W9: Storytelling Work

Grinding through some storytelling content and exercises

W9: Storytelling Work

I've been working on storytelling this week.  There's a lot to digest when it comes to how to tell an effective story, but I didn't have an easy time finding practical exercises to build the storytelling muscles.  Perhaps it's because it's fairly obvious... to get better at telling stories, tell more stories!

There's just one thing.  What about all of the crap I know will get produced?  Do my nine newlestter readers really deserve to suffer through my learning experience?

Of course they do! (This is the attitude I am trying to muster).

Hell no! (If you don't want it, then don't read it 😆)

In general, the content I consumed about writing, making videos, or art all mention the same thing: Your masterpiece will not be produced for some time, and you will produce A LOT of crap along the way. 💩

My references?

  1. Neil Gaiman's Masterclass on The Art of Storytelling.
  2. Austin Kleon's Show Your Work.
  3. The Lost Art of Great Speech - One of those old-school how-to books you pick up from Dad's bookshelf and wonder how it isn't part of our general education growing up because it's so good.
  4. Countless YouTube videos on The Hero's Journey (mostly 💩 honestly so no links needed).

So what am I doing to trying and flex the storytelling muscle?  Well there's this blog and there's also some other things I'm trying.

  1. Top 3 Questions I Get Asked About Life on a Submarine
  2. Check out my first short story taht I wrote in repsonse to a writing prompt I got from Reddit: Smoke The Dragon's Lost Spark

Let me know what you think of my exercises in storytelling!  I'm hungry for feedback, or just impressions.  I'd also love to hear if you know any good exercises to build storytelling chops.  Lastly, thanks for suffering through this process with me 🙏.

🍻 Keegan