First Draft 2022

First Draft is Storythings’ pro-bono consultancy offer to small UK organisations, groups, networks or collectives who create change by working with under-represented communities.

You might be looking to set up a new project within your organisation that will improve diversity, equity and inclusion, and you need support in developing your story. Or you might be working with a local community and want to bring attention to the brilliant projects they are doing.

We’ll help you break down your content goals, discuss ideas that might help you talk about your work in a way that others can get on board with, and guide and support you in developing and prototyping a format. 

How does it work?

We will support four organisations in 2022 by running First Draft four times in March, June, September and November.

For each organisation, we’ll run a number of sessions to help you explore different content formats and then prototype one of these. This will take place across five weeks on Wednesday afternoons. Each session will last one hour.

Weeks one and two will focus on introducing you to the language of formats and unpacking some examples that are already out in the world.

By the end of the second session, we will support you in developing your idea for your format ready to prototype over weeks three and four. The prototype really is a first draft! So don’t stress about making it perfect, it’s not supposed to be. And you can always get in touch if you have any questions along the way.

The fifth and final week will be for us to give you feedback on your prototype and talk you through our ‘How to Run a Format’ playbook with lots of tips and ideas for you to takeaway. 

Who we’re looking to help

• Applications are open to UK companies, small networks or collectives that have been around for two years or less 
• Your annual turnover should be less than £100k 
• The work you are doing should be towards affecting positive change – this could be through your defined mission, or those you help 
• You must have a clearly defined problem around storytelling, content or comms 
• We’re actively seeking applications from groups who are looking to create change by working with under-represented communities 
• You must be available to participate in the sessions, held over five weeks on Wednesdays afternoons (UK – time TBC) on Zoom

What you’ll get

• Mentoring support from a group of people at Storythings who have worked across content, storytelling, innovation and strategy for years at places like  Channel 4, BBC Radio 1, PEN International and PHD Media. 
• A clearer sense of how the content or storytelling challenge you’re facing could be approached.
• A rough and ready prototype to test with your audience.
• A playbook that gives you ideas and guides as to how to approach content structure, and lessons we’ve learned about audiences and their behaviours.