I was recently contacted by a beautiful friend of mine for tips on storytelling, to help her put together an idea she has for a scrapbook.
I thought for a moment and couldn't come up with a single book, blog or YouTube video -- 'I'm pretty sure it's just an acquired skill.'
After having been contacted by another wonderful lady to help her write her vows in my 'entertaining manner' of writing, I realised that this was obviously something that people were actually interested to learn about!
..queue blog post.
My earliest memory of writing was when I was six-years-old. I'd written a five page story and I'd sat in the classroom through half of my lunch-time to finish it off.
I remember my teacher reading it and telling me that I have a very unique way of telling a story.
I was never one to start right from the beginning. I felt like you could set the scene without the mundane 'once upon a time' opening.
DON'T TELL THE STORY FROM THE VERY BEGINNING
When I tell a story, whether it's a quick caption for a photo or a more in-depth story, I can't recall ever having started from the beginning.
When we tell stories, particularly through writing, there is a way to give your readers so much more than just a story.
I like to drop my readers right in the thick of a moment. It's why I can make other people want to experience even my most mundane days, because I'm making them feel it in a way that they've probably never looked at it before.
Let me prove my theory;
"I felt the rise and fall of his chest on mine; for a moment, I'd forgotten that a machine was doing it for him.
The air in the NICU was always so warm, sometimes too warm. I wondered if it was just the heat, or my sheer exhaustion, that was making me feel like my knees were going to buckle each time I stood. I watched as nurses gave handover before heading home to have dinner with their families. I wondered when we would have that moment again."
You know where I am.
You know how I'm feeling.
You know what's going on around me.
And, hopefully, I've been successful in making you imagine the moment.
SHARE THE TINIEST OF DETAILS.. SMELLS, SOUNDS, FEELINGS
When I write, I use things -- smells, sounds, feelings.. things that my readers could have experienced before which will make what I'm sharing much more relatable.
"I wondered if it was just the heat, or my sheer exhaustion, that was making me feel like my knees were going to buckle each time I stood."
Most people know heat.
Most people know exhaustion.
Most people know the feeling of being so exhausted, you feel like your knees are going to buckle when you stand.
If you're using your writing to appeal to a target audience, think about the smells, sounds and feelings that your target audience would be most familiar with and accentuate that!
BE TRANSPARENT
This point isn't for everyone, but I think it's crucial for the kind of pieces I write.
Most people have a sixth-sense for knowing when someone isn't being completely honest or if they're holding something back.
Being transparent doesn't mean that you have to share all of the private details, it just means that, if you're relying on your readers to trust you or believe the moments you're sharing with them, you have to show transparency.
Transparency isn't required in every piece you write, but it's important to recognise where it matters.
If you're writing about your experience with another business in order to have other people sign on for their products or services, and your best friend is the owner of that business, consider THAT an important piece of info! I'm telling you now, it doesn't take much to find these things out! You're better to be transparent from the start than to find yourself having to back-pedal and losing the trust of your readers.
BE VULNERABLE
Again, this point isn't for everyone but it's a huge factor in my style of writing.
I don't sugar coat. I don't hold back. I share raw moments and they leave me feeling incredibly vulnerable.
For me, this took time.
I began writing when I was young and I started blogging when I was a new mother, a new entrepreneur and in a very vulnerable stage in life.
I used to always second guess myself because I had people around me; friends, family, friends of family.. they would question the amount of 'rawness' I was sharing.
I was often told that my style of writing didn't have a place in an online platform and that the topics I was writing about were way too 'touchy'.
I remember the first time I wrote something that I felt my dad needed to read before the rest of the world did. It was a few years ago now but I remember sending it to him and then not hearing from him.
I had written about my experience with depression and anxiety. These are topics that, prior to my generation, no one ever talked about. They're things that you didn't share with anyone else.
Now, I know my dad. He'd never expect me to deal with things like that on my own.. but it was hard for him to know that I was sharing something so private, so raw, so vulnerable with the entire online community. He didn't agree that this was the place for things like that.
These days, my parents are well aware of my 'no hold backs' style of writing and they understand that I share my experiences for a much bigger purpose than just to share.
Being vulnerable allows people to meet you in the place you're at.
You're basically opening the front door of your life to your home, whatever state it's in and whatever state YOU'RE in.. it is what it is and you're inviting people to be apart of that.
This does two things; it shows transparency and it shows that you're relatable.
READ ALOUD
If you're familiar with the way I write, you may have realised that I write the way I speak.. sometimes.
It depends on the nature of what I'm writing but, generally, I write the same way I'd say it.
Reading aloud will help you to catch any spelling mistakes or typos, it will help you to determine whether it flows well together, and it will also help you to figure out your grammar and punctuation.
Which leads us to the next, very crucial, point..
CHECK YOUR PUNCTUATION AND GRAMMAR
I get it. Punctuation just isn't everyone's cup of tea.
I know that I often use punctuation marks which most people don't recognise. They know they exist! But they don't know how they're used in a body of writing.
Honestly, my love of punctuation and grammar began at a VERY young age, so I've had a decent understanding since before I began writing.
Like anything though, the more you do something, the better you become.
If you aren't sure about the correct grammar or punctuation marks to use, Google it! We do it with everything else!
Take some time to read up on the different punctuation marks and the correct way to use them.
In terms of grammar, this is going to change depending on where in the world you're from. There are some things (like 'there', 'their' and 'they're') which don't change. It's most often phrases which tend to change slightly depending on the country you're from and the country the phrase originated.
You'll find your way through it. The more you write, the more you'll Google words to ensure you have the correct terms, the better you'll become! But punctuation is what gives you the pauses you need to create emotion and drama. Grammar? Well that creates flow.
BE BRUTAL ABOUT HOW YOU MAKE CUTS
My process, generally, is to write -- just get it all out, exactly how I'm thinking it, right there and then.
As I read through it, I realise that pieces don't flow well or are probably pretty insignificant to the message I'm sharing, so I cut it.
Once I've cut the information that doesn't seem too interesting or crucial to the story, I then read through it again for flow -- this is where I read aloud.
Finally, once I feel like it flows well, I make sure that my point in my opening paragraph rolls back around in the conclusion (the last paragraph).
Obviously, if you're writing a full-blown novel, you're not about to make sure your last paragraph comes back around to make the point of your intro.. I'm talking more about things like social media posts and blogging.
When I feel like I've kept to crucial information, I've cut out the boring bits, my intro and my conclusion line up and the entire piece flows well when I read it aloud, then it's ready.
There are so many styles of writing and each style has it's target audience.
I guarantee that someone is going to read this blog post and think, 'what a waste of my bloody time!' -- I hope not! But I have to expect it because writing is an art and art is so subjective -- it's influenced by a person's specific taste and interests. There are no right or wrongs.
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