Judging from the vast number of books published on the subject, the ways to approach crafting a story are endless. There is only the way that works for any one person.

In our classes, the participants arrive with an enormous range of skills and life experience that suggest a particular path for the structure and style of their story. Coaching the storyteller through the conception of their story is a dynamic process, not a prescribed one. An entire range of issues must be considered while offering suggestions, both technical and emotional.

When we succeed in providing the right sort of feedback to the creator, we often witness an extraordinary transformation in the quality of story. It is enormously gratifying for us as teachers to bring a new story to life. To see the eyes of the creator well up with tears of surprise and joy at what he or she has accomplished, and to see others moved and inspired by the power of the piece, is what keeps us going, class after class.

Two years into teaching our workshop, we decided to introduce each class to the elements of constructing a multimedia story. Our principal consideration in preparing this lecture was to make it brief and inspirational. Between their emotional fragility in exploring a personal issue and their feelings of inadequacy about working with computers or multimedia, the last thing our students needed was someone dictating a specific formula to them. So we kept it simple, illustrating our few points with examples of student work from previous classes.

Our experience has also shown us that even people with years of training in various kinds of storytelling and communication lose touch with the fundamentals. Our hope is that people will use this as a starting point and then do as we have done: develop mentors, develop a library of resources, and deepen their practice to improve their skills and develop the level of mastery that makes sense for their occupation and interests.

The elements we describe in the pages that follow give you a great deal to consider in constructing your story. We emphasize our storytelling process in a group setting because we believe that most of us do not just read a book and do the work. If you are reading this disassociated from some group process, we strongly suggest you go find at least one collaborator or fellow storyteller. Storytelling is meant to be a collaborative art. It is much more realistic this way, and much more fun.