In this vein, it was encouraging to hear that Hemingway rewrote the ending of A Farewell to Arms not 39 times, as he claimed, but nearly 50: "Hemingway famously revealed that he re-wrote the ending 39 times to get the words right, although the actual figure was 47. His semi-autobiographical work is a love story set against the backdrop of the Italian campaigns of World War I. The latest American edition of the book also includes early drafts of other passages and Hemingway's own 1948 introduction to an illustrated re-issue of the novel."
I've seen the terrible storytellers and it is because they don't stop to observe and think. They are constantly doing, and they miss the real story behind the stories. The true story that weaves through, beyond the simplistic.
I should add that I love the quote "if I had an hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes defining the problems and only 5 minutes coming up with solutions."
I had a boss tell me "Mike, we don't have time for that, we need to execute"
I begged for just "15 minutes" and was denied. 3 months later we were still spinning in circles, having run a marathon but only 200m down the path because we just kept doing.
Professional storyteller here :) Thank you Mark for throwing the windows to the garden wide open. We always want everything fast, now, yesterday. More tools (cough cough ChatGPT), more fun, right? Well, no.
Good food takes time: Fresh, healthy ingredients, carefully selected and sourced. Prepared by hand, with love. Shared with friends and loved ones.
Good wine takes time: The best strains, cultivated with experience and wisdom, selected, picked, crushed, fermented (again time).
Good books take time: I find the older we writers get, the finer of a wine our words make, because of all the life experiences, musings, and thoughts we've nurtured and nourished over the years. We've also (hopefully) made peace with how long it takes to write a book.
And so on. So how do you explain those flashes of inspiration, those songs that pour out of you in the space of an hour? That hour has years backing it up.
I would respectfully disagree, however, with the "good anything is mostly" cartoon above. You do need skill, and if you have a bit of talent, that can make or break the thing you're doing (depending on what it is of course. I, for example, cannot sing. No matter how much I practice, it's not happening. My daughter on the other hand...) In the case of both skill and talent, time rules once again. Put in the work.
So nicely said! I may quote this one in the upcoming part II of this article about a method that I think can help. And that's a fair point on the "good anything is mostly," and I'm with you, if singing in the shower or car could make me a singer, it would have worked by now. Same goes, for me, for dancing.
That said, when it comes to good writing or a good presentation, I think most of us, with enough effort, can not suck. That's all I'm aiming for, and that's what this next post, and an upcoming course I'm doing for the benefit of charity, can help.
Thank you Mark, and feel free to quote, I'd be honored. But don't give up on dancing yet, you'd be surprised what your body can do with a good dance instructor (and the right music)!
Yes, very much agree most people could improve their storytelling substantially if they have the right guidance, an open and curious mind, and put in the effort. Wonderful you're doing a course! Storytelling?
Yes, I teach / coach in storytelling for some of my consulting clients and the companies that advise as a board advisor. I’m going to offer some of them as a Maven course soon and donate the proceeds to charity (a hospice organization that helped my family get through our battle with it).
I’ve taught it several times now and it’s been well received so I’d like to give away my take on storytelling from a “CEO’s point of view” with my recent research in neuroscience, design thinking and behavioral science mixed in.
This post is actually a summary of the way I open up that course :)
"Spend 27 of your first 36 hours researching, collecting input, organizing ideas, collaborating with colleagues, and sketching the structure for the story." This idea comes from Carmine Gallo's book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience:
Some of the references in the article are worth calling out in comments, for more reading. I often get questions about them that make me feel like it's safe and better to share them again. The neuroscience of storytelling ideas and references can be found in this article by Harrison Monarth for Harvard Business Review:
In this vein, it was encouraging to hear that Hemingway rewrote the ending of A Farewell to Arms not 39 times, as he claimed, but nearly 50: "Hemingway famously revealed that he re-wrote the ending 39 times to get the words right, although the actual figure was 47. His semi-autobiographical work is a love story set against the backdrop of the Italian campaigns of World War I. The latest American edition of the book also includes early drafts of other passages and Hemingway's own 1948 introduction to an illustrated re-issue of the novel."
I’m loving learning these anecdotes that I can steal for the next article / and the class on storytelling! Great one Hugh, thank you!
I've seen the terrible storytellers and it is because they don't stop to observe and think. They are constantly doing, and they miss the real story behind the stories. The true story that weaves through, beyond the simplistic.
I should add that I love the quote "if I had an hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes defining the problems and only 5 minutes coming up with solutions."
I had a boss tell me "Mike, we don't have time for that, we need to execute"
I begged for just "15 minutes" and was denied. 3 months later we were still spinning in circles, having run a marathon but only 200m down the path because we just kept doing.
Professional storyteller here :) Thank you Mark for throwing the windows to the garden wide open. We always want everything fast, now, yesterday. More tools (cough cough ChatGPT), more fun, right? Well, no.
Good food takes time: Fresh, healthy ingredients, carefully selected and sourced. Prepared by hand, with love. Shared with friends and loved ones.
Good wine takes time: The best strains, cultivated with experience and wisdom, selected, picked, crushed, fermented (again time).
Good books take time: I find the older we writers get, the finer of a wine our words make, because of all the life experiences, musings, and thoughts we've nurtured and nourished over the years. We've also (hopefully) made peace with how long it takes to write a book.
And so on. So how do you explain those flashes of inspiration, those songs that pour out of you in the space of an hour? That hour has years backing it up.
I would respectfully disagree, however, with the "good anything is mostly" cartoon above. You do need skill, and if you have a bit of talent, that can make or break the thing you're doing (depending on what it is of course. I, for example, cannot sing. No matter how much I practice, it's not happening. My daughter on the other hand...) In the case of both skill and talent, time rules once again. Put in the work.
So nicely said! I may quote this one in the upcoming part II of this article about a method that I think can help. And that's a fair point on the "good anything is mostly," and I'm with you, if singing in the shower or car could make me a singer, it would have worked by now. Same goes, for me, for dancing.
That said, when it comes to good writing or a good presentation, I think most of us, with enough effort, can not suck. That's all I'm aiming for, and that's what this next post, and an upcoming course I'm doing for the benefit of charity, can help.
Thank you Mark, and feel free to quote, I'd be honored. But don't give up on dancing yet, you'd be surprised what your body can do with a good dance instructor (and the right music)!
Yes, very much agree most people could improve their storytelling substantially if they have the right guidance, an open and curious mind, and put in the effort. Wonderful you're doing a course! Storytelling?
Yes, I teach / coach in storytelling for some of my consulting clients and the companies that advise as a board advisor. I’m going to offer some of them as a Maven course soon and donate the proceeds to charity (a hospice organization that helped my family get through our battle with it).
I’ve taught it several times now and it’s been well received so I’d like to give away my take on storytelling from a “CEO’s point of view” with my recent research in neuroscience, design thinking and behavioral science mixed in.
This post is actually a summary of the way I open up that course :)
The statement "storytelling is one of the most important skills effective leaders possess" comes form Peter Drucker's classic, The Effect Executive: https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Executive-Definitive-Harperbusiness-Essentials-ebook/dp/B01F1WZGNC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+effective+executive&qid=1680973927&s=digital-text&sprefix=the+effective+ex%2Cdigital-text%2C310&sr=1-1
The other top executive skills include:
- They asked, "What needs to be done?"
- They asked, "What is right for the enterprise?"
- They developed action plans.
- They took responsibility for decisions.
- They took responsibility for communicating.
- They were focused on opportunities rather than problems.
- They ran productive meetings.
- They thought and said "we" rather than "I."
"Spend 27 of your first 36 hours researching, collecting input, organizing ideas, collaborating with colleagues, and sketching the structure for the story." This idea comes from Carmine Gallo's book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience:
https://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Secrets-Steve-Jobs-Insanely-ebook/dp/B002Z8IWMS
Some of the references in the article are worth calling out in comments, for more reading. I often get questions about them that make me feel like it's safe and better to share them again. The neuroscience of storytelling ideas and references can be found in this article by Harrison Monarth for Harvard Business Review:
https://hbr.org/2014/03/the-irresistible-power-of-storytelling-as-a-strategic-business-tool