{"id":99835,"date":"2020-12-23T07:11:04","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T13:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=99835"},"modified":"2026-10-01T13:14:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T18:14:06","slug":"how-to-tell-better-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/how-to-tell-better-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #462: How to Tell Better Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is a re-broadcast. The episode originally ran in November 2018.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Humans are storytelling and story-listening creatures. We use stories to teach, persuade, and to make sense of the complexities of existence. Being able to craft and deliver a good story&nbsp;is thus a real advantage in all areas of life, giving you a foot up when doing job interviews, going on dates, interacting with friends, or making a sales pitch.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, good storytelling is a skill that can learned by anyone. Here to teach us the art of storytelling is <a href=\"https:\/\/matthewdicks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matthew Dicks<\/a>, a writer, five-time Moth GrandSlam storytelling winner, and the author of the book&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B07CV2PFYJ\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B07CV2PFYJ&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Storyworthy:&nbsp;Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling<\/em><\/a>.<em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Today on the show, Matthew walks us through the nuts and bolts of how to craft a compelling story. We begin our conversation discussing ways to generate story ideas, why good stories don\u2019t have to be about big moments, and why he recommends a practice called &#8220;Homework for Life.&#8221; Matthew then tells us what we can learn from movies about making a story so engaging that people are waiting to hear what you say next. We also discuss the don&#8217;ts of storytelling, including how to never begin a story. And we end our conversation with a five-minute story from Matthew that showcases all the principles we discussed during the show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a re-broadcast. The episode originally ran in November 2018.&nbsp; Humans are storytelling and story-listening creatures. We use stories to teach, persuade, and to make sense of the complexities of existence. Being able to craft and deliver a good story&nbsp;is thus a real advantage in all areas of life, giving you a foot up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":195430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,42379,42293],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","category-social","category-social-skills"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/462-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/462-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/462-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/462-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/462-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Tell Better Stories | The Art of Manliness Podcast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Humans are storytelling and story-listening creatures. We use stories to teach, persuade, and to make sense of the complexities of existence.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/how-to-tell-better-stories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #462: How to Tell Better Stories | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Humans are storytelling and story-listening creatures. We use stories to teach, persuade, and to make sense of the complexities of existence.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/how-to-tell-better-stories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-23T13:11:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-01T18:14:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/462.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AoM Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AoM Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/how-to-tell-better-stories\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/how-to-tell-better-stories\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"AoM Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/28ff38880a7c6995e23ac063aaaa81d4\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #462: How to Tell Better Stories\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-23T13:11:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-01T18:14:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/how-to-tell-better-stories\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":241,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/how-to-tell-better-stories\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/462.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Podcast\",\"Social\",\"Social Skills\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/how-to-tell-better-stories\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/how-to-tell-better-stories\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to Tell Better Stories | The Art of Manliness Podcast\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/how-to-tell-better-stories\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/how-to-tell-better-stories\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/462.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-23T13:11:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-01T18:14:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/28ff38880a7c6995e23ac063aaaa81d4\"},\"description\":\"Humans are storytelling and story-listening creatures. 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