99 Ways to Tell a Story
A new book arrived yesterday and it’s really interesting. It’s call 99 ways to tell a story by Matt Madden. The entire book is literally 99 different ways to tell a story about a man getting up from his work and walking to the refrigerator. That’s it. The entire book. That story told in 99 different ways, shapes, and styles. The book is fascinating. It’s a quick read, but is a good reference to keep on the shelf. I found this book by listening to the Out on The Wire Podcast with Jessica Abel – which is a must listen to podcast if you want to become a better storyteller!
Extracting Story Formulas from Podcasts
I did some work trying to extract a formula from This American Life this morning. I think I’ll end up writing or podcasting about it as a separate post, but here are some takeaways. I first learned about the idea of extraction from Jay Acunzo.
To introduce a podcast, Ira Glass starts with a very specific story. This is usually the story where there is one main subject. He uses this story as an example of a theme which will glue together the next three stories that the podcast will be made up of.
The intro is almost entirely made up of audio clips of the subject talking. There is usually either a mix, or the use of one of the following types of clips:
- Interview with the subject
- Monologue by the subject
- Audio Clips from a tv/radio show
- Interview or monologue from an expert
These clips are usually held together by Ira Glass intervening to offer commentary and hold these clips together to form a uniform narrative.
Theory Behind The This American Life Intro
“A story should take as long as it needs to be told. No more. No less.” Ira Glass holds true to this idea with the intros to the podcast. The intros vary greatly in length. I took notes on the 4 most recent episodes, and the intro time varied from a low of 4 minutes to a high of 12 minutes.
I’ve read quotes from Ira Glass in the past that remind me of copywriting basics. In copywriting, the goal of the first sentence, is to get the reader to read the second sentence. The goal of the second sentence is to get the reader to read the third sentence. The goal of the third sentence, is to get the reader to read the fourth sentence. And on and on and on. Ira uses this same idea in his podcast. He goes directly into a story to try and hook you in. He tells that story to completion, and then he tells you this is the main theme that ties together a few more stories. If you liked what you just heard, you’ll probably stay for more.
Is There More Left To Extract?
I want to go back and listen to the intros more. I want to get more of an idea of “what type of story” he is telling. So far, I have been able to extract what he does with the idea of the story as an intro, but I have not yet gotten to the types of stories he tells with the intros. Maybe this is the engineer in me.
Using The Extraction
Now that I know how Ira Glass constructs the intros to his podcasts, that leaves me with the idea of how to apply it to my subject. I mentioned yesterday that I want my subject to be John D. Rockefeller and a story about his childhood.
This is awesome! I have to apply a formula that is based highly on audio clips for a dead subject that lived in a time period before a lot of audio existed. Nice!
Okay, I have a few ideas on how I can handle this. I’ll list them out.
- Have a friend read quotes that Rockefeller has said
- Have a friend read excerpts from one of Rockefeller’s biographies
- Take parts of other podcasts or tv shows about Rockefeller
- Interview a historian or history teacher about Rockefeller
- Find written interviews of Rockefeller and have two people act at that interview
- Make up a fake interview script and act it out as if I were Ira Glass interviewing a fake Rockefeller
Just a few ideas. This is a problem I can solve, but it will take some creativity. I’ll probably also need a friend to play the role of Rockefeller. Any takers?!?
Being Comfortable By Yourself at a Restaurant
I had a discussion with a friend last night about being comfortable at a bar by yourself. I really enjoy going to a coffeeshop by myself to read and write on the weekends. Today, after I was finished up at Barrington, I decided to go to a bar for some eggs. Yup – at the bar, by myself writing things down in my notebook. I really enjoy it. Others are not comfortable at the thought of it. Maybe it is a confidence thing?
Greek Mythology
When I was younger, I never understood why we called it “Greek Mythology”. Why should we call the Greek ideas of gods mythology? If you can’t prove or disprove the existence of one divine being, how can you prove or disprove the existence of numerous gods? If the idea of a one God worshipping is called religion, why don’t refer to Greek Mythology as “Greek Religion”. Why don’t we call Christianity “Christian Mythology”? The two seem very similar.
Maybe because one is widely practiced today and the other was widely practiced thousands of years ago, it’s cool to call one religion and the other mythology. I don’t have good answers or a lot of research on this – it crossed my mind a few times, though.
Curse Words For Contractors
I was talking to a construction engineer – he’s also a good friend. He mentioned a particular interview process at a large Boston construction agency. One of the questions was “how do you respond when a contractor tries to tell you a problem you encountered is not a big deal”. What was my buddy’s answer? “GET FUCKED!!”
He was told he probably shouldn’t curse when he talks to contractors, but he was right with his answer. When you are in a construction project, if you don’t fix a problem while you’re building, you might not get another chance to fix the issue. There are often millions of dollars at stake and you don’t want to take the fall for a project. The subcontractor might lose a lot of money based on the changes they need to make after finding a mistake, but it’s important you stand up to them.
This reminded me a lot about surgery from the Checklist Manifesto. You typically have people lower on the totem pole who are expected to tell the surgeon when they think he is making a mistake – typically a nurse or an anesthesiologist. The corollary on the construction side is when you have 23 year old nerdy engineers who are expected to tell “scary looking Southie construction guys” that they made a mistake and it might cost them money.