#176 – The Best Piece of Advice for Great Storytelling
#176 – The Best Piece of Advice for Great Storytelling
The simple but hard behaviour I learned from a 5 month old
#176 – The Best Piece of Advice for Great Storytelling
This is Adventures in Storytelling your weekly note with resources, insights, and actionable tools for better communication through storytelling. Have fun in the slower bits this week.
This week is a shorter one because the advice is simple: slow down.
To elaborate, slow down and pay attention. Don’t get caught up in the rush and grind of everyday life that you forget to take note of the small moments.
I’m visiting my sister and 5-month-old niece this week. On Saturday I was walking around the house with my niece just showing her the world, which is one of my favourite things to do with her. We stopped at the dining room window that looks out to the backyard and the nature trail beyond. Her eyes got huge. Then her eyes raced around the scene from thing to thing, processing at the speed of a little baby brain taking in the world for the very first time.
What’s wild is that I almost didn’t stop at that window. I glanced at the expanse of grass and the grey garden shed and thought, boring not nearly enough to keep her attention. Then I saw her expressive little face emote and I looked again with new eyes. I saw the varyings shades of green of the grass still wet from rain, the gold of the wilting trees in the distance, the subtle shifts of the cloud in the sky and so much more. I slowed down and paid attention to the detail. The kind of thing you miss with cynical adult eyes that have seen it all before. The kind of thing (the specific animate details) that make a story sing. We stared out that window for 10 minutes.
So slow down, take in the scenes you’ve passed a hundred times and dismissed because you’ve seen it before and see if you notice anything different. That is where the richness of life and story may come to you.
In Re-Work workshops I teach about the power of slowing down to go fast, in our context it’s about slowing down to see more, experience more and share better stories. Really for all the reasons, slow down. It’s okay, it’s safe, it’s allowed and it leads to a special kind of fullness and experience of your world.
A Story Well Told
I’ve been reading a lot of poetry lately. It…opens my mind to ways of thinking about words and the world that I am really enjoying. One I go back to often after being introduced to the last line by a teacher I admire, is ‘The Summer Day’ by Mary Oliver. What might your story look like if you spent time considering that final line? Let me know in the comments below. In the meantime, rest well.
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