Take a Page Out of Your Own Book

“Shiners,” confirmed the man leaning over my counter. “The trout are hitting on shiners this year.” Usually minnows, butterworms and doughbaits are the weapons of choice when it comes to our area’s spring battle with stocked trout. But this was the third person to give me a report about large trout biting on live shiners. Later as I passed this advice on to another angler, it occurred to me that interesting things happen when you take a page out of your own book.

About four years ago I wrote a book about a man who leaves an unfulfilling office job and opens a bakery. He learns several lessons about baking bread and living life in the process of going from corporate employee to local craftsman. At the time I was stuck in my own form of “cubicle limbo.” I suppose you could say the book was either wishful thinking or an attempt to give myself some much needed advice.

Not long after I finished the book, things started unraveling at my place of employment.  The company was going out of business and I was going into an uncertain job market. Following the actions of my own lead character, I decided I was not going back to the corporate world. Instead I would finally heed one of my own ideas and open a bait and tackle shop in my hometown of Riverside, New Jersey.

Riverside sits on a triangle of land wedged between a curve of the Delaware River and the Rancocas Creek. The town is also ringed by a menagerie of small lakes and ponds, each offering it’s own challenges and rewards. Within a few miles anglers can find a variety of bass, perch, catfish, stripers and some of the biggest panfish around. NJ Fish and Wildlife adds the icing on our sportsman’s cake with a generous crop of trout in the spring and fall.

And yet Riverside had gone without a bait and tackle shop for several years. How could I go back to a corporate office park when my own hometown was without shiners, poppers and spinners? I’ve always liked fishing and boating, just like my main character enjoyed cooking and baking. One of the main differences is that bakers get to bake every day, while tackle shop owners rarely get to fish. I can live with that commitment, though.

As I see it, I have a 1200 square foot tackle box. I love learning more about everything in it and sharing that knowledge with other people. I’m much happier than I ever was as a corporate employee and my doctor says I’m also a lot healthier. And like my main character, I’ve discovered a meaningful way to interact with people every day. Great things can happen when you just take a page out of your own book.

Finding Stories

Stories are not difficult to find. The challenge is finding the right story to go with the right situation. The first step is collecting as many good stories as you can from different sources. Your initial assessment should be whether or not the story attracts and holds your attention. It’s difficult to always know exactly when or why you might use a story. In most cases you’ll find the story first. It may be weeks, months or even years before you have a use for a story.

Because of our creative nature as humans it’s not hard to make up a story. However, it is hard to make up a story for a specific purpose. It’s even harder to make up a story for a specific purpose and have it sound natural and spontaneous. That’s why it’s so important to collect stories as you hear or experience them. Don’t limit yourself to stories that happen to you or people around you. If a story sounds interesting, take steps to retain it. Don’t worry about the source or medium. We tend to avoid use of books, movies and television shows in many settings (especially business) but all of these sources are part of our shared culture.

Start keeping a story journal. Use it to write your own stories or record other people’s stories. A journal doesn’t need to be formal. A simple notebook or computer file works fine. Scrapbooking is another popular form of journaling. It also doesn’t matter how you record the stories. You may only need a few notes or an outline to remember a story. Or you may prefer to write out a full transcript of the story. (You can also keep audio or video recordings of stories. One of the advantages of the computer is the ability to keep lots of different media types in a common file structure).

For each story you record in your journal, include the following elements:

•    Theme
•    Source
•    Format
•    Style
•    Structure
•    Keywords

Use the keywords as a way to leave yourself hints for future times to use the story. For example, the keywords for “Tan’s Tile” may include: creative thought, family interaction, shape patterns, and Chinese culture.

New Format

As you my have noticed, I’ve switched the format on the blog site a bit. Instead of a general writing forum I’m going to gear the blog more towards the concepts around Practical Storytelling. I’ll still post some example stories and essays. However, the majority of my posts will concentrate on providing advice and strategies to help you use storytelling as a means to more effective communication. I’ll also be doing some twittering on that topic: “practicalstory” as the handle.

If anyone has any specific questions about storytelling or using stories in sales or training, please post them.