Category: Writing

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4 Simple Tools for Effective Storytelling

At the end of the summer I attended the Craigslist Foundation Bootcamp and one workshop I attended was about storytelling. The teacher was Joe Lambert, Executive Director of the Center For Digital Storytelling. Lambert shared what he called the 4 C’s of Simple Story Tools for storytelling.

The Four C’s are:

1st paragraph: Connect
Use a single moment with expectation

2nd paragraph: Context
What is essential to have audience understand the moment

3rd paragraph: Climax
What change came out of the moment?

4th paragraph: Closure
What are you thinking right now?

Of note, digital storytelling is for pieces 2 to 4 minutes in length.

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More on Mental Kung Fu from Mel Ash

Continuing from yesterday’s post about author/teacher Mel Ash’s three hour workshop given at TheBeat Museum in San Francisco. The topic was “Bay, Beats & Buddhism.” Within three hours Ash covered a brief history of both the Beat movement and Zen Buddhism.

Some memorable quotes from the evening:

“Moments of undeserved grace fall into our lives.”

“Because I’m poor I own everything.” – Jack Kerouac

“Practice is the real work.” – Gary Snyder

“Are you a problem thinker?” Ash asked, and he alluded to the Alcohlics Anonymous Twelve Step Program, and how we might substitute “think” where “drink” appears.

He gave demonstration of how our mind can cause much suffering by dissecting the brain from a model skull.

“You have to love your own stuff. That’s liberation,” said Ash.

I left feeling a shift . . . I hope it will last longer than a week.

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How to Write a Persuasive Request

One of my favorite classes in college was Business Communication. This was back in the days when people wrote letters, used stamps and stationery. We learned to write letters of all sorts including sales letters, collection letters and invitations. My teacher singled me out for my outstanding letter writing skills. One style was starting with a buffer paragraph then a gentle set up for the request, then spelling out the request and wrapping up with an upbeat ending. Isn’t that much like how to effectively ask for anything? Here’s the steps to making a persuasive request:

1) mention something that interests the reader;
2) add some “you” here of how the reader or those other than the writer will benefit;
3) state the request in specific terms;
4) suggest that compliance will be easy and satisfying; and
5) reflect confidence and appreciation in a favorable response.

Might these guidelines help you with your next creative e-mail or letter asking for donations or cooperation or do you already write this way?

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What’s Beat-Zen Writing?

Find out at a free 3 hour participatory workshop on Wednesday, November 17, 7pm, given by Zen teacher and author, Mel Ash, at The Beat Museum, 540 Broadway at Columbus, San Francisco, CA 94133. Ash promises to share an entertaining introduction to local Zen history and heritage as it was expressed by the Beats. In case you aren’t familiar with “The Beat” movement was an era whose term was coined by writer Jack Kerouac who was part of a core group that also included Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and William S. Burroughs. Wikipedia describes the Beat Generation as “a synthesis of the ‘beaten down’ and the beatific.”