Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

How to Find a Story for Every Occasion

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Storytelling is an ancient art that people in communications fields have begun to appreciate.  But how do you find the right story for the occasion?

archery_homeOnce upon a time, a storyteller (the Maggid of Dubnow) was walking along a road when he saw the most amazing sight.  There was a barn, and on the barn was a bull’s-eye target.  Arrows protruded from the target.  Every one of them had hit the bull’s-eye.  And standing next to them, with a bow and an empty quiver, was a teenager, no more than fourteen.

“Young man!” the storyteller called out.  “How did you manage to hit the bull’s-eye every time?”

“Oh, it was easy,” the teenager replied.  “I shot the arrows first, then I painted the circles around them.”

“And that,” the storyteller told a friend later, “is exactly what I do with my stories. I learn to tell them first, and later I find the occasion to tell them.”

Don’t wait for the next time you’re putting together a newsletter or a funding appeal to think about what stories to tell.  Put some stories in your quiver.  Lean how to aim them.  Then, find the right targets.

You CAN Be Too Brief

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We’ve all heard the advice. Whether you’re blogging, tweeting, or writing a letter, shorter is better.  Right?

But it is possible to be too brief.  fresh fish sold here

The fishmonger looked up proudly at his new hand-painted sign.  “Fresh fish sold here,” it proclaimed.

A friend tapped him on the shoulder. “Nice sign, but it shouldn’t say ‘fresh'”, he advised.  “That makes people think about the possibility that it…might not be.”

The fishmonger took his paintbrush and painted over the “fresh.”

Another friend asked, “Why does it say ‘here’?  Where else would you be selling it?”

The fishmonger painted out the word “here.”

“Sold?” asked a third friend.  “Does anybody think you give your fish for free?”

One more swipe of the brush removed the ‘sold.’

A fourth friend scoffed, “Why say ‘fish’?  You can smell them a mile away!”

With a sigh, the fishmonger raised his brush and painted out the last word.

Don’t take well-meaning advice that doesn’t fit what you’re trying to say.  Go on as long as it takes to put your message across.  No more…but no less.

A Priest, a Rabbi, and a Communications Pro Walk into a Bar…

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Can you tell a joke?  Then you can write for blogs and social media.

I don’t mean to say that what you write has to be funny.  Although, God knows we could use some humor sometimes!  But jokes have the basic ingredients you need to make people want to read what you write, and then, to remember what they’ve read.

Jokes invite the audience in.  Whether it’s “knock-knock,” or “What did the one say to the other?”, or “A priest, a minister, and rabbi walk into a bar,” jokes get the listeners involved. You can see them lean forward, wondering what comes next.

The next time you write, look for the opening line that makes your reader want to read the next line.

Jokes have a structure.  Human beings like to know where they’re going and how long it’s going to take to get there.  People waiting for a bus or subway are much more content to wait if they see a sign that says “Next train to Alewife Station, 10 minutes.”  When they’re listening to a joke and they hear that something happens three times, for instance, they know something unusual is about to occur and they’re waiting to find out what it is.

The next time you write, look for the structure that tells your reader when the main idea is going to arrive.

Jokes have a punch line.  Sometimes people even forget how the story went, but they remember “That’s what she said,” or “I’ll have what she’s having.”  It’s the payoff.  It leads to a reaction: laughter, or a groan, or both…but an emotional response.

The next time you write, figure out the response you want to provoke first.  Then, tell the story that will elicit that response from your readers.

A priest, a minister, and a rabbi went into a bar, and the bartender said, “What is this, some kind of a joke?”

I’ll bet you remember that one.

Note: this entry originally appeared in April 2013 in my personal blog.

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