Transcript: Deductive Storylines – Tips

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So to become a master of deductive storylines, we think there are three things you can really do now. First of all, take on board the tips from experienced storylines, practice and deepen your knowledge.

Let's have a look at some of those tips from experienced storylines. Now in storylines, particularly with deductive storylines, we refer to it as part art and part science. The science side is really around how deductive reasoning works. The art is knowing when and how to use it and how to construct it in such a way that it's not only logically correct, but it's also the right emotional fit with your audience. So here are four tips that you might take on board from experienced storylines.

First, listen for the clue. Do you or your audience need why and how in the same story? If you're hearing that, it may be that a deductive storyline is the right way to go.

Second, resist the temptation to tweak the logic. It may be that someone says that's sort of right, but how about we add an extra couple of premises? If the logics not working, it probably means that your thinking is not right and you need to go back and revisit it. We find constantly if you're rigorous around the thinking and the logic, that leads to insight.

The third tip here is don't pretend it's detective when you're replaying what your audience already knows. Too many times we find people replaying history to audiences, particularly in the first part of a storyline, when it's actually stuff that the audience already knows and should really be in the introduction. So don't pretend it's deductive when you're replaying what your audience already knows.

And finally, and this is critical, test the thinking, ask colleagues to have a look at it, try to shoot holes in it. Make sure that you have the points there to support there to substantiate the statement and to substantiate the comment and also make sure that the link works between the statement and the comment and it flows to the implication. So there you go. There are some tips for storylining from experienced storyliners.

What we'd also like you to do to embed this is to have a go at constructing deductive storylines right now. Why don't you try two or three short ones straight away. That's the way to gain some experience and gain some confidence.

And finally, and this applies particularly with deductive reasoning, learn some more, take the time to have a look at some of the texts we refer to and drill a bit deeper into how deductive reasoning works.