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.

~ by Dominic Villari on October 5, 2010.