As I revised my first novel — Toffy’s Divide, I asked the question “is my storytelling good storytelling?” What is good storytelling anyways?

Dieter Rams (born 1932), the acclaimed German industrial designer and retired academic, asked a similar question when making innovative products for Braun.

His unobtrusive approach and belief in “Less, but better” design generated a timeless quality in his products and have influenced the design of many products

After all, similar to design, storytelling is the “ritual of a hopeful society!”

He contributed the idea of sustainable development. When designing new products, he’d asked the question “is my design good design?”

The answer he formed became the basis for his celebrated ten principles:

Dieter Ram’s 10 Principles of Good Design (Image Credit: Behance.com)

As I continue to embrace the internal sunbird within me as a creator, I love to take concepts from one field and apply it to another.

According to Amy Wilkinson’s CREATOR’S CODE, sunbirds rely on analogies to innovate. In this case, as I read Dieter Ram’s book, I started to draw an analogy between design and storytelling.

…it reinforced in my mind that the most important thing for the storyteller is to get clear on the truth that they want to tell through your story.

But if storytelling is analogous to the design process, and the design process brings forth a tangible product, then in the case of storytelling, what is the “product?”

A story? A book? A message? An artifact? A truth? Concept? A human expression?

The product is the purpose that the storytelling medium chooses to serve. It is what the storyteller wants to convey.

So the storyteller has to always question their work to get clearer on what exactly they are trying to convey.

Because this then informs the storytelling.

For the purpose of my story, it started out as an expression. A need to write a story for the music I was making. This need evolved over time.

• It transformed into wanting to express some internal truths about my human experience.

• I wanted to convey messages about our collective decision-making processes and how advancements in technology, which we are actively forging, could be a double-edged sword.

• There were messages was about freeing up our questioning ability — to investigate whether we, as individuals or collectively, are on the right path.

• Another part of the message is about following the curious path with a focus on the process. This part is what I internalized, allowing me to stick to it and finish the book.

• I also wanted to make the reader feel empowered after reading the story.

• Lastly, I wanted to make it fun, after all, it started as a fun story to inform a conceptual music project.

Fun fact: The reason this book is set in the year of 2049 is because I wanted a year that rhymed with 1989, so that I could shout-out the year on a song similar to how Chuck D from Public enemy bursted out yelling “1989, another summer/it’s the sound of the funky drummer” on “Fight the power”. George Orwell also published 1984 in 1949, and I wanted to do something similar by projecting 30–35 years ahead.

These were a few things I did to keep it fun and playful for me.

So as I got to the final lap of my 5-year journey of writing this book, I started asking whether my storytelling was serving the purpose of expressing certain truths about our collective human existence, displaying the focus on the process, and fostering genuine playfulness, while still making it efficiently relevant to the reader.

I lined up the 10 principles of “design” and switched it out with “storytelling” to investigate.

So I asked “is my storytelling good storytelling?” This formed the basis to stating that good storytelling:

1. is innovative

2. makes the truth/expression useful.

3. is aesthetic

4. makes the truth understandable.

5. is unobtrusive

6. is honest

7. is long lasting

8. is thorough down to the last detail.

9. is environmentally friendly.

10. is as little storytelling as possible.

You can find my thoughts here on whether the storytelling — in TOFFY’S DIVIDE — is good storytelling.

Going through this list — it reinforced in my mind that the most important thing for the storyteller is to get clear on the truth that they want to tell through your story. The expressions in regards to their exploration of what it is to be human.

Sharing a story with others bring us together. Not only are we sharing, through words and body language, what we are experiencing, we also use storytelling to validate our experience.

When someone else can connect with even only a glimpse of the reality expressed, there’s a moment of “we’re in this together”. We are experiencing this moment in this universe together.

The truth is in the universe. The storyteller’s task is to express that truth to their community to make them feel more human.

I used the word “hope” a lot as I worked through my 10 principles of good storytelling.

“I hope the storytelling achieves….”

“I hope the storytelling is long-lasting..”

That’s because all I can really do is hope that the message I want to express can be conveyed in the most simple form.

After all, similar to design, storytelling is the “ritual of a hopeful society!”

Storytelling is very concrete task, a challenge, an opportunity for a society that is becoming increasingly aware of its responsibility for shaping its environment while still preserving a remnant of its hopes.

So you tell me, “is my storytelling good storytelling?” Find out here by getting your copy of Toffy’s Divide.

As I revised my first novel — Toffy’s Divide, I asked the question “is my storytelling good storytelling?” What is good storytelling anyways?

Dieter Rams (born 1932), the acclaimed German industrial designer and retired academic, asked a similar question when making innovative products for Braun.

His unobtrusive approach and belief in “Less, but better” design generated a timeless quality in his products and have influenced the design of many products

After all, similar to design, storytelling is the “ritual of a hopeful society!”

He contributed the idea of sustainable development. When designing new products, he’d asked the question “is my design good design?”

The answer he formed became the basis for his celebrated ten principles:

Dieter Ram’s 10 Principles of Good Design (Image Credit: Behance.com)

As I continue to embrace the internal sunbird within me as a creator, I love to take concepts from one field and apply it to another.

According to Amy Wilkinson’s CREATOR’S CODE, sunbirds rely on analogies to innovate. In this case, as I read Dieter Ram’s book, I started to draw an analogy between design and storytelling.

…it reinforced in my mind that the most important thing for the storyteller is to get clear on the truth that they want to tell through your story.

But if storytelling is analogous to the design process, and the design process brings forth a tangible product, then in the case of storytelling, what is the “product?”

A story? A book? A message? An artifact? A truth? Concept? A human expression?

The product is the purpose that the storytelling medium chooses to serve. It is what the storyteller wants to convey.

So the storyteller has to always question their work to get clearer on what exactly they are trying to convey.

Because this then informs the storytelling.

For the purpose of my story, it started out as an expression. A need to write a story for the music I was making. This need evolved over time.

• It transformed into wanting to express some internal truths about my human experience.

• I wanted to convey messages about our collective decision-making processes and how advancements in technology, which we are actively forging, could be a double-edged sword.

• There were messages was about freeing up our questioning ability — to investigate whether we, as individuals or collectively, are on the right path.

• Another part of the message is about following the curious path with a focus on the process. This part is what I internalized, allowing me to stick to it and finish the book.

• I also wanted to make the reader feel empowered after reading the story.

• Lastly, I wanted to make it fun, after all, it started as a fun story to inform a conceptual music project.

Fun fact: The reason this book is set in the year of 2049 is because I wanted a year that rhymed with 1989, so that I could shout-out the year on a song similar to how Chuck D from Public enemy bursted out yelling “1989, another summer/it’s the sound of the funky drummer” on “Fight the power”. George Orwell also published 1984 in 1949, and I wanted to do something similar by projecting 30–35 years ahead.

These were a few things I did to keep it fun and playful for me.

So as I got to the final lap of my 5-year journey of writing this book, I started asking whether my storytelling was serving the purpose of expressing certain truths about our collective human existence, displaying the focus on the process, and fostering genuine playfulness, while still making it efficiently relevant to the reader.

I lined up the 10 principles of “design” and switched it out with “storytelling” to investigate.

So I asked “is my storytelling good storytelling?” This formed the basis to stating that good storytelling:

1. is innovative

2. makes the truth/expression useful.

3. is aesthetic

4. makes the truth understandable.

5. is unobtrusive

6. is honest

7. is long lasting

8. is thorough down to the last detail.

9. is environmentally friendly.

10. is as little storytelling as possible.

You can find my thoughts here on whether the storytelling — in TOFFY’S DIVIDE — is good storytelling.

Going through this list — it reinforced in my mind that the most important thing for the storyteller is to get clear on the truth that they want to tell through your story. The expressions in regards to their exploration of what it is to be human.

Sharing a story with others bring us together. Not only are we sharing, through words and body language, what we are experiencing, we also use storytelling to validate our experience.

When someone else can connect with even only a glimpse of the reality expressed, there’s a moment of “we’re in this together”. We are experiencing this moment in this universe together.

The truth is in the universe. The storyteller’s task is to express that truth to their community to make them feel more human.

I used the word “hope” a lot as I worked through my 10 principles of good storytelling.

“I hope the storytelling achieves….”

“I hope the storytelling is long-lasting..”

That’s because all I can really do is hope that the message I want to express can be conveyed in the most simple form.

After all, similar to design, storytelling is the “ritual of a hopeful society!”

Storytelling is very concrete task, a challenge, an opportunity for a society that is becoming increasingly aware of its responsibility for shaping its environment while still preserving a remnant of its hopes.

So you tell me, “is my storytelling good storytelling?” Find out here by getting your copy of Toffy’s Divide.