How to tell your story: A writing guide from Assembly
Everyone has a story.
Malala was 11 years old when she first started telling hers. On a blog for the BBC she wrote about her life under the Taliban. She described not being able to go to school, waking to the sound of machine guns at night and missing having picnics in the green hills of Swat Valley. Malala told her story — and people around the world listened.
Malala Fund created Assembly to help other girls and young women tell their stories, just like Malala. Every day leaders make decisions that impact girls’ futures, but too often they don’t include your input. Whether you’re speaking out about an issue big or small, people in power need to hear your experiences and opinions so they can make informed decisions about your future. By raising your voice, you can educate others, ensure they understand the realities of girls’ lives and motivate them to take action.
Storytelling is a powerful tool to share your message because it helps you connect with your audience, make them feel what you feel and ensure they remember what you have to say. Facts and figures are often forgotten but stories stay with us. But figuring out how to tell your story — or what you even want to say — can be daunting. That’s where this writing guide comes in.
We’ll take you through a step-by-step process on how to think through your ideas, construct a clear message and write your story in a way that makes people listen. And although our advice is geared towards writing, you can use this to help you tell your story through a speech, graphic novel, documentary film or however else you want to express yourself.
“If girls learn one thing from my life so far, I hope it’s that speaking out about the issues they care about can make a difference, no matter their age.”
Brainstorming
The first step when you’re ready to begin writing your story is: don’t start writing your story. Do the hard work first (and trust us, we know it’s hard) and think through what aspect of your story you want to tell and what you want your audience to take away. Too often we begin writing before we decide the topic and purpose of our piece. This leads to unnecessary sentences, paragraphs and even pages of text that don’t service our main objective (and we end up editing out later on). By taking the time to brainstorm, you can ensure that when you begin, your writing is focused from the start. Here are some steps to help guide you through this process.
Step one: Narrow your focus.
Your story may be COMPLICATED and your experiences may be complex. So it’s important to first decide on a specific aspect of your story that you want to tell. This could be a project you’re leading, a challenge you’ve faced or are facing, an observation you want to share, an inequality you’ve witnessed, a person who has impacted your life or anything else that you want more people to know about. Whatever it is, make sure it’s something that you’re passionate about because your reader will only care if you care.
Step two: Research.
Research facts or statistics about the topic you’re writing about (make sure the sources you’re using are credible!). Think of what information might be useful when you’re trying to tell your story. Backing up an anecdote from your life with a statistic can help reinforce your point and show that other people have experienced what you’ve experienced. Be sure to cite all the facts or statistics you use so that your readers can refer to the original source.
Step three: Decide your objectives.
Next, decide on two or three main points that you would want your reader to take away from your story. What do you want them to learn? What action do you want them to take? What do you want them to remember? You should be able to summarise the focus and objectives of your piece before you begin writing it. Be sure to come back to these when you’re editing to make sure that every sentence in your piece services your objectives in some way.
Step four: Plan your arc.
You’ve thought about your topic and objectives, now it’s time to make them into a story. Consider the arc of your piece: Where do you want your story to start? Where do you want it to end? What anecdotes or reflections will you use to support your objectives and help get your reader from the beginning to the ending? What themes or tensions are the driving force of this story? It can be helpful to jot these ideas down as they’re the beginning of your outline.
“It’s your passion and truth-telling that makes your voice worth hearing.”
Tips to keep in mind before you begin writing:
Don’t try to write in a way that you think others want you to write. Write in your own voice. Your writing will always be more powerful when it sounds like you.
Keep your audience in mind. What do they already know or not know? What type of language will resonate with them?
More is not better. Be concise in your writing.
Pick a topic you care about. If your story isn’t important to you then it won’t be important to others.
Simple language is often better than complex. You want the reader to be able to understand what you’re saying — and it doesn’t make your writing sound smarter to use bigger words. If there’s a simpler way to say something, use it.
Writing and editing
Now it’s finally time to start writing. It can be overwhelming looking at a blank page, but remember: you can’t improve what’s not there. Get SOMETHING down and then you can revise afterwards. Don’t let the fear of writing something bad stop you from writing anything at all.
Step one: Create an outline.
Look back at your notes from your brainstorm and start to put together an outline of your piece, mapping out the beginning, middle and end. It’s helpful to pretend you’re the reader and imagine the journey your piece will take them on. Where in your story do you want to start? Where do you want to end? What will engage your reader and make them keep reading along that path? Will this structure make sense to them?
Keep referring to your objectives to ensure you’re meeting them and not getting off course. You might find that you’ve included ideas that might be good ideas, but don’t service the objectives of this piece so you decide not to include them. That’s OK! They could be the start of a different piece.
Step two: Pay attention to your lede.
Your lede (your opening sentences) is your chance to capture your reader’s attention. Think about pieces you’ve begun reading that didn’t capture your attention so you stopped reading them. You don't want that to happen with your piece! Anecdotes, observations, setting the scene and snappy one-liners are all potential ways to bring your reader in. Be sure your lede sets the tone and direction of your article right from the start. If you’re struggling to come up with an idea, sometimes it might be easier to write the rest of your article and come back to your lede.
Step three: Transform your outline into a first draft.
Once you’ve written your lede (or not if you decided to come back to it), it’s time to transform your outline into your first draft. Follow our writing tips, keep your objectives in mind and don’t be too hard on yourself. A first draft is exactly that: a first draft! You will have plenty of opportunities to make it better. And sometimes you have to go through the process of figuring how you don’t want to say it to figure out how you do want to say it.
“Write what should not be forgotten.”
Editing
You’ve gotten something down on the page, congratulations! We promise it gets easier from here. Now you’re just improving on what you’ve already written rather than starting from scratch.
Step one: Edit second (and third and fourth) drafts.
You have your first draft done. YAY! Take a step away from it. Get a snack, don’t look at it for a day or even a week. Then come back to your first draft and read it again. Think about what worked and what didn’t and what you can change to address any concerns and move the story forward. Don’t be too harsh on yourself, focus instead on solutions to make it better. Reading your work out loud is a great way to catch sentences that are clunky.
Step two: Share your work with others.
A fresh set of eyes on your writing is always helpful. After spending hours on something, we can be too close to the work to have a good perspective on what is working or not working. Ask a trusted friend, teacher or family member to read your work. Are they able to summarise your main objective in a few sentences? If not, you might need to revise your piece to make it clearer. Were they confused or did they lose interest at any point and if so, why? You might need to take a look at those sections again.
When getting feedback, remember not to take any criticism to heart. Having said that, it’s almost impossible to do as writing is so personal. But do make an effort to detach yourself from it as much as you can. You want to make your piece better and their advice will help you achieve that!
Step three: Proofread.
When you have a near-final draft of your piece, it’s time to look over it once more. Check for any spelling and grammatical errors and make sure all names and proper nouns mentioned are spelled correctly. There are resources online like Hemingway Editor and Grammarly that can help you in this process, but always look the piece over yourself as they don’t catch everything. Plus this is a chance to make sure that YOU are proud of how it turned out.
Examples of great storytelling
Looking for some inspiration? Here are some examples of great storytelling by Assembly contributors:
“A message from Malala to the class of 2020” by Malala Yousafzai
“What needs to change in the Nigerian education system” by Aramide Akintimehin
“How BTS taught me to love myself” by Pankil Jhajhria
“Before I knew about my learning disability, I was afraid of going to school.” by Angelina Tropper
“Why I won’t translate my stories and identity to fit Western culture” by Simi Aluko
“‘Every day, girls like me have to choose between staying safe and going to school’” by Marie Claire Kaberamanzi
“Say her name” by Tiyi Ayeva
“At 14 years old, I had a hard choice: keep going to school or help provide for my family” by Bandana
“I didn’t let Boko Haram stop me from going to school” by Aisha Mustapha
“Universities in Mexico are failing to keep their students safe” by Saraí López
“With ‘The Afternoon Show,’ girls can express ourselves, raise awareness about issues — and laugh” by Paradise Ocean Phoenix
“Every queen bleeds: normalising menstruation in Ethiopia” by Omolara Uthman
“Increasing Black students’ access to STEM careers starts in the classroom” by Tabitha Willis
“Becoming the first Latina in my family to graduate from college” by Daisy Garcia-Castro
“My education was not a priority because I’m a girl.” by Suhaila Dahiru
“I was tired of learning history that refused to acknowledge my people” by Charitie Ropati
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