britney lawrence's List: Story-Telling

• The key to engage them is to use lots of “language of the senses,” or LOTS. When telling a story, share with us what you see, smell, feel, taste, and hear.
• They call it the "story spine": reality is introduced, conflict arrives, there is a struggle, the conflict is resolved, a new reality exists. 

• 1) Think of a presentation or pitch you will be giving in the next seven days.

  2) Write out your presentation as a story, longhand, on paper, using the story spine.

  3) Brainstorm a list of LOTS (language of the senses) you want to embed into your story.

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• Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion.
• "Follow your bliss."^[1]

• There are 5 basic throughlines that you can use.

   
   
• • The main character succeeds (through courage, ingenuity, special skill, special weapon)
   
  • The main character fails  (through circumstances, weakness, obsession)
   
  • The main character abandons the goal
   
  • The main character’s goal is undefined
   
  • The audience creates the goal
• Traditional – The traditional 3 act structure has a beginning, middle and end. The key to using this
• • tructure in a business setting is a well defined inciting event, protagonist and climax. Those elements will drive your story.
   
  • The Hero
• ’s Quest – The quest is probably the most commonly understood structure. A hero faces a challenge and sets out to overcome the challenge. The driving force in this structure is the pursuit of the goal whether it is tangible or intangible.
• The Search – The search is about man’s search for meaning. It differs from the hero’s quest in that the goal in these stories is always a character’s search for the discovery of something fundamental about who they are or who they will become.
• Stranger In A Strange Land – This is a story of change. The hero is put into a new situation. Maybe they don’t know the local ‘rules’ or customs. Everything seems unfamiliar. The character spends the majority of the story getting accustomed to their new surroundings or circumstances. In most cases the hero learns in the end that the ‘strange land’ wasn’t that strange after all.
• Boy Meets Girl (Romance) – This one is simple – boy meets girl, boys falls in love…but then what? Since stories need tension to move forward the “but then what…” part is really what drives this type of story. What roadblocks, conflicts, or obstacles stand in the way of the two lovers in the story? The key to remember in constructing these stories is love is hard to find and if you do find it, it’s hard to keep.
• Coming Of Age (Transformation) – A coming of age story is ultimately about the change, transformation or maturation of  the character. In this type of story the character has to re-learn comfort as they near maturity. That character may change significantly during the course of the story or simple figure out they somehow knew the answers all along. The experiences they gain drive the story.
• In this segment from the story I used in the introduction, I was the character. My goal was to give enough detail about who I was at the time to allow the audience to identify with the ‘character’ in the story. Don’t spare the detail here. Use as much detail as needed to draw your audience in.
• A story must have a location or setting to orient the audience. It sets the place, time and circumstances of the story, and helps the audience gain the context needed to understand where you are coming from. As with creating your characters, don’t spare the detail when defining the location.

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• move away from thinking about branded content and embrace true storytelling.
• Stories rely on the intended audience to develop their own imagery and detail to complete and, most importantly, to co-create, whereas content does not
• Content is primarily created in the internal mind of the content originator, with no heed to the mind or to the context of the audience.
• most powerful stories happen in the mind of the audience, making each and every story unique and personal for the individual.
• Stories are how we pass on our accumulated wisdom, beliefs and values
• that we cannot—nor should we try to—tell any story in its entirety, and the subsequent embrace of the mind of the audience in co-creating our story that is the vital step we need to make if we are to truly resonate emotionally with our audience.
• This presents marketers with an amazing opportunity, as the most powerful way to persuade someone of your idea is by uniting the idea with an emotion
• It’s indisputable that the best way to do that is by telling a compelling story.
• Steve Frankfurt, who is credited with creating the tagline “In space no one can hear you scream” for the 1979 movie Alien
• It was a story in its own right.
• When we start to program a brand, we need to understand its full narrative and which parts of the story we need to create, which to co-create with the audience and which to leave to allow the audience to impart and complete their own meaning.

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• Age of Aquarius   -- is linked so strongly to technology
• members of this sign can be somewhat idiosyncratic they   are also very original and inventive
• Aquarius   has a strong need for independence and individualism,
• Aquarius' job is to challenge   authority, tear down existing structures, and replace the   outdated with something better
• Aquarius is visionary   and creative, but rebellious, too
• This sign acts in rather sudden and unexpected   ways, thanks to being ruled by Uranus, the planet of surprise.
• quite intellectually   and emotionally aloof at times
• Aquarius likes to work in large groups
• Aquarius is "one for all and all   for one," rather than elitist
• altruistic   and democratic in spirit
• Aquarius is a fixed   sign, they are quite solid when they make commitments.
• If Aquarius is about anything, it is about customization --   this sign's motto is "let you be you." It is a very inclusive   sign.

• Computers, Computers

   
• Humans And Machines Will Be Symbiotic
• Will Computers Gang Up And Pit Man   Against Machine? Possibly.
• Yet Aquarius is a sign that is socially responsible, so we   should not be overly concerned about some kind of social insurrection.
• "We will carefully   design the machines so that it will help human beings, not   harm them."
• A New Internet
• Product Customization
• Imagine if people were able to write the   books, compose the music or start the businesses that they   always dreamed of!
• teams will be in charge
• Instead of   a dictator at the helm of the corporate ship the model will   be more akin to that of a beehive with bees working side by   side
• Aquarius is the egalitarian sign of groups and   encourages a democratic voice for one and a
• Leaders of the future must be democratic decision-makers.   Employee-owned companies are a very Aquarian concept as well.
• The Trend Toward Working At Home
• The gap between those who know and those   who don't know how to get these things done will represent   the new "haves" and "have-nots"
• This will widen the gap between   rich and poor and give new meaning to the phrase "knowledge   is power."

• Marriage And Sex

   

  Marriage will change, for the institution of   marriage began in agricultural cultures where plenty of hands   were needed to till the fields and gather the harvest. The   infant mortality rate was high then and life expectancy was   short, so women needed to bear as many children as possible   so that their offspring could help with the farm work. The   wife of the farmer was dependent on her husband for sustenance   and protection
• In our industrial society, women are educated   and capable of making a living on their own. A woman is not   normally dependent on her husband for food and shelter and   will choose to marry based on love. She is far less likely   than ever before to stay in an unhappy marriage. Men, too,   do not require a wife or offspring in order to keep their   businesses and homes operational. The rising divorce rate   can be seen in this positive light: men and women no longer   have to stay in bad marriages if they choose not to.

• Few people will marry without a lawyer at their   side, a clean bill of health, and a credit check of their   future spouse. This is especially true of the generations   of children who've witnessed the breakup of their own parents'   marriages. Is this a bad thing? Not at all. While it sounds   unromantic, it will cut down on sadness later. Fewer people   will marry for money, because they won't need to. More people   will marry for true love. In an odd way, all these conditions   will allow love more freedom than ever before, because people   will choose their partners without the constraints that have   held them back in the past. Free at last, true love can bloom.  

   
• People will   tend to have fewer children but will invest more in those   children, by giving them a better education and more support.   Society will benefit from the attention these parents lavish   on their children.

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• Identify The Heart Of Your Story. Explore your motivations, determine what you want your story to do, then stick to your core message.
• 3,500 words or less
• If you over-stuff your plot by including too many distractions, your story will feel overloaded and underdeveloped.
• See Things Differently. Experiment with your short story’s POV.
• Just be careful that you don’t inadvertently give the story to a nonessential character. Narrating the story line through a character who’s not central to the action is a common mistake many new authors make, often with confusing or convoluted results.
• Opposites Attract.
• You can also try approaching your core idea from an unusual direction.
• Craft A Strong Title.
• Have friends read your story and note which words or phrases strike them or stand out. These excerpts from your text just might hold the perfect title. Try to stay away from one- or two-word titles, which can seem to editors as taking the easy way out.

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