I really enjoyed the readings from both last Thursday and for tomorrow. Squirrel Inc and Made to Stick are very conversational, which makes them easy and interesting to read!
I am so intrigued by the way Squirrel Inc is formatted. I am learning about how to tell a story by reading a story about a character teaching another character how to tell a story-- ironic. My favorite tip thus far is to remember not to include to much detail in stories. The more simple they are the better. I can definitely agree to this because if I am listening to a story and the storyteller is drowning it with every detail down to the type of chips the main character ate with his sandwich for lunch, it distracts me and I become bored.
This idea of stripping a story of too much detail is brought up again in the Made to Stick book. One of parts of the SUCCES's is simplicity. There is a fine line though because you have to be careful not to take away all of the detail. If that happens, the story isn't a story anymore, but online a bite of information. While people won't get bored by a quick snip of information, they certainly won't retain it.
In the chapter on stories, the idea of creating stories that mental stimulate an audience was brought up. I agree that this concept is very important in grabbing attention. You want to put the audience inside the story so that they take each step as the characters do. This makes a story memorable and pushed the audience to act-- which is the point of telling a story isn't it? If you can get someone to mentally walk through the process, then they are more likely to take action and actually complete the goal you want them to in reality. We have to forget that audiences are just ears listening to us blab on and on. It is key to take advantage of an audience's minds and make them active within the story. In the end, they will feel inspired and act.
I totally agree with what you said about the formatting of Squirrel Inc. I am not completely comfortable with it yet, but I think the irony will go a long way and really teach a lot in the end.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your paragraph about simplicity and found myself thinking the same thing you were when I was reading it. Details are a great thing, but too many of them is overwhelming and a drag. There is a fine line between too many details and not enough, which makes it hard for the storyteller. But the amount of details can really make or break a story.
I agree with the notion that encouraging active participation both mentally and physically with stories engages audiences. That's what makes the Jared example so striking to me. Heath and Heath go into great detail to outline the obstacles and hurdles that Jared's story had to overcome before it reached the public. The largest hurdle was the unwillingness of executives to broadcast a story that, in my opinion, obviously had crossover appeal with individuals all over the world going through Jared's struggles. The success of this advertising campaign, once it finally got some play, is due to some of the same factors we see now in presidential campaigns. Storytelling is perhaps the top way candidates try to connect on a personal level to sell voters that because of the way their policies would impact individuals from various walks of life, they should entrust their livelihoods to the particular candidate. It works because we see ourselves as characters in everyone's story.
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