Workbook

Unit 1
Introduction
Unit 2
Page 1 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

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Exercise 1 Introduce Yourself
Introduce Yourself Go to the “Introductions” thread in the course forum and introduce yourself.
1. Tell us your name, where you live, and what you do.
2. What makes you different from others in your field?
3. Find Your Story
Your goal for taking this course? What do you hope to accomplish through storytelling?
Unit 2
Audience & Goals

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Unit 2
Finding Your Story
Unit 2

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Exercise 2 Reverse Engineer
The Story
Audience Desires
1
What is your audience’s pain and
desires? What are some common 2
problems they want to solve?
3
See if there are any myths around these
problems. (i.e. they want cheaper 4
Find Your Story
solution, but the truth is, they’ll end up
5
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
spending more at the end)
6
7

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Exercise 2 Reverse Engineer
The Story
Unique Selling Point
1
What makes you better than your
competition? Think about the myth your 2
customers believe and the truth they
need to know in order to see the value in 3
your unique selling point.
4
Find Your Story
5
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
6
7

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Exercise 3 Your Unwritten
Diary
Your Stories
1
What are some memories of key
moments in your life or career? Events 2
that taught you an important lesson.
3
4
Find Your Story
5
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
6
7

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Exercise 3 Your Unwritten
Diary
Find Your Story Take a look at your “Unique Selling Points” and your “Stories” from the previous exercise and try to
pick one of each that matches perfectly with each other and also supports the “Audience Desires”.
Audience Desire Find Your Story

Unit 2
Audience & Goals
Unique Selling Point
Story

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Exercise 4 Story Structure
1. Hook
Talk about the pain or desires of your
audience. (i.e. “Do you struggle with
___?” or “Imagine one day you ___”.)
Introduce yourself and the story you’re
about to tell them.
Find Your Story
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
2. Premise
This is the beginning of your hero’s
journey. Talk about the the old “you”.
What were you struggling with? What
were some things you were ignoring and
didn’t realize it?

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3. Trigger
What is the event, or series of events
that happened in your life that forced
you or triggered you to deal this
struggle?
There should be a clear moment when
Find Your Story
you were forced to make a decision.
Unit 2
Audience & Goals

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4. Outcome
Resolve the conflict. What was the
unexpected outcome of your decision?
Find Your Story

Unit 2
Audience & Goals
5. Lesson
What is the lesson you learned from this
incident? How did it help you in other
times in your career or life?
6. Conclusion
How does the lesson relate to your
unique selling point? How does it help
your audience?

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Exercise 5 Your First Draft
Your First Draft Open a new Word Doc (or Google Doc) and copy and paste all 6 parts from the Story Structure
exercise. Make a note of each part so you know where they begin and end.
one of Voice Write how you talk. Is the tone of voice consistent with how you would talk or write to a close
Find Your Story
friend? If not, make the necessary edits so it is. A good way to test this is to read each sentence out
loud and ask yourself: “How would my friends react if they heard me say that? Would they say it
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
sounds like me or would they say it sounds different.”

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Unit 3
Being Relatable
Unit 2

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Exercise 6 Character Flaw &
Conflict
Character Flaw Read the your story and try to locate your internal character flaw. It should be something the “old
you” were doing that the “new you” stops doing by the end of the story. If the character flaw isn’t
clear, make any edits necessary so it becomes clear.
Strong Conflict Find Your Story

Is there a strong conflict in the Trigger section of the story that confronts your character flaw? The
conflict Unit
should
Audience & Goals
2 force you to do something that the “old you” normally wouldn’t do because of the
character flaw. If the conflict isn’t clearly shown in the story, make sure it does.
Don’t be afraid to go back to Exercise 3 and pick a different story if your story doesn’t have a clear
character flaw and a strong conflict. Writing is process of discovering and re-writing.

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Exercise 7 Show, Don't Tell
Adjectives in Action
1
Think about the struggle you wrote in
the “Part 2: Premise”. Write down 2
specific examples of things you did that
show the struggle. 3
Find Your Story
Unit 2
Audience & Goals

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Exercise 8 Avoid Cliché
Your Stories
1
Find Your Story
Unit 2
Audience & Goals

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Exercise 9 Being Vulnerable
Your Stories
1
Find Your Story
Unit 2
Audience & Goals

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Exercise 10 Balancing
Humility &
Authority
Remove Bragging Read your story and locate any place where you’re trying to brag (or humblebrag) by talking about
your strengths, how much people like you, or what kind of college degree or awards you have.
Remove them.
Demonstrate Expertise Find Your Story

Try to find a part of your story where you can demonstrate your expertise by giving specific
Unit 2
examples. The goal is Audience & Goals
to make it believable that you’re an expert by explaining something only
someone who’s been doing it for a while would know, but simple enough that everyone would
understand.
Use Mixed Perspective When it comes to criticism, include yourself in the group.
For example, instead using 3rd person: “Most people are selfish. They always talk about
themselves.”
Try to use 1st person plural: “Most of us are selfish. We always talk about ourselves.”
Name Drop At The End Name dropping, talking about credentials, clients, or awards is okay when it comes at the Lesson
part of the story. Talk about how the lesson helped you in your career and life.
Unit 4
Storytelling
Techniques Unit 2

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Exercise 11 Building Tension
Spoil The Ending At the end of the Hook, after you introduce yourself, tell them exactly what's going to happen at the
end of the story. Example: "Here's a story of how I ____”.
Cliffhanger After each part of the story where tension is resolved, add a line that will build tension for the next
paragraph. Find Your Story
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
The Ticking Clock Is there a ticking clock or a deadline you can impose on your story to create tension? If so,
incorporate it into the story.
Something Unusual Is there an unusual scenario you can add to the story? For example, in the Outcome part of my story,
I get a call from my client months after the project was complete and she was telling me to come
downstairs, which is unusual.
Mystery Gun Is there a mystery gun you can plant earlier in the story that doesn't make sense until it’s resolved
later in the story? For example, earlier in my story I talk about guitars with my client's husband and
later they give me a guitar as a gift.
New Obstacles Try to incorporate a series of obstacles in the story, not just one. As soon as you get over one
obstacle, a new obstacle should be introduced.

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Exercise 12 Writing
Techniques
Actions Over Thoughts Imagine you weren’t allowed to describe thoughts or feelings of the characters in your story. What
are some actions that they would take that demonstrate those thoughts and feelings? Here's an
example of a thought:
Leslie was so nice and accommodating
Find Your Story
And here’s an example of action that explains that thought:
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
As soon as I walked in, Leslie greeted me with a big smile and a glass of homemade
lemonade. While I was working, she would often check in and ask “do you need
anything Sun?”
Describe The Environment Bring the audience into the story by describing the environment. Make them picture the story as it’s
happening in their mind. For example, stead of saying:
I went downstairs and she surprised me with a gift. It was an electric guitar.
Be more descriptive:
It was snowing, but I saw her waiting outside her car with the trunk open. She had a
big smile on her face. I walked over and saw a brand red Fender Strat inside a guitar
case as she yelled out “surprise!”

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Exercise 12 Writing
Techniques
Use Dialogues The audience can imagine the character’s personality by showing how they talk. For example,
instead of describing what they said:
She told me her husband also plays the guitar and asked me if I want to see his guitar
collection.
Find Your Story
Put it in Unit
dialogue to show how they said it:
2
Audience & Goals
With a pleasantly surprised look on her face, she said “my husband also plays the
guitar!” Then she pointed at the door with her thumb and asked “do you wanna see
them?”
Name Characters Naming characters makes the story more believable. It also helps the audience picture them in their
mind and keep track of who said/did what. For example, this can get confusing:
My boss asked my co-worker if it can be done sooner. He said it was possible. Then
he turned to me and started yelling.
Naming them makes it more clear who did what:
My boss Jerry asked my co-worker Dan if it can be done sooner. Dan said it was
possible. Then Jerry turned to me and started yelling.

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Exercise 12 Writing
Techniques
Use Present Tense When describing actions, try to use present tense. It makes the audience get into the story as if it was
happening now. For example, instead of:
He walked over to my desk, so I looked up at him. Then he said…
Find Your Story

Make it present tense:
He walks over to Audience
Unit 2
& Goals
my desk, so I look up at him. Then he says…
Describe Physical Emotions Describing the physical emotions of how things feel in your body makes the audience feel it also. I
brings them more into the story. For example, instead of just describing how you felt:
I was exhausted. As soon as I sat on the couch, it felt so comfortable and I couldn’t
fight the urge to stay awake.
Try to describe how you felt in your body:
I sat on the couch, and it felt the soft cushions hugging my shoulder and my neck. I
was trying to stay awake, but my eyelids were getting heavier and heavier.

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Exercise 12 Writing
Techniques
Dramatic Pause Adding pauses in your story through line breaks can help control the tempo and build more tension.
It also makes it easier to follow. For example, here’s a paragraph without any pause:
After being honest about what happened, I thought for sure he was going to fire me,
but then a miracle happened. He said “thank you for being honest with me.”
Find Your Story
Here’s the same
2 paragraph with dramatic pause:
Unit
Audience & Goals
After being honest about what happened, I thought for sure he was going to fire me,
but then…
A miracle happened!
He said “thank you for being honest with me.”

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Exercise 12 Writing
Techniques
Make Lists If you're using series of phrases to make a point, it makes it much easier to read in a form of a list. A
good place to do this would be in the Hook when you describe audience pain/desires. For example:
Do you want to work with someone who:
Findyour
listen and understand Your
goalsStory
actually Audience & Goals
Unit 2meets deadlines
pays attention to details

most of all, care about your project
Then you might want to hear this story.

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Exercise 12 Writing
Techniques
Change Perspectives It gets repetitive and boring when everything is written from 1st person point of view, like:
I heard the doorbell ring. I saw him come in. I didn’t panic. I was surprised.
Try to mix between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person point view:
The doorbell rang. Find
He cameYour
in. YouStory
might be surprised to hear that I didn’t panic
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
Change Sentence Lengths Using just short sentences can get boring and monotonous. For example:
I made the zoom function. I spent three nights. I didn’t mind. It was my best work.
She was surprised. It was worth it.
Try to use mix of short, medium, and long sentences to make it interesting:
I didn’t mind that I stayed up three nights in a row trying to make a magnifying glass
zoom function so I can make the best website I've ever made and surprise her at the
same time because it was all worth it.

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Unit 5
Writing For The
Web Unit 2

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Exercise 13 Headlines
Write Headlines
1
Write headlines you can add throughout
the story to grab people’s attention. 2
Ideally there should be a headline for
each of the 6 part of the story, but it's 3
not mandatory. Watch Unit 5/Lesson 2
4
Find Your Story
for more tips on how to write catchy
headlines. 5
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
6
Test Scannability Read your headlines to see if you get a rough idea of the story from reading only the headlines.

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Exercise 14 Test Readability
Cut Anything Unnecessary It gets repetitive and boring when everything is written from 1st person point of view, like:
I heard the doorbell ring. I saw him come in. I didn’t panic. I was surprised.
Try to mix between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person point view:
The doorbell rang. Find
He cameYour
in. YouStory
might be surprised to hear that I didn’t panic
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
Read It Out Loud Using just short sentences can get boring and monotonous. For example:
I made the zoom function. I spent three nights. I didn’t mind. It was my best work.
She was surprised. It was worth it.
Try to use mix of short, medium, and long sentences to make it interesting:
I didn’t mind that I stayed up three nights in a row trying to make a magnifying glass
zoom function so I can make the best website I've ever made and surprise her at the
same time because it was all worth it.

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Exercise 14 Test Readability
Write For 7th Graders The average American reads at a 7th grade level, so try to avoid any long sentences or difficult
words. To test the reading level of your story, you can copy and paste your story into Hemingway (
). It will tell you the readability grade level as well as notes on how to improve readability.
https://hemingwayapp.com/
Try to get the reading level below Grade 8.

Find Your Story
Rinse & Repeat
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
Writing is a process of rewriting. Read your entire story to test readability and keep repeating until
you feel that it's tight as it can get. Try to read from a fresh perspective and see if it will make sense
for a brand new audience. We tend to overlook things that are obvious to us, but might not be for
someone without background knowledge.

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Final Project
Share Your Story
Unit 2

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Exercise 15 Evaluation
Step 1: Self Evaluation Next 3 pages have the Rubric Scoring Guide you can use to evaluate your own writing. Go through
each of the 9 criteria in the guide and give yourself a score, then add up the total score.
Step 2: Share Your Story Go to the Final Project lesson and click "Create your project” to share your story.
Find Your Story
Step 3: Peer Evaluation
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
Now read and evaluate stories from other students (at least 3) using the Rubric Scoring Guide. Try to
find ones that have less than 3 comments. Leave them a comment with their score and your
feedback. Try to answer the following questions when leaving your feedback:
What parts of the story were most relatable?
What parts of the story kept your attention?
What areas of the story need improvement?
Self Re-evaluation After you've evaluated 3 stories, come back and re-read your story and re-evaluate it. See if your
evaluation has changed or stayed the same.
Share Your Experience What did you think of the course? Did you accomplish the goal you set in the introduction? What
were some of your favorite lessons? Please share your experience in the review!

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Rubric Scoring Guide
4 3 2 1
Excellent Strong Satisfactory Needs Work
Structure Story has a very clear 6-part Story has a very clear Premise, Story has a very clear Premise and Premise and Lesson are not really
structure (Hook, Premise, Trigger, Trigger, Outcome, and Lesson. Lesson. The rest isn’t really clear. clear.
Outcome, Lesson, Conclusion). The rest isn’t really clear.
Find Your Story
Relevance
Unit 2
Audience Desire and Selling Point Audience & Goals
Selling Point is clear and relevant Audience Desire and Selling Point Audience Desire and Selling Point
are very clear and are relevant to to the story, but Audience Desire are not really clear or has little are not really clear or has no
the story. isn’t really clear. relevance to the story. relevance to the story.
Show vs. Tell Premise shows a perfect example Premise shows an example of the Premise describes the struggle The struggle isn’t really clear in
of the struggle through actions and struggle through actions and not through adjectives, but doesn’t the Premise.
not just adjectives. just adjectives. show an example through actions.
Originality Example of the struggle is Example of the struggle is Example of the struggle isn’t Example is a cliché that’s been
vulnerable and original. vulnerable, but also kind of cliché. vulnerable, but a sob story. used a million times.
Something that everyone thinks
but no one says.
Writing Example of the struggle is Example of the struggle is Example of the struggle isn’t Example is a cliché that’s been
but no one says.

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Rubric Scoring Guide
4 3 2 1
Tension Story has a very clear 6-part Story has a very clear Premise, Story has a very clear Premise and Premise and Lesson are not really
structure (Hook, Premise, Trigger, Trigger, Outcome, and Lesson. Lesson. The rest isn’t really clear. clear.
Outcome, Lesson, Conclusion). The rest isn’t really clear.
Find Your Story
Readability
Unit 2
Audience Desire and Selling Point Audience & Goals
Selling Point is clear and relevant Audience Desire and Selling Point Audience Desire and Selling Point
are very clear and are relevant to to the story, but Audience Desire are not really clear or has little are not really clear or has no
the story. isn’t really clear. relevance to the story. relevance to the story.
Scannability Premise shows a perfect example Premise shows an example of the Premise describes the struggle The struggle isn’t really clear in
of the struggle through actions and struggle through actions and not through adjectives, but doesn’t the Premise.
not just adjectives. just adjectives. show an example through actions.
Focus Example of the struggle is Example of the struggle is Example of the struggle isn’t Example is a cliché that’s been
but no one says.

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Rubric Scoring Guide: Total
Score
31-36 23-30 14-22 9-13

Find Your Story
Unit 2
Audience & Goals
Congratulations! You've You've written a solid story Your story is good enough No worries. There’s always
written a hero's journey you can start sharing with to start sharing, but you room for improvement in
story that’ll have your the world. But if you want, may want to keep an open storytelling. Go back and
audience on the edge of you can continue to get eye to get audience re-work the exercises to
their seats. Go out there and feedback and improve your feedback. I recommend improve your story.
start telling your story! story. Great job! going back to the lessons
and see what you can apply
to improve your story.

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Unit 1

Page 1 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 2 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 3 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 4 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 5 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 6 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Audience Desire Find Your Story

Unique Selling Point

Page 7 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 8 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 9 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Find Your Story

Page 10 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 11 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 12 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Strong Conflict Find Your Story

Page 13 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 14 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 15 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 16 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Demonstrate Expertise Find Your Story

Page 18 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 19 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 20 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 21 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Find Your Story

Page 22 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 23 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

pays attention to details

Page 24 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 25 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 26 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 27 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Page 28 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

Try to get the reading level below Grade 8.

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31-36 23-30 14-22 9-13

Page 34 | The Art of Storytelling: Your Hero’s

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