Write good headlines, use formatting, respect the context, read a lot, bla bla bla, we know all that stuff, right?
Here’s one you haven’t heard:
To tell better stories in writing, tell stories everywhere.
Storytelling is the most important communication skill you can work on, anytime, anywhere. You might not realize it, but even if all you have is a profile on Quora, you have a platform online.
We’re all our own PR agency today and it’s our job to make us look like who we really are.
It’s true I’m a writer, but I’m not just a writer. I’ve had fun editing videos since I was 13 or so.
For a week I played around with a Youtube show called The 5 Minute Genius.
I recorded a cover of Fort Minor’s ‘Believe Me’ once. It was horrible, but I had fun.
Sometimes, when I can think of something “original” I try to post cool quotes to Twitter:
Recently, I recorded one of my posts as an audio rant and uploaded that too.
In February 2015, I made a comfort zone video course, recording myself doing various comfort zone challenges:
For the past 200+ days, I’ve documented my entire day’s story on Instagram Stories and uploaded a video every day with the full recap:
And when I’m not doing any of those, I’m writing or talking to someone, telling them a story.
Here’s the really interesting part: All of this was just about the telling part. Once again, everyone is focused on the tactics.
- What’s the best time to post on Medium?
- How long is the perfect YouTube video?
- Do I use Instagram or Snapchat or both?
Forget all of that.
The single greatest way to tell better stories is to have better stories to tell.
No matter how perfectly you package it, if your story sucks, no one will want to hear it.
To put it in good old Ben Franklin’s words:
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin