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. 

Jordan Dresden Rates Exceptional by Feds for Second Year in a Row

Treasury Secretary and IRS Oversight Board member Jacob Lew addresses Treasury employees.

For the second year in the row, Jordan Dresden Communications LLC were rated as exceptional in quality, management, and regulatory compliance for our work for the Department of Treasury's IRS Oversight Board.

Our tasks with the Board included providing media relations, developing reports, including the annual, widely-publicized Taxpayer Attitude Survey, drafting speeches and testimony, and managing communications between the Board and stakeholder.

The ratings were part of this year's Contractor Performance Assessment Report, required by federal acquisition rules. The report noted that Jordan Dresden "provide[s] great service in assisting the Department of the Treasury with it mission" and is "highly recommended."

We were honored to serve the Board, which ceased operating this year after the Board's chair retired, resulting in a loss of quorum. So far, Congress has failed to approve new Presidential appointments to the Board.

You want a video, but what you need is a great story

Everybody wants to make a video. The kind that goes viral. Now.

Of course, few videos will go viral. But to make a video? Yes, your client, or boss, or you, will likely want one in the near future. According to Syndacast, in 2017, 74% of Internet traffic will be video. Social media outlets like YouTube, Facebook, Vine, and Instagram are driving an insatiable appetite for online videos, now a growing, $6+ billion industry.

This summer, we had the privilege to develop short videos for the American Heart Association. The videos will be used as web site and social media content to support two great causes: funding for heart disease research, and healthy school meals.

The takeaway: content matters. Good stories are compelling, inspiring, and can bring your audience to where you want it to be, without telling it where to go. Yes, the technical side of producing a video is daunting. But storytelling is really at the heart of making a video.

And did we have stories:

• A student who avoided risky brain surgery following two strokes, thanks to research – and went on to graduate with a master’s degree from Columbia University.
• A young mother who survived a major heart attack following the birth of her son.
• A mom who came in to discuss school lunches and went on to talk about her six-year old ballerina daughter, who was born with deadly congenital heart disease and is beating the odds.

We worked with a terrific video team, led by Jeff Preston of Faithful Dog Digital, and grassroots organizers at the American Heart Association. The greatest challenge was editing 15 minutes of raw footage into a cogent, one-minute story; it required close coordination and communication, and obviously, a mastery of equipment and software.

I posted a few favorites here; there are more on my YouTube channel. If you’d like to learn more about the project, drop me a line at joelle@jordandresden.com.