1. Be concrete.

You’re conveying a world and a worldview: Let people see it come to life.

Examples, actions and anecdotes make ideas memorable.

2. Know your audience. But know yourself, too.

Your approach, choice of examples, and even format will vary with your audience. But this is a matter of emphasis and tactics. Even as you make choices to suit audiences, stay true to your core principles as an organization and key values as a storyteller. If a particular audience forces you to stray from those values, it’s not your audience. Know who you are, and be more of it.

3. Identify trends.

How do the things that you care about cross swords with the Zeitgeist? How can you speak from the heart about the great, transformative “now”?

4. Be Selfless

Storytelling is the art of helping others see what you see. Be helpful.

Define your terms, both for yourself and your audience. Invite readers to think along with you. This “co-thinking” creates an alliance between communicator and audience.

5. Be curious about yourself.

Think carefully and critically about who you are, what your principles are, and why you want to tell a story. If you don’t know why you want to say something, it will be hard to refine what you want to say, define whom you want to say it to, or decide when you want to say it. When you think about yourself, be open to surprising thoughts.

6. Climb the narrative tower.

Many rich stories are built on a simple but sturdy foundation:

Person X strives for Y, discovering something about Z. Always return to the character, the quest, and the lessons, however subtle, of that quest.

7. Continue the conversation.

Once you’ve told a good story, tell more. Once you’ve explored a deep idea, dig deeper. Look intently at your world, listen closely, think, learn—and speak anew.

Olympian Creative is led by award-winning writer, editor and teacher Greg Blake Miller. With 20 years of media experience, Miller has written about everything from the wild transformation of post-Soviet Moscow to the boom, bust and revival of 21st-century Las Vegas. He has worked with renowned theatrical directors Franco Dragone and Pavel Brun (Le Reve, Celine Dion’s A New Day) and respected author and documentary filmmaker Kerry Candaele (Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Final Symphony). Over the past decade, Miller has helped hundreds of students develop their creative voices and fresh outlooks on the world in his writing and communication courses at the University of Oregon and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He holds a doctorate in international communication from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Southern California. Miller’s extensive research on progressive nostalgia, creativity and cultural change culminated with Reentry Shock (UMI, 2010), which tells the story of a group of late-Soviet filmmakers who leveraged personal and social memory to throw off the yoke of Stalinist thinking. From 2010-2014, Miller edited Vegas Seven magazine, helping to build the publication and lead it to 95 state and regional honors in its first four years. In 2011, he was named Nevada’s Outstanding Journalist, and in 2014 Seven won the state’s General Excellence Award. You can contact Miller at GBM@OlympianCreative.com.