Storytelling with Rebecca Parsons and Brad Lawless: SoFabCon

Once upon a time, not so long ago…..Ahem.  Sorry – still working on some of my opening lines but let me tell you, when it comes to crafting a great blog post, the session on Storytelling that I attended at SoFabCon was certainly a big help.  The speakers were my awesome roomie Rebecca Parsons and Brad Lawless and they provided us with some amazing tips on taking your writing up to that next level.  Here are my notes from the session:

• ~Stories aren’t fluff.  They are central to who we are as human beings and so a great story will draw people in.  Storytelling is the art of letting go, finding your voice, and sharing it with others.
• The number one commandment of storytelling is: MAKE THEM CARE!  You may have something really interesting to say but you have to make the reader care.  They have to care enough to read on! The competition for your reader’s attention is stiff so you need to build a relationship.  Most blogs are started because the blogger has something they want to say and share with the world.  These suggestions are ways to say it better.
• Storytelling is an invitation into a relationship.
• Tom Durel: “Everybody thinks it’s the return on investment that you’re selling to a potential investor, but it’s really the story about ROI that an investor takes away. What matters is whether that story generates comfort, certainty, enthusiasm, and meaning.”
• Through storytelling your trauma can become your testimony, your pain can become your strength, and your hardship can become your voice.
• “Frankly, there isn’t anyone you couldn’t learn to love, once you’ve heard their story.” Mister Rogers
• A great blog is a story that’s never completely told.
• By sitting with yourself and journaling each day, you can build your voice.
• Anything can be a good story if told well.
• Brad recommended: Raymond Carver for his concise writing style, Hemingway’s short stories, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White for helping you learn to write in a more concise manner
• Ways to be more engaging:  Get rid of passive language and use more active words.  Find positive ways to express something instead of using words like not, nor, etc.  Use fewer words where possible – trim the fat!
• Great writing is good editing.  Let it sit for a while and then go back to it,
• There are three parts to every good story: a beginning, a middle and an end but they don’t necessarily have to be told in that order.
• You have 3 seconds to hook them and 3 seconds to reel them in and land them!
• We live in a headline and sound bite kind of world so you need to keep your posts to about 250-500 words and have a great opening line.
• What about starting in the middle of the action?  How about presenting something unusual, quirky, or emotionally gripping?  Introduce an adventure, dilemma, a mystery.  Set a compelling mood or tone and build tension. 
• Practise writing what you’re passionate about.  Be authentic, real, someone who can be trusted and you’ll be writing in your own voice.
• Study existing blogs that you love.  Pay attention to their opening lines. How do their stories make you feel?  What makes you want to come back to their blog again?
• Use higher level verbs to get across the same general idea but with more meaning.  For example, instead of cut say cleave or slice; instead of walk, say meander or stroll.  Check out thesaurus.com if you need ideas for alternate words to use.
• If someone makes it to the end of your post, reward them with a well crafted ending.  Talk about what was learned, bring the story full circle, clarify the metaphor, lead them somewhere else.
• Stop doing what everyone else is doing!
• Show your fails. 
• Tell them: who are you?  What’s your focus?  Do what you know how to do.
• No matter what you do, “make sure they remember you” (Hunger Games)

Some great ideas aren’t they?  I’m hoping at the next conference (or sooner!), they’ll have Part Two of this because I feel like we were only just getting started and that I could learn so much more from these two!