A story recounts events that can teach a lesson, entertain, or inspire an audience to act using the elements of narrative arc, characters, and plot.

Narrative Arc: All stories have a narrative arc to provide structure and dictate progress. Typically, this includes a beginning, where you are introduced to the main character(s), setting, and problem; a middle, where conflict arises and ultimately escalates to a climax; and an end, where struggle subsides until (ideally) the central conflict is resolved (more on this below) and the main character(s) has changed in some fundamental way.

Marshall Ganz, a researcher and lecturer on organizing and leadership, translates this story arc in his “Public Narrative” framework using challenge, choice, and outcome when developing a story:

• Challenge: Name the challenge and why it was so difficult
• Choice: Explain the choice made and how it felt
• Outcome: Share the outcome of your choice and the lesson learned

We recognize that real-life stories only sometimes fit neatly into a three-part structure or necessarily have happy endings (or an ending at all). What’s important is that you identify an arc that works best for your story and that can easily guide the audience to understand how inequities—rooted in racism—have left us all less secure and resilient.

Here’s our recommendation for generating a powerful story that takes your audiences on a journey with a beginning, middle, and end.

Beginning:

• Set the Scene: Who is the protagonist(s) — in other words, who is the story about?  What does the protagonist(s) or the collective care about? What is their hope or vision for the future?
• Inciting Incident: What unplanned or unexpected thing happens that begins the action of the story?
• Goal: What is the protagonist(s) trying to accomplish? What is the vision they are trying to create?

Middle

• Challenges: Tell us about the challenges the protagonist(s) encounter as they work to accomplish their goal. Being honest about the obstacles makes for a relatable story and gives others hope as they learn about efforts to overcome the challenges that many of your audiences face.
• Role of your organization, campaign, or initiative: How do you help to overcome the challenges? Show how your work, or the collective’s, addressed the problem(s).

End

• Transformation and impact: How did your solutions transform members and the community? What was the effect or outcome of the protagonist’s journey? Or, if the story is still ongoing, what impact are you continuing to make or work towards?
• Lesson: What did the protagonist(s) learn from the journey?
• Action: End stories with a clear call to action. What must your audiences do to make transformation possible for every community?

In addition to the narrative arc, another important storytelling element involves characters, which move a story along and provide a vehicle for the audience to understand the journey. The story could have one main character or a collective. While a story can have abstract characters, such as the weather, poverty, or racism, best practice tells us that it’s best to focus on human characters—the heroes who are fighting for justice.

A compelling story should show the complexity of people’s character, the range of emotions they experience, the scope of their ambitions, and the richness of their relationships.

Finally, build a diverse bench of storytellers to foster a more inclusive storytelling culture in your organization or community. Consider diversity not just in race or ethnicity but in other aspects such as age, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, ability, or location (rural vs. urban).

An important final element is the plot, which consists of the events that take place in the story. Whether dealing with unemployment, graduating from college, facing a health crisis, or opening a small business, these events challenge the characters and drive the story’s outcome. These individual stories should connect to the roots of injustice in our economic system, such as wealth in too few hands, structural racism, and a history of community disinvestment. Setting up the problem as a threat to our values can help illustrate how your organization and campaign can be a solution.

With these story elements—narrative arc, characters, and plot—you can build your capacity for telling more compelling stories that move hearts and minds. In the next part of our storytelling series, we’ll share more about the different organizational stories you can tell.

For more on story structures, read Part I of this installment of our series.