How to Tell a Great (Short) Story

In the past few months, I’ve interviewed a devoted cardiologist who lost most of his family to heart disease, a veteran who left war-torn Afghanistan for a peaceful, steady career treating wastewater, and parents whose autistic son just learned how to ride a bike.

The interviews were part of assignments to develop content for social media, press releases, and a report. All of them are short, interesting, and reinforce powerful ideas and brands. The subjects enjoyed telling their stories; I loved shaping them into workable content and material for clients.

Here are a few quick tips on developing great stories:

Do an interview. Asking someone to tell their story through an email or to write their story is not as effective as interviewing. In that one-on-one discussion, you’ll find brilliant details, genuine passion, and a new angle to an old tale. Many people aren’t comfortable writing, or over-edit their own voice, or are too close to the topic to see a great story. Help them by listening.

Paraphrase. A story is not a transcript; it’s a fable or a legend. Help your subject tell their story the most effective, accurate way possible. Most subjects would prefer to have their prose cleaned up. As always, determine before you get started what the review process of your material will be.

Keep it short. When you’re turning your notes into actual content – written material or a video – make it brief, then edit again. Figure out what you can cut without losing the main point. Ernest Hemingway reportedly won a bet by telling an entire story in six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Add an image. A great story should include a visual. Just one, high quality photo of the subject will work. 

Getting That Creative Project Done (for Real)

Starting is great. Sticking with it is good. But finishing is priceless.

Let’s say you’re taking on a major communications project. It may be a web site redesign, or an annual report, a video or an important white paper. The project is made up of many parts; some complicated, some with different timelines, some requiring the time and expertise of someone who seems to live in airplanes.

And you’re in charge.

What to do?

The first thing is to be in charge. Someone has to organize those great, creative ideas and see to it that a final product is delivered. You have to own it – and have the license to make assignments, deadlines, and ensure all the parts are completed on time and are of the highest quality possible. Without a leader, or worse, a leader who’s never around or can’t make decisions, the project will drift.

Once that’s secured, break down the tasks needed to get the job done. For multi-faceted projects, I like to create a grid that breaks a larger, complicated project down into smaller assignments. Each assignment has an “owner” and a deadline. I also add a column for notes – the important critical details. For example, maybe the anointed author of a critical part of a report will be on Kuala Lumpur for most of July. That’s worth noting; it also worth determining how this could affect the overall schedule.

Ah, the schedule.

Sometimes creative projects have vague deadlines. If someone is told, “there’s no deadline,” they hear, “this isn’t very important.” If there is no deadline, create one (remember, you’re in charge). Amazing how things get done when there’s a deadline.

Next step: back the schedule into the deadline. Keep track of those notes. Be realistic. If you can avoid it, don’t create a schedule that will only work if half the talent works through every weekend and a holiday. Schedules like that have failure written all over them.

Don’t forget to factor in time for both review and production. Important products need approval, usually from the busiest people. Reviewers should have a deadline too, but again, be realistic. If production or any other technical task is involved, ask someone in that field how long the task should take. Factor it in. Assume nothing.

Finally, being a perfectionist is good; not finishing is bad. If you’ve managed a project well, you’ll know exactly where the weaknesses are well before the deadline looms. Deal with them. Do everything you possibly can to move the project to the finish line on time.  

When things start to feel like they’ll never come together, remember: the difference between a great idea and a finished anything is huge. Keep going. Rattle the cage. Come up with Plan B. Find new talent. But by all means, finish.

Keeping It Simple, Even When It Isn't

My best summer college job was canvassing door-to-door. And one of the most enduring aspects of it was a training lesson that continues to this day to be valuable.

I worked for a group that sought support for environmental legislation. As a canvasser, I knocked on doors asking for petition signatures and contributions. My manager determined my “turf” –the neighborhood I was canvassing. I might spend Tuesday in an upscale subdivision, and Wednesday in a trailer park. We had a nightly quota, so failure to raise a certain amount of money meant a quick end to a canvasser’s summer job.

Talking to strangers about policy issues and then asking for something is intimidating. Like all things challenging, however, there is a way to get started. And that approach works, not only in canvassing but also in fundamental business communications, whether it’s meeting a potential client or presenting an idea to a group.

The lesson is to start off with: I am, we are, we do, we want.

Sounds simple because it is: introduce yourself, your organization, explain concisely what your organization does, and ask for what you want.

It’s surprising how effective that simple “rap” can be. Your audience simply wants to know who you are and what you want. Once they understand, they’re often happy to help you. At the very least, they should know who you are and why you’re on their doorstep—or in their conference room.

The beauty part of this is its simplicity. Despite the complicated things we do, whether it’s in biotechnology or financial services, we ought to be able to introduce an organization and a concept simply, to the point that the listener understands what you’re talking about. In fact, Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”

Of course, I had a few doors slammed in my face. But for every resounding, “not interested,” a dozen more would follow who wanted to know more, to chat, and to act.

During three summers of canvassing, and beyond in my career as a communications professional, I’ve found that “rap” has been one of the most effective, fundamental approaches to get something done. 

10 Tips for Speechwriting Prep

A few weeks ago, I was taking part in a conference. The keynote speaker sat down next to me, furiously scribbling notes in the white space between items in the event agenda. He turned to me and asked how many pages there are in the federal tax code (answer, per Google: 73,954). He was writing his speech, ten minutes before go-time.

Pulling off a great speech was easy for someone with a distinguished career in public service. He was used to giving speeches on the fly, and knew his audience well.

However, not everyone is so gifted.

If it’s your turn (or your boss’s) to give a speech, prepping is half the job, but an important one. How do you get started? Here are a few tips:

 1.     A speech is not a report. It’s meant to be read aloud. A speech should sound relaxed, like a conversation.

2.     The last thing you do is write the speech. A good speech reflects the preparation that went into it, including interviews and brainstorming sessions. Read. Do Google searches. Save quotes, anecdotes, jokes, and stories. Build your own information bank.

3.     Get involved early in the process. Ask questions–lots of them. Who is the audience? Why is your organization accepting the invitation? What’s the desired outcome of the speech? Who else is speaking? On what topics? 

4.     Know thy speaker. For the speechwriter, interviewing the speaker is a must. Substance matters, but so does rhythm. Does she speak quickly or slowly? Does he speak in paragraphs? Is your speaker physical, and comfortable moving around while giving a speech?

5.     Ask. What’s the speaker’s goal from this speech? What’s the desired audience takeaway?

6.     Dig. Make it personal. Find out in your pre-draft talk with the speaker if there are any personal stories that can become part of the speech. Candor is good. It makes the speaker “real” and builds credibility.

7.     One size never fits all. Tailor the speech to fit the audience and setting. Talk to as many people inside and outside about the host organization. What are their hot-button issues? Do they have any outstanding issues with your group? Are they advocating any administrative or legislative changes? 

8.   Connect with your audience. Who brought the speaker there and why? A personal greeting from the dais is nice; a genuine compliment even better.

9.     Beware the joke. The words speechwriters fear most: “I need a good opening joke.” Few people are naturally funny. Many…are not. With a flubbed joke, the speaker is in the recovery zone for the rest of the speech. An anecdote or personal story at the beginning can be just as effective.

10.  Length matters. No one wants to listen to a one-hour speech. No one. A 20-minute speech is a standard length of a keynote speech, and is about 4 ½ single-space pages, depending on the speaker’s cadence and how often he or she diverts from the speech. 

Incidentally: what do you do with a random factoid like how many pages there are in the tax code? One approach is to translate it into real world terms: if you laid every page of the tax code end-to-end, it would stretch for almost 13 miles. 

How to Write Better (and Faster)

You need to write something. Maybe it’s an article, or a letter, or a report. There’s a deadline. It’s number five on your to-do list of 43 items. Here are a few tips on writing faster and better.

1.     Read first. Your assignment is to write something. If your inclination is to start writing, stop. It will be much easier to write once you “get” the topic at hand. Even if you’re on a tight deadline, understanding what you’re going to write about will ultimately save you lots of time.

2.     Embrace “blessed” language. When writing for a company, an agency, or a non-profit, there’s a way to say certain things. These phrases were hammered out long before you came along. Someone else already sweated over every word. Find out what the “blessed language” is, and use it.

3.     Stuck on the first sentence? Write it like a news item: who, what, when, why, how. That will get you started, and it sets up a structure that forces you to focus on the topic at hand.

4.     Long sentences are not necessarily better sentences. Are you out of high school? Good. In the real world, you’re considered a good writer because your reader understands what you’re saying. No one will count how many words are in your sentences. No one will care how many sentences are in your paragraphs. They will care about it what you’re trying to say. Focus on that.

5.     Know your kryptonite. Mine is the word “while.” I know that when I start a sentence with the word “while,” nothing good will follow. By starting with “while,” I’m already messing up a perfectly good sentence. I do this because an idea is not clear enough in my mind to translate into a clear sentence. That’s just me. Know your own verbal weaknesses, and learn how to avoid them.

6.     Eyeball it. Does that paragraph look bigger than the others? You should probably break it down.

7.     Housekeeping! In the interest of graceful transitions, we lard up our clean prose with too many “indeeds,” “moreovers,” or “in other words.” Clean it up. The leaner the better.

8.     Think you’re done? Read it out loud. You’ll find typos and awkward phrases that you didn’t see before.