A benefit of working on a story starting at structure is that you know what you have to do next. After you’ve sketched a basic story structure and figured out who your hero is and how to describe them, it’s time to figure out the hero’s goal will be. The approach to goal setting in […]
Last week, I introduced a story structure that you can use to tell all kinds of stories. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to take a closer look at the different parts of that diagram. Together, this series of articles will give you a strong foundation for any story, so I hope you’ll stick […]
Today, I want to give you a tool for improving your stories. It’s a diagram to show you what your story should look like. I draw it on chalkboards and flip charts and white boards and paper everywhere! This diagram is the core of my approach to storytelling. I use it to plan my stories […]
The beginning of 2019 gave us the 10-year-challenge on social media. It’s a simple task to participate, you post a picture of yourself now and ten years ago online, add a catchy caption (or not) and you’re in. It’s been discussed as a way to show off your great fortune,potential data mining event, and a […]
Like a lot of you, I’m still adjusting to being back at work after the holiday season and the inevitable January sick days. Standing right in my path: a world of distractions on top of the winter drags. But I’ve found a trick that’s helping me tremendously: light a candle. Well, technically, I light a […]
You’re an expert in your field and have to give a presentation to a non-expert audience. You’ve heard about storytelling, but you aren’t sure how a story can accommodate the complex information that you want to share. What do you do? This is the kind of doubt I encounter regularly in my workshops. The fact […]
I’ve been following Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way for a few weeks now. It’s a 12-week program to recover your creativity. Every morning, I get up half an hour early, make a cup of coffee, and sit down at my desk to write three pages in my journal. Every Saturday, I spend half an hour […]
There’s an image that’s lived in my imagination for many years. It’s a woman walking into the distance. She’s carrying a bucket away from her body, like someone used to carrying heavy loads. I read that description more than a decade ago. The source of the image escapes me, but the image has never gone […]
My name is Christine and I’m an expat. I didn’t want to be an expat, I wanted to be a local. When I came to the Netherlands in 2004, I thought the deck was stacked in my favor. I had a Dutch boyfriend and a good 10 years of experience living abroad. It didn’t work. […]
Picking the hero is the first step in planning your story. Heroes are so central in stories that a name can be enough to cause the audience to recall the entire story: Cinderella, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood, but also Harry Potter, Michael Corleone, and Jack Reacher. But what is a hero? Technically, […]