I decided to select this book from the reading list we were given as the title spoke to me the most from the list. “How to tell your story so the world listens” sounded like a very powerful statement and one that would be very helpful on my fashion communications course. What I have found since starting the course is that much of what we do is about researching, developing and crafting a story around the brand/product. I thought this book could really help my understanding of how promoting an idea works.
The book is a quick read, able to be read
in just over an hour. It is however jam-packed with advice, tips and an
anecdote that expands on a few main pieces of advice that Buster explains are
bible when attempting to tell your own story. Some of these are fairly obvious
pieces of advice that you would have been taught in English class, such as
ensuring you explain the what, where, who, how and when of a story. Others are
a little more obscure ideas that focus on how to get people to relate to your
story, such as focusing on a gleaming detail that may originally seem
irrelevant in the tale but by the end holds a large part, such as the bike in
ET. At the beginning, it was just a bike and by the end becomes part of the
most memorable scene in the film.
I found the most powerful message in this
book to be the idea that we all have a narrative and 'we are all in the midst of
a great story'. I find this to be a very inspirational idea, especially when in a bit
of a rubbish mood or mindset. Even when things aren’t going my way it helps to
remember this as we are in huge control of our life story.
The end of the book has a section of
exercises to help readers to evoke their own inner story by looking back at
their childhood experiences, times that changed lives and even about
antagonists that you may have had in your lives. These are such personal
prompts, ones that Buster does share a few answers she has heard. The responses
were surprisingly emotional, one student even a survivor of a tsunami that made
it through by realizing we all have our own narrative in life, a very powerful
idea that helped her to persist and meant that she lived to tell her tale.
Overall, I would say the book is a decent read. I can’t say
my life has changed since reading it but I think that it will be particularly
helpful for those who are planning for a public speaking event or something
similar. I hope that it will help my approach to further projects.
