How You Tell Your Story, Matters

"Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form." -- Jean Luc Godard “When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story. -- Stephen King

All of us are familiar with the power of storytelling. Stories spark emotions.

We grew up with stories. Through countless stories we learned to understand ourselves and the world a little better.

As adults, we continue to consume stories on a daily basis while continuing to enhance our storytelling skills. There are stories that give us hope; there are also some that upon hearing, one can pick up the despair in between the lines.

For many of us, we are clueless about what it is like to grow up in a country devastated by war. We hear about it in the news. We have seen footages of the chaos, destruction… and pain.

To Zan Azlee, a solo-journalist, documentary film-maker, also the executive editor to English digital content at Astro AWANI, visiting Afghanistan had been on the top of his bucket list — to see it himself and document his experience in the war-torn country.

If you think that having a war zone on the wish list is out of the ordinary, his friends and acquaintances know better. Zan has always been drawn to filming real life situations in conflict zones like Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Turkey and Southern Thailand. Knowing Zan, his wish list for future documentaries will only get longer.

With simple production gear in hand, and full support from his family, friends and co-workers, to Afghanistan he went.

Out of the expedition, Zan gathered multimedia content including TV news reports for Astro AWANI, a magazine feature article and photo essay for Esquire. At the same time, he also created an online version of his multimedia documentary, followed by a graphic novel about his adventures in Afghanistan.

"Adventure of a KL-ite in Afghanistan", a graphic novel by Zan Azlee.

Determined to recreate the documentary filmed in Afghanistan and to appeal to a younger target audience, Zan and his long time friend, Arif Rafhan Othman came up with a concept to present Zan’s experience through illustrations — a non-fiction graphic novel titled "Adventures of a KL-ite in Afghanistan”.

Zan Azlee and Arif Rafhan Othman have been best friends for the longest time.

Zan Azlee and Arif Rafhan Othman have been best friends for the longest time.

At the book launch, Zan and Arif explained how the idea came about, and the processes involved to make his story come to life through Arif’s sketches. Arif studied images and videos documented by Zan while conceptualising the story through sketches.

Arif also demonstrated how he skillfully used contours to portray the terrains and characters in the story. Being such close friends, the understanding between the two helped Arif depict Zan’s narrative more accurately, even though Arif was not there as the events unfolded.

Arif demonstrated his hand drawn illustration skills at the book launch.

Caption: Arif demonstrated his hand drawn illustration skills at the book launch.

As human being, we are wired to communicate through and learn from stories.

Zan’s vision as a storyteller is to create multimedia storytelling that will appeal to more than just a niche market especially those with affinity to current affairs, but also to reach out to the younger segment of society.

As we become more accustomed to bite-size content and short-form storytelling, I believe that multimedia content that transcends through various platforms (combining the strengths of traditional & new media) is the future of storytelling.

For instance, if you think that several 15-second Instagram videos can be a great compliment to your main content (possibly a book or a TV show), and that the tight-knit and highly engaging Instagram community is your target audience, I see no reason not to explore using the platform.

We are storytellers. Too often we belittle our ability in telling compelling stories. What matters more is to be open and be willing to share. We may not see it but somehow, a story well told has its power to inspire and to heal.

The best musicians are good storytellers. The best filmmakers are good storytellers. The best leaders are good storytellers. The best teachers and coaches are good storytellers. The best salespersons are good storytellers.

How you choose to tell your stories, matter.

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” -- Brandon Sanderson