How to Optimize Your Ideas to Create Better Stories

How to start  an “Idea” Guide Book, which can  help you generate better ideas and create compelling stories.

What are your ideas worth? That is the question that many creatives ask themselves when they are deciding on what to create. If the answer is “a lot,” then you should be focusing on story creation strategies. Many creatives spend time trying to generate more creative ideas and fail to improve their story once it has been created. This is a huge mistake. In this blog post, we will discuss a tip that can help optimize your ideas for better stories and increase revenue!

There’s a book I’m excited to tell you about. It’s called Storyworthy by Mathew Dicks. In chapter 3, titled “Homework for life” he explains a simple way to generate ideas to build your next great story.

Ideas are everywhere around us. We have to be attentive and capture them when they come up, even if it is in the middle of a conversation with someone else or on our morning commute. This will build your idea bank for later use!

In the book, Dicks writes a simple plan for us. Grab your laptop and open up an excel spreadsheet and fill in each cell with what inspires you throughout the day. Write down one or two things that might have happened to you. The words don’t have to be complex, you might only write three or four words down. Those words will be your idea triggers the next time you look to reference the spreadsheet.

Whenever you find yourself struggling to think of a good idea to use in your next speech or presentation, simply open up this spreadsheet, and over the course of just a few months, you’ll find that there are so many ideas for creating a compelling story.

There will be times when you’re forced to come up with something creative on the spot. When that time comes, never fear; you have a go-to idea spreadsheet that you can dig into! Open it up and hopefully something in there will tap into a memory of a past story, locked feeling, or memorable experience.

Have fun and go ahead and combine different ideas together until narrowing the storyline to a singular concept. When you finally have a great idea, it’s important to act quickly. Write down your story on paper and then record yourself telling the story with all of the emotions that come along for the ride. It only takes 30 minutes (or so) to create a compelling audio version- this is usually enough time to produce something worth sharing!

By making an “Idea” Guide Book, it will help you generate better ideas and create compelling stories. So, keep your spreadsheet available, make it a shortcut on your phone or have it nearby on your desktop.

Go ahead and check out the book, Storyworthy by Mathew Dicks. In chapter 3, titled “Homework for life” he explains a simple way to generate ideas to build your next great story. By practicing this thing, it will soon become a habit t compelling stories on deck at all times. It’s working for me, I hope it works for you.

For more Online coaching, video production, and training tips, check out our premium Storied Teams courses. Make sure to take advantage of our free mini-course. In 30 minutes or less, you’ll feel a lot better about how you look and present on camera!