In Squirrel Inc., I am not comfortable with its formatting quite yet. To me, it is a little odd to be reading a story about a character who is teaching another character how to tell a story, but I do think the formatting will grow on me because it is a creative and ironic way to learn. With this formatting, it is more hidden that the reader is actually learning something versus just reading something.
The tip that says "Link the story to the change idea with phrases such as "Think..." and "What if..." and "Just imagine..." seems sort of like a cheesy lead-in in a bad middle school-written paper. When I was younger that is how I usually started stories or made a transition between paragraphs. In my opinion, it's an easy out and has no depth or thought put into it.
In chapter two, I liked that fact that said "In performing the story, the storyteller relieves the story and makes it fresh." For me, when listening to someone tell a story who has actually lived the story, I find myself more intrigued then if the person was just telling about a story they heard. Also, I know when I tell a story, I am a much better storyteller if I am telling about my own, personal experience.
In Made to Stick, Heath and Heath discussed the "SUCCES" principles: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, stories. These six principles all bring up questions that need to be considered before telling a story to a big audience. When considering these principles, all need to be included to create or tell a compelling story. With one or more of the principles left out, the audience may become distracted or uninterested in the storyteller. For me, I think I struggle most with choosing details to include and not include. I want everyone to know exactly what happened, what I witnessed, and want them to be able to walk through the memory step by step with me, but I tend to get lost in details versus keeping it simple.
Mellette,
ReplyDeleteI agree that starting a story with “Think…” or “What if…” is simple; however, I also believe that such an opening serves a great purpose. As a motivational speaker I have found that individuals normally listen to stories passively. In other words, they are not particularly interested in something complicated that would require a lot of analyzing. Instead, they prefer when I am straightforward rather than lofty in my language. Consequently, I get a great response when I ask my audience the following question: “Think about a time when you set a goal and didn’t reach it.” The individuals begin to think about such a time, and they are open to hearing how they can accomplish their goals in the future. Thus, starting a story with “Think…” or “What if…” can be very effective if used appropriately.