Zeitgest Essential in Storytelling

She is, of course, aiming her comments at screenplays, but “storytelling guru” Bobette Buster has advice for anyone trying to tell a story in a compelling, meaningful way. In a piece for SSN called “How to Ignite Audience Word-of-Mouth Through Story, No Matter the Genre,” Buster writes:

Zeitgest is an essential component in storytelling. Zeitgeist is often translated as “spirit of the age.” But I read that Einstein once translated it as, really meaning “ the rotten nerve of the age.” (I prefer that definition.) We all feel the “rotten nerve of the age” – but most of us are too afraid to name it, or can’t yet find the word for what’s unsettling us. So, we turn to facts.

And, Buster says, genre has no bearing on these facts:

Stories work from zeitgeist word-of-mouth – the storyteller dares to speak the truth of our times in dangerous new ways. Genre does not matter. Only broadcasting the unspoken truth in an audacious way counts -- to the audience. 

Buster is taking part in the SSN Storyteller lecture series, “Deconstructing the Masters,” starting June 2. Click here for tickets and to learn more. She is the author of How to Tell Your Story So the World Listens (Do Book Company) and we all want to know about that.