Create your climate story
The practical guide “How to build a climate story” was published in December 2024 to help climate adaptation practitioners in developing their own stories. The guide was developed as part of REACHOUT which developed, evaluated, and refined a method for building climate stories. The manual includes practical experiences and details from the climate story development for the REACHOUT cities.
The guide is free to download at:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14228927
Inspiration
Inspiration is the starting point for developing a climate story: understanding the reason for making the story (what do you want to achieve?) and identifying the persons and organisations who should be involved in developing the story (stakeholders). These factors are essential for setting the overall scope and ambition for creating a story, including the important aspect of focusing the story so that it is best aligned with the needs and wishes of the stakeholders. For example, in the REACHOUT project the stakeholders were often employees in the municipalities as well as the climate service providers in the project. Engaging with stakeholders throughout the story development process is important – this interaction is a source of ideas, concepts, data, media and other creative elements needed for a story. Stakeholders providing materials to be used in the climate story (for example climate service providers, planning departments, media producers and artists) need to understand the story needs and tailor their products and services accordingly. The story producers and stakeholders should find a shared vision, where direct communication through co-creation processes builds trust and credibility, and encourages involvement and creativity.
Climate story development cycle
The development process to create a climate story can be described as three interactive cyclic processes:
Plan
Design
Create
These are defined as cycles (and illustrated as gears) to convey the idea that the individual cycles are mutually interactive. For example, infographics produced in the create cycle may need a revision in a scene or situation developed in the design cycle, giving new insights which perhaps modify the objectives developed in the plan cycle. Developments and changes made in one cycle can impact the other cycles, resulting in a development process that is dynamic and iterative.
The climate story manual provides tips, examples and illustrations throughout the document to help in the process of creating your story:
The first cycle (Plan) defines the broad scope of the climate story, focusing on key aspects such as defining the target audience and the core message of the story, identifying goals and objectives for the story, and identifying details and resources that could help in developing the story and anchoring it for the target audience. Setting a goal is an essential milestone in the story development. Do you want to raise awareness? Or do you want people to develop new capacities, feel inspired, or take action? Goals should be well defined, for example a goal could be ‘Encourage public support for more green spaces over parking’. Understanding your audience will help you decide the typology (mood) of your story: are you going for a positive, negative or neutral tone?
The second cycle (Design) is focused on developing the narrative and creating the story in a draft format. This work is not yet about writing dialogues or crafting detailed scenes. You develop the general outline of the narrative elements, determine the beginning and the end of the story, and any transformation or change you would like to see. Developing the outline is a creative process. Engage stakeholders, brainstorm and collect ideas.
The first step is to collect all of the necessary elements, like setting the scene, defining the characters, developing triggers and key events, and resolving to a conclusion or ‘take-away message’ are in focus. In REACHOUT, the analogy of ‘baking a cake’ was tested, where the key elements are the ‘ingredients’ needed to bake the climate story ‘cake’. This created a fun atmosphere for a brainstorming session to identify their unique ‘ingredients’.
The goal of this process is to bring together initial ideas for text, figures, actions/events, character impressions etc. It is also an arena to start developing the visual identity of the story. Several methods were tested out in REACHOUT, including the structured storyboard approach (Logrono) and brainstorming around The Hero’s Journey narrative template.
Be sensitive to language needs when working with multi-cultural or multi-lingual groups. Many persons feel more comfortable in expressing themselves in their native language. This may be a larger issue in some stakeholder groups. For example, in REACHOUT some city hubs needed to use native Spanish speakers as facilitators, as the public employees of the municipalities were not comfortable with English. If the goal is to produce a story in several languages, it is best to complete the development in one language and then translate the complete story to the new language.
The third cycle (Create) is all about implementing the results from the first and second cycles into a complete story. There are three main considerations: Writing the manuscript, developing visual elements, and implementing these in the technical platform chosen. The storyboard identifies the scenes (or progression) of the story, and this needs to be translated into a written script for the narrative. Use a language level appropriate for the intended audience, avoiding technical jargon or using concepts and language that are highly specialised. Use active language and support the underlying mood of the story.
Make the story more personal by using recognizable local references or details. Exposing motivations and feelings brings depth to the characters. Write concisely and clearly, and if possible have someone with experience in communication and writing perform a review the written manuscript.
‘A picture paints a thousand words’ is a well-known colloquialism in English. This can be leveraged by using visual elements in climate stories to strengthen the history and make it more understandable and relatable. Photographs, videos and illustrations can help the audience by waking emotions and making stronger connections to the characters and actions in the story. Maps give a geographic context to data, and if made interactive can be used as a tool to engage readers in exploring data.
Infographics can be used to simplify complex concepts and data by presenting these in formats that are easy to understand without long and tiring explanations. As an example, the figure below illustrates heatwave frequency as scientific data versus the same data in an infographic format which conveys the same message but in a more personal manner.
Iteration & Sharing
As the climate story is created and implemented, it may be necessary to revisit earlier topics and steps in the three development cycles. For example, insight gained while producing infographics (cycle 3) may lead to modifying the main objective of the story (cycle 1), requiring a new scene in the storyboard (cycle 2) to address the change in the objective. Another possibility is that feedback from stakeholders in initial testing of a completed story may lead to revision of story elements or visuals.
The final step in the climate story process is to share the story with the target audience. Media campaigns using channels relevant for the specific audience you want to reach, for example social media, TV or newspapers).
The final step in the climate story process is to share the story with the target audience. Media campaigns using channels relevant for the specific audience you want to reach, for example social media, TV or newspapers).
Summary
Reflection
- What are phases of the development of a climate story?
- How does the climate story development cycle work? How does one phase influence the others?
- What are the best ways to share or present a finalized climate story?
