conclusion that, for the most part, everything can be a story. Everyone has a story to tell, and they should, because that is what most of our society is built on (Page 42). On a more practical note, the Center for Digital Storytelling or, CDS, has something they call a story circle. The story circle allows the author to categorize the story they are trying to tell, simply. It begins with “Me Story” and ends with “No Story.” That is, every story in your brain begins with you, but if you expand it out too much, it loses its validity. This is further illustrated through the two very broad types of story described on page 59: “1) ‘A stranger came to town…’ or 2) ‘We went on a vacation.”
Lambert also discussed how to “see your story.” I love this line on page 60:
“Finding the moment of change in your story and describing it within a scene is the starting point to telling the story as a story.”
This “moment of change” analogy really solidifies what makes or breaks a story. I will be sure to use this quote to curate my stories to fit my audience’s wants and needs. Outside of the world of text in a story, lies imagery. Lambert discusses at length, strategically using of imagery and its benefits, but simply put, he wants us to consider our audience. Would they be able to understand the story without the image? (Page 62). This is another point that I will take into creating my story. As a photographer, I tend to use imagery too much. But even if I have 15 great photographs, if I chose five to include, those five are going to have a much greater impact than if I had diluted the story with all 15.
Lambert also gives some practical tools for finding inspiration for story that I will definitely be using. My favorite is his use of the 4×6 index card (Page 88). To escape “blank page syndrome” he will give his students an index card, a prompt and a time limit. This gets the creative juices flowing, without overwhelming the student. He gives many other prompts throughout the book, but specifically in chapter seven. Some of the prompts are practical, some are emotional, but all could lend a hand to me at some point of my process when I am staring at a blank page.
The last thing I found helpful in this book was Lambert’s encouragement to “describe images that aren’t seen” (Page 108). This means that, while you may show your audience a photo of a car with meaning to the story, they don’t know what the interior smelled like, or how the owner felt when they bought it, or the memories made in it. These small, emotional details bring the audience in in ways that a simple photograph cannot.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in storytelling in any capacity. The guidelines given in this book could be useful to any number of creative outlets. Even a medium so seemingly far removed from journalistic storytelling as painting, could benefit from this book in telling story through what the painter paints. I also think that even people who are not necessarily interested in “creating story” could benefit from learning the history of story, why it is important to society and what goes into telling a really good story.