On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, award-winning journalist and media personality, Lamide Akintobi visited the IDA team to share some insights on a topic that gets us super stoked – the fine art of storytelling.
Okay, maybe she didn’t exactly visit. The IDA team has been working from home for about two months now, so it was an entirely virtual conversation.
Here are some of my major takeaways from our session with Lamide Akintobi.
See the end from the beginning
Yes, you might not have the ability to literally see the future, but stay with me for a minute. When you’re creating a story, it’s important to think about the end goal before you even begin.
Ask yourself what the goal of your story is. What emotions do you want to elicit from your readers? What important messages do you want to pass across to your audience?
Holding the end goal of your story in mind as you create it will make your story a lot more meaningful, and might even take your story to an entirely new and unexpected direction.
Everyone is selfish
Do you remember Scar from Lion King? His manifesto to the hyenas was simple – ‘stick with me and you’ll never go hungry again!’.
People seem to filter content based on how relevant it is to them. Does your story speak about their fears, interests, concerns, etc? The truth is that everyone has got their own problems and a million other things to do with their time. So why should they consume your content?
This reminder that everyone is mostly selfish was one of my biggest lessons from the session with Lamide. In dealing with this filter, Lamide advises us to ‘relate up or down’.
This means that you can tie a small issue that affects your audience to a bigger national or global issue. On the other hand, you can also relate down by showing your reader how a big, seemingly far away issue can affect their own lives.
Be a scout
A great interview adds life to any story. According to Lamide, a lot of the real work of excellent interview sessions happens before it.
Before an impending interview, it’s important to do some in-depth research. Your interviewees are probably bored with the same cliché interview questions, so putting in the work into researching the subject means you can craft some thoughtful questions that will make you stand out as a professional.
If you’ll be having a virtual interview, or using unfamiliar platforms, be sure to do a tool check beforehand.
Lamide’s bonus tip
In preparing interview questions, ask other people what they would like to know about the subject of your interview. You’ll be surprised to get some really interesting questions this way, along with a wider perspective on the subject.
Make interviews a piece of cake
Start your interviews with soft questions so your subjects feel more comfortable talking to you, and avoiding putting them on the spot.
Planning is great, but sometimes interviews can go off on an unplanned tangent. Pay attention to the person you’re interviewing, as your subject might reveal something interesting that will take the interview in a different direction. Be flexible enough to accommodate this.
Another bonus tip
If an interviewee is avoiding an important question, try to ask the same question several times, but in different ways. This way, you’re sure to get some content to use in developing your story.
Remember, the best interviews are conversations (not interrogations).
In closing the session, Lamide told us to keep our storytelling simple and avoid using complex words as much as possible.
When we asked her about the books she reads to help her become a better storyteller, she surprised us by telling us that she reads a lot of fiction. According to her, reading widely helps to broaden your mind, see other perspectives, and sharpen your storytelling skills.
All in all, it was a pretty cool session with Lamide Akintobi, and the IDA team obviously learned a lot.
Can we get an encore? Pretty please?