Story Hour

Anybody that knows me knows that I am big into story-telling. Anybody that knows my grandfather, knows that I get it from him. Some love and some hate my ridiculous need to share long drawn out experiences of mine with everyone in the room. I’ve got some classics that I’ve told over and over to the point that I have the punch-line down pat in order to get the most laughs out of the group.

Now the thing is, when I tell stories, I like to include every single detail. I like to explain the background of the situation and personal anecdotes about the characters involved. This tendency in my story-telling appears in my writing in the form of run on sentences, rambling, and an unclear message. It is my challenge to keep the message short, direct, and to the point.

This has always been a problem for me. I remember being a little kid and laying on my mom’s bed as she got dressed and ready for her day and attempting to re-cap the previous night’s episode of “Full House” for her. She joked that it would take me longer to re-explain a program than the ½ hour to actually watch it.

I do admit some of my stories are better than others and sometimes I get ½ way through a story and realize its irrelevant, not as funny as I thought, or that I can’t remember exactly how things ended (this is rare though!). My story telling is one reason that I started a blog. Apparently I have a ridiculous need to share long drawn out experiences of mine with everyone with an internet connection.

To be a better writer and a better communicator, one must be concise. Recently during a brainstorming session at my internship my input was relied on heavily. We were discussing ideas for a product launch campaign whose key publics are college students, specifically Greek life and philanthropy groups (aka their key public is me). We also wanted to incorporate an online campaign that would hopefully turn viral like FreeRice or ElfYourself. I worked to watch my language and keep my message short without attaching a story to every suggestion that I made.

I’m actually really proud of how well I can consolidate all of the thoughts in my head to make a point simply and directly. I’m loving this blog because I am improving my writing every day in a fun way.