“The wonderful thing about storytelling is it’s a craft and you can get better at it.” — Peter Orton
At 30, Peter Orton had tenure as a public school teacher and the promise of a secure career. But when his father sensed he wasn’t happy, he asked a simple question: “So what’s stopping you?” Within a week, Peter resigned and eventually headed west to pursue his dream of becoming a writer.
Nearly a decade later, a phone call from legendary writer Richard Matheson changed everything. Peter had submitted scripts for Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories. Matheson’s notes? Two words: “Shoot it.” Soon after, Peter was working at Universal Studios as a story editor.
That turning point began a career spanning Hollywood, Stanford, IBM, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Along the way, Peter founded IBM’s Global Storytelling Practice and became a teacher and scholar of how stories work.
In this episode, Peter joins Jerome Deroy and Julienne Ryan to reflect on a lifetime of studying, practicing, and teaching storytelling—and what he’s learned about the craft along the way.
You’ll Hear:
- The conversation with Peter’s father that led him to leave a tenured teaching position at age 30 and head to Los Angeles
- Why pursuing his dream didn’t mean overnight success—and what Peter did for nearly a decade to learn the craft of screenwriting
- The remarkable phone call from Richard Matheson that led to Peter becoming a story editor on Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories
- How Peter’s interests in storytelling, education, and media eventually came together at Stanford and IBM
- Why IBM began investing in storytelling as a leadership and communication competency
- The difference between recognizing a story and understanding what actually makes something a story
- Why knowing your audience may be the most important rule in storytelling
- How concrete, sensory details help your audience create a “little movie” in their minds—and make a story more memorable
- Why stories often become shorter and stronger as we refine them
- Peter’s thoughts on the increasingly visual future of storytelling and communication
- Why turning points—both intentional and accidental—can be powerful starting places for finding our stories
- Why storytelling isn’t something you either have or don’t have, but a craft that improves through practice and feedback
Resources & Links
Peter Orton is the author of The Elements of Story: How to Craft Engaging Story for Effective Communication and Presentation.
Learn more about Peter and his work at Working Stories
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