Naturally, the first step in crafting a really resonant story—whether it's a pitch, a talk, or a branded video—is the (dreaded?) brainstorm. 

For me, identifying the right way to organize my thoughts and capture creative ideas can be the most time-intensive part of the brainstorm. Should I start with a basic bulleted outline? A free-form whiteboard? A stream of consciousness writing exercise?

Regardless of where you start, chances are you'll need to storyboard at some point during your planning process. For those of us who don't come from creative agency backgrounds, we're often missing a go-to toolbox of storyboarding software. 

I've been tinkering with Notion recently to create a storyboard template that works for storytellers who use Rhetoric, so I was stoked to find this writeup from Red Gregory on various ways to use Notion to storyboard.

For those who prefer a fully-loaded software tool, I've heard good things about Plot and Boords, each offering a slightly different feature set for storytellers. Apparently Canva also offers a suite of storyboarding templates for those with creative teams already using the software. 

What's your go-to storyboarding tool? 

- Raman
 

📚 Open tabs

What team Rhetoric is reading during those awkwardly-timed few minutes between Zooms. 

Presenting to executives (or investors) soon? This is an engineer's perspective on mistakes to avoid, but I think it offers some important lessons for all of us. 

We know that empathy is ingredient #1 for exceptional storytelling. But what does that look like in practice? I really enjoyed HBR's piece on how we can communicate with more empathy. 

It might start a little dark, but here's an eight-minute TedX Talk for those of us who need a little inspiration and fast-absorbing advice for our storytelling practice. 

✨ New ways to present better

Here's what's going on at Rhetoric this week:

More control in your hands: we've added functionality in the user profile to make subscription management even easier. 

Have a feature idea you want to see in Rhetoric? Add it to our public roadmap! 

❤️ Your friends can be great presenters, too

Found this useful and know someone who wants to up their speaking game? Want to help us banish the grip that flat, written text has over our lives once and for all? Or perhaps you just like cool hats?

Share Mic Check with your network and we'll hook you up with some swag.