And Not For Books Only

Another sample out of my recently released book/guide "Start With A Story: A Mini-Guide On Opening Your Book With A Tale." Hope you take something away. Enjoy!

.................................................. 

And Not For Books Only

I pulled the phone out of my pocket, tapped the ‘Apps’ icon, and clicked the Google Chrome App Icon. It opened up and led me to a number of website windows that I had left open up after reading them. I simply leave them open to sort of stir my thought when I get back to them. These are ideas, and in my mind, I am not done with it, I am not done with them yet.

Thoughts are like pieces of meat to me, and until I am fully done chewing them, thoroughly, having gotten the most of out of it, I always return to them to finish up.

And today, I am on my way to Walmart, riding the public bus. The trip will be about 2 hours, and since it’s morning, my mind’s well rested to take in new information. Let me make the most of the time, I decide. I knew I had read a bit of Nathan Kontny’s pieces, but I wanted to dig in a little further.

So I went through the titles on his blog, Ninjas and Robots, and landed on this one. The blog Ninja’s and robots has not been active since Nathan Kontny took over the CEO position with Basecamp’s Highrise, but the remnant of his work is still valuable.

So I got started on a piece about becoming what you are looking for. Nathan titled it “How Do I Find Someone To Help Me?”

After a brief introduction of the topic, Nathan went on to start his point with a story.

Here’s the beginning:

In the late 80s, there was a teenage actor who was doing well finding movie roles. But as quick as his career started, it stuttered.

So he fell back to Plan B, and went to college. But he couldn’t let the acting bug go away. He kept looking for and landing parts. Then in his final year of college, he landed the best role of his life — a starring role in a movie filled with A-list actors and a great director. This was an Oscar-worthy movie.

So he quit school and moved to LA to pursue a professional acting career full-time. Except the movie bombed.

Critically, it did well. But it was a box office dud. And his hope that this was his stepping stone to stardom was squashed. He was back to being a largely unknown actor, sleeping on friends floors in LA, with endless competition. He’d get an occasional minor role, but was making less than when he was a teenager.

He needed a breakout role. But no one was giving it to him. So he decided to do it himself. He dusted off a script he had started in college, and with a friend put serious time into turning the half written document into an actual screen play.

I’m sure you are still reading and are engaged. Yes, you should. The story is interesting and on many levels you can learn something from it, whether it ends poorly or not. If it ends poorly, it’s a cautionary tale; and inspiration, if it ends well.

But this one ends well. The story is about how the movie Goodwill Hunting came into being. The guy in the story is Matt Damon, and the friend who helped out was Ben Affleck, and their story is now well documented. From Nathan’s account of it, the movie premiered on Christmas day, 1997, made 227 million dollars and was nominated for nine Academy Awards. It won Best Original screenplay for Matt and his good friend, Ben Affleck. Personally, I have seen it and consider it a great movie. Also, I have heard tennis superstar Roger Federer also name it one of his favorite movies. But what could have not been!

Yet after sharing this story, Nathan goes on start a new section of the same article that he subtitles ‘Become that which you seek.’ It’s at this point that he starts to tell his own story and starts making his real point to his reader. Here’s the lead up:

Every day I bump into someone struggling to find someone to help them with their project or career. They are business people looking for technical co-founders or people like me at Inkling looking for someone like me to write about me.

Now, from all these years in business, I realize that Matt Damon had it right. Instead of looking for some executive producer to give him a starring role, he was going to become the executive producer.

And to hit home the article’s other point, that becoming what you are looking for also brings you closer to people who could help you, Nathan pointed out how Matt Damon also met Steven Spielberg on the same movie set. And Spielberg later cast him for another movie, Saving Private Ryan.

I’m sure you know by now where Nathan is taking this article, or what he is trying to say.

Now, imagine Nathan takes out the story and goes on straight to talk about how the reader should simply become what he is seeking. That will be flat and uninteresting, right?

This again is the power of the story, and in this case not only to engage but to teach. Lists may do well, but nothing drives home a point like a story. Like a kind of burr, it has the ability to stick in your head. And in this case, it works as well even in starting an article. And for some, you may not write a book, but when you sit to write a blog post or an essay, consider the power of a story to drive your point home.

Also, remember, reading is an experience and it should be time well spent. So, making your writing interesting by weaving stories into them makes it a great trade of time and attention with your reader. This is, in a sense, a kind of reading UX (user experience), and you know it’s all the rave now in tech circles all over with software. In that same way, delight your reader, and let them know their time is well spent with your work.

The Place Of A Preamble

At this point let me point out a little difference with Nathan’s article. The article, is a bit of a variant, though, because though you should start with a story, there are situations where a preamble could lead the way first, and that’s what Nathan did with this article — he used a preamble before getting into the story.

As an article, the reader comes to it with little or no background information, and this is what a preamble helps with. It gives the reader a good idea of what the article is about. This is not the case with a book since you often know what the book is about from the title and subtitle. And if there’s no subtitle, the book’s description on the site, or on Amazon will clue you into what the book contains. And that’s when you already have a fair idea of the book’s content, and a story makes a great start without the need for a preamble.

What If I Started Differently?

Notice I start this section with a story, my story of how I found this article. Surely, I could have chosen a different start, maybe a mundane telling of the story. For the purpose of degrees of creativity, let’s take a look at an alternative start.

Like this:

This past Saturday, on my way to Walmart, I read an article about how to become what you are looking for. The article was written by Nathan Kontny, the CEO of Highrise, a software company in Chicago.

In the article, Nathan makes his point by telling a story first before going into his….and on, and on… (you get the point).

Do you notice how the facts are the same, but the telling could be different? This is the same thing with life itself. We all have our cards, our facts, but it’s all based on how we play them. How we use them is what makes the difference. Some of us use it all, some use little, and some use none. But in the end, let’s use it creatively, let’s tell it creatively, with interest.

And that’s another reason I doubt anyone who says they don't have an interesting story to start a book or an article with. It’s there!

If you enjoyed this piece, you'll enjoy the whole book/guide. 

.................................

Check it out here: Start With A Story: A Mini Guide On Opening Your Book With A Tale