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Stories! Don’t bother me with them! I don’t have time. Just give me the facts.
A fact without a story is like the burger patty without the barbeque sauce. It’s good as far as it goes, but it needs something more, something to make it interesting, to give it context and meaning.
When charities ask for money, do they bury you in facts – how many homeless people, how small a budget, how many meals a year? No. they tell you the story of one affected person. They give the overall need a name and a context.
Whatever fact you would like people to remember – that yours is the best product, the best price, the finest resort – tell a story. Let your listener imagine having that experience.
Stories are magic.
But stories don’t just happen, they are created. Whether it is a novel, a screenplay, a memoir or an anecdote in a speech it starts with an idea and it is developed into a form that showcases your idea.
Developing a story is like faceting a diamond – you take it from a rough concept to a precision tool that carries your meaning or your message across to others.
Stories are not just for children and not just for adults when there’s nothing much on TV. Stories are a tool for business, education, sales, for anyone who wants to teach or persuade.
Narrative strategy is the who, what ,where, why, when (and how) of story.
With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any
problems of plagorism or copyright infringement?
My blog has a lot of exclusive content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced but it appears a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my authorization. Do you know any methods to help protect against content from being stolen? I’d truly appreciate it.
Yes, I’ve run into plagiarism – I think every writer does. I see two aspects to this. Is it your ideas being used or is it whole paragraphs of text word for word?
Ideas are impossible to copyright, and why would you want to? Where did your ideas come from anyway?
Whole paragraphs are more serious, but (unless you are wealthy enough to hire a lawyer) about all you can do is comment and draw attention to the plagiarism and let the person know that this is not cool, that they demean themselves by stealing the work of others.
But rather than spend energy on the plagiarism, spend it on developing more ideas to share with the world.