Contrary to popular belief, 50 Shades of Grey is NOT the bestselling book of all time. The Bible takes that title. According to The Guinness Book of World Records, the Bible has sold over 5 billion copies worldwide.
Success leaves clues, ladies. So let’s set faith and religion (two different things!) aside for one moment to analyze the storytelling structure of The Bible. Because the Bible’s storytelling structure is completely genius. And learning how to be a better storyteller can help your marketing AND communication immensely.
The New Testament is basically a series of microstories contained inside a larger story. There is a big story about the life of Jesus. This BIG story of the life of Jesus is meant to teach readers a broad lesson about the meaning and purpose of our lives. Scholars refer to this broad lesson as The Mystery and we’re supposed to spend our lives figuring out what that mystery actually means. Ladies, take note: having your central lesson be a big mystery works for Jesus and only Jesus. Mortals like you and me need to be clearer and more specific.
And then inside the BIG story is a series of microstories (known as parables) that Jesus tells to teach the people about a point he wants to make.
Microstories embedded inside a larger story. This is advanced storytelling technique at its finest. Here are the takeaways for you.
- Storytelling is, has always been and will always be the most important way to share information in a way that people will remember.
- Microstories are helpful and relatively simple to tell. Anytime you are making an important point, look for a microstory to reinforce that point.
- If you want to take your storytelling skill next level, then borrow the story structure of the bestselling book in history and embed microstories in a larger narrative.
This is the exact technique I used in my latest podcast and it’s why I got so much feedback on the episode. You should have a listen.