…on storytelling

Photo credit: Mike Grenville via Flickr

Following up yesterday’s post about learning how to write more effectively, I’d like to share a concept closely related: that of telling a story.

Of all the things that I believe advertising does, creative storytelling as at the top of the list.  Before you go off and tell me that this is a blog focused on account service, I’d like to propose that storytelling is critical no matter what position you’re in.  The discipline required to focus on the right subject and communicate it engagingly and convincingly takes a lot of hard work.

Those of you who have had to work on a cat litter account or a writing utensil account will know exactly what I’m talking about.  That’s because the interest in a product is less obvious on the surface for some more than others.

Rather than tell you how to form a good story, I’d like to share some sources of storytelling that inspire me with their brilliance:

1) The Moth: available as a podcast via iTunes & RSS, this regular storytelling venue captures an eccentric variety of people who are all good at crafting a message and sharing it. Try out a few episodes for your commutes to & from work

2) TED: If you’ve never heard of TED conferences, stop what you’re doing right now and check it out.  TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. You’ll find a number of presentations by people who are the best thinkers in their fields; they present their cases in incredibly compelling ways.

3) StoryCorps: Its mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening. Since 2003, over 50,000 people have shared life stories with family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind.

Are there any other sources of great storytelling that you keep track of? Who’s really good at it?