Producing a compelling narrative is like cooking a meal.
It requires at least two main skills: finding the best ingredients and knowing how to cook them properly.
In producing a compelling narrative, it usually starts with the right ingredients: the story itself should be interesting enough to evoke attention and the characters should be a perfect fit to the story recipe.
But finding the right subject is one of the most difficult part of storytelling. It requires spending a lot of time — or literally weeks — talking to potential interviewees and asking the right questions, like how you would spend hours in the market to scour for that elusive spice that will make your meal taste better.
It’s the same struggle I experienced when I was doing a story about how the pandemic changed the way people express their faith. For the story, I had to interview a dozen of people from all walks of life to find the perfect subject, with only two being used in the end.
And it’s also important to fully understand the story — or the recipe — that you will produce. Only when you understand, and even imagine, what the story is all about that you’ll know the information or the ingredients you need.
But when the story is not clear enough, sometimes it’s the interviews — or the ingredients — that will dictate what the story will be about. And it’s okay to change the story because we don’t always expect things go our way.
When we have all the right ingredients or information for the story, it’s time to sort things out. Another common problem in writing a compelling story is choosing which information, data, or quotes to use, especially when you accumulated a lot during the gathering process.
A key tip from cooking that is also useful in sorting out information is: only add the things that will make it better.
Sometimes, common mistake is putting too much quotes or data in the story that makes it boring or even dragging to read. Only add information that complements the story.
With the story I did on religion and with a dozen of interviews I gathered, I only used few that I believed amplify the message I wanted to convey. Usually it’s the quotes that express emotion rather than state information that are best to use.
And when cooking a compelling story, make sure you present it nicely so that it could captivate readers to read and finish it. And remember that no one becomes a chef in a day, same with writers.
P.S. I don’t know how to cook.
