5 Ws of Effective Storytelling

Iván Mayorquín tells us about the five essential rules for developing a story

When you start working on a story―be it a movie or television script, a comic, or New Narrative―the development of the story is as important as the original idea. If we come up with a brilliant concept, but cannot develop it, we will not be able to fulfill the story's potential.

Storytelling is the art of narrating and can help us a great deal in organizing our big idea for a story and exploiting it to the max. Nonetheless, defining storytelling is no easy task: it is as tricky as explaining what specifically makes one story work better than another.

Illustrator and designer Iván Mayorquín (@ivanmayorquin) will explain the essential five Ws of storytelling and why we need to apply them to build a story that captivates anyone who hears it.

The 5 Ws of storytelling

1. When
It is important to know when our story takes place, so that the audience may understand the context in which the protagonist moves. We can build the character’s world accurately with this information in mind. We do not necessarily mean the exact hour or day, but we do need to know if our story takes place in the present, in the future, 400 years ago, during the day or the night.

2. Who
We must specify who the protagonist of the story is. Who is going to be affected by the events? What does this person want and what do they need to achieve their goal? The audience needs someone to root for, and if the main character is not defined, it won't be easy to do.

3. What
What happens to the protagonist? How does the story develop? As bizarre or abstract your plot may be, you must always consider the sequence of events that shape the story, or your audience will be lost.

4. Where
Clearly state the location of the story, whether that’s placing it in a city, or simply specifying that the story takes place indoors or outdoors. Similarly to the 'when' point, knowing where our story unravels helps put it in context.

5. Why
Why do our characters act as they do? What are their goals in our story? If we don't assign them clear and convincing wishes―either simple or elaborate―our characters will end up being flat and passive, and our story will eventually collapse.

If you've enjoyed reading these tips, don't forget you can also learn to tell stories with drawings and create fun-filled comics with Ivan Mayorquín on his online course Introduction to Sequential Narrative for Comics.

You may be interested in:

- Storytelling for Brands, a course by Claudio Seguel.
- Visual Storytelling for Animation Projects, a course by Luigi Esparza Santa María.
- Storytelling for Animations and Motion Design, a course by Smog.
- Audiovisual Storytelling for Social Media, a course by Josune Imízcoz.