BOB DOTSON’S NEW BOOK

Make it Memorable  

In Make It Memorable, former NBC News correspondent Bob Dotson and New York Times visual investigations producer Drew Jordan present a unique and engaging hands-on approach to the craft of visual storytelling. The third edition offers new insight for the digital age and a step-by-step explanation of how to find and create all kinds of visual stories under tight deadlines. In addition to new scripts annotated with behind-the-scenes insights and structural comments, the book includes links to online videos of all the story examples. 

Here’s an excerpt:

GREAT STORYTELLERS ARE RARER THAN GREAT REPORTERS

There are many books that will teach you the nuts and bolts of new media—how to use the tools, how to write and perform. This one reveals something more basic: how to master the timeless techniques of telling better visual stories. They haven’t changed since the first reporters saw someone take on a wooly mammoth. Those ancient storytellers scrambled back to their caves, painted pictures on the walls, and said, “Wow, you should have seen the size of that sucker!” Everyone had access to the same information. The best storyteller had a packed cave.

These days, facts and rumors fly so fast it’s like trying to read a book with a four-year-old flipping the pages. How can you get people to pay attention?   Start every story assuming that nobody cares about anything you’re going to say. That forces you to find the universal themes that will interest the greatest number of people. Everybody likes to laugh, but the best comedians can make a four-year-old giggle and an eighty-year-old too. Talent alone won’t do that. Curiosity and imagination make you a better storyteller. 

It is the storyteller’s challenge to reveal more than what happened. Many of the faces we see constantly in the news grab attention with manufactured outrage, realizing that reporters have little time for in-depth reporting. Most are expected to constantly tell what they think they know as soon as it happens. Reporters learn to gather facts. Storytellers weave those facts into a fabric that covers the subject while enticing us to learn more.  Look for what others do not.  The shortest distance between two people is a good story.

Adapted and reprinted with permission from Rowman & Littlefield publishers.