How to use classic storytelling techniques to make podcasts that impact on listeners

Summary: No matter what format your podcast is - interview, panel discussion, documentary, monologue - you can employ structures and techniques used in literature and screenplays to make powerful stories and keep your listeners hooked. This article describes the most popular techniques with examples of how they can be applied.

Storytelling is as old as humans are. In the 1800s, anthropologists and academics began to assemble common patterns in stories and myths from all around the world, and the Hero's Journey became known as the single most common story form. Today this story structure is still widely practised in varying forms, across films and other media too.

Other, more modern story techniques include non-linear storytelling (e.g. start at the story's end), character arcs, backstory, and flashbacks.

Below are examples of these structures and techniques, and suggestions as to how they can be applied for the purpose of podcasts.

Example One: The Three Act Structure / Hero's Journey

Act 1. The Hero's Journey / Three Act Structure

Almost every popular film out of Hollywood follows the three act structure. The three acts are roughly 1. Setup, inciting incident 2. Rising action, conflict 3. Climax, conclusion. Let's apply this example to a very famous film, The Wizard of Oz.

Our heroine, Dorothy, lives happily on a farm in Kansas with her friend, the dog Toto. A hurricane strikes, and whisks Dorothy, Toto, even Dorothy's house into the sky and they all fall onto the Land of Oz. This is the inciting incident.

Act 2. It turns out that the house has squashed a witch! And the witch's sister, who is also a witch, sees this and becomes a sworn enemy to Dorothy. So already very quickly in Act II, our hero's life is turned upside down (almost literally) and she is in lots of conflict. From there she starts an adventure to find her way home, making friends and more enemies along the way, being at times happy, at times terrified. The new world is fantastic and surreal, it is unnatural and so Dorothy craves Kansas (resolution, return). The conflict with the Wicked Witch of the West deepens and threatens the life of her friends.

Act 3. Ultimately, Dorothy reaches the Emerald City, home of the Wizard of Oz. The Wizard offers to take Dorothy home in his air balloon, but in an attempt to rescue Toto she misses her place on the balloon! This is the final crisis - now Dorothy can never go home! Suddenly, the good witch of the East appears and tells Dorothy she has the power to return to Kansas by using her Ruby Slippers. When Dorothy wakes up, she awakens surrounded by her family and friends in Kansas. We see that these people were also her friends in her dream, as different characters. This is the "new", improved normal.

OK, so this is a nice story, but how can this be applied to a podcast?

Say you are interviewing someone for your podcast show. The person you are talking to is likely someone who has rich experience and skills, both in their personal life and in the industry, subject matter or area of knowledge. We can apply the three act structure to any of these things. For example, what was a setback or challenge faced by this industry or person? How did it happen, why did it happen, and how did they recover from it? How were they changed by the incident?

1. Explain how the industry/person was, then describe the setback/incident

2. Explain the consequences and impact of the incident, emotions, problems, crises, attempts to recover

3. Climax / the most challenging moments and then resolution, how the industry or person recovered

Example Two: Use classic character functions and character arcs

Stories almost always have people or things in them that function as the following:

The Protagonist - the main person, probably good, who we follow and have an interest in, care about

The Antagonist - person or thing which creates conflict and blocks the journey of the protagonist

The Mentor/Guide - a person or thing who assists the protagonist, shows or suggests the right path to resolution

Here's one way these character functions can be used: in a panel-format podcast with multiple guests, the host could function as the protagonist and is looking for the right answer to a question or concept. One guest could function as antagonist and block ideas with counter arguments. A second guest could offer more balanced arguments and ideas which the host uses to "win" the debate with the antagonist. By the end of the discussion, some or all of the speakers have changed their views and their position to some degree, their characters have changed (this change is called a character arc in storytelling).

Example Three: Non linear storytelling

In recent times, Quentin Tarantino became celebrated for his use of non-linear storytelling. The simplest example of this is, start at the end. Think of true crime podcasts; a grisly murder described at the beginning triggers endless questions, which the podcast then dissects from the beginning of the story. Here's how we can use this technique in an interview podcast:

A guest speaker you are interviewing has made a significant career achievement. They have won a prize in their field. To start the show, either the speaker or you describe this incredible moment, receiving an award on stage, meeting world leaders or their personal heroes.. the feelings they are experiencing.. they take us inside this moment, this experience. But how did they arrive here? Now we start back at the beginning of their story.

Example Four: Backstory

When films become successful, the filmmakers often seek to create spinoffs - then backstories for characters and settings which maybe were not featured in the original story now are told in the spinoffs. A format for interview podcasts could be:

The podcast host interviews an expert or interesting subject. During the course of the interview, other characters or subjects are introduced as interesting topics. In future episodes, the host follows up on this secondary characters or subjects and the storytelling of the series becomes a web of connections between the interviewees and subjects.

Conclusion:

Seek inspiration from your favourite books, plays, tv shows and movies. As shown from the examples above, once you apply these techniques to a different medium and context they lose all resemblance to the original examples you emulate. It can be creatively rewarding, and a highly effective method for hooking in the listener.