You have 15 seconds…
You have 15 seconds to grab attention. “If you don’t get attention within 15 seconds, it’s very difficult to get it back. And then really tell stories at human scale. Again, most storytellers know this already, but have those authentic characters with real emotions. Let them face some kind of crisis. Build a mystery around […]
Text and messaging apps – asynchronous or synchronous?
… and the anxiety of expectation. Here’s a great piece from Julie Beck on TheAtlantic.com: How It Became Normal to Ignore Texts and Emails. People don’t need fancy technology to ignore each other, of course: It takes just as little effort to avoid responding to a letter, or a voicemail, or not to answer the door […]
The power and importance of imagery @TheTimes #Writing
An interesting piece from yesterday’s Times on the power of vivid imagery to engage and influence. Ancient literary critics called this quality enargeia, the ability to instil a scene so powerfully in the reader’s mind that they feel as though they are living through it themselves. Psychologists studying how 402 people responded to classic Japanese haikus […]
Less is more: Daniel Kahneman on detail
Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking, Fast and Slow is essential reading for anyone involved in business communication. It is packed with insights on how we (and therefore our audience) perceive and interpret things. One particular challenge is described in chapter 13: “Linda: Less is More”. The challenge is epitomised by a fictitious character, Linda, that Kahneman […]
Stories are told in the body – @JeremyAdamSmith #writing #contentmarketing
Stories are told in the body, says Jeremy Smith: It doesn’t seem that way. We tend to think of stories as emerging from consciousness—from dreams or fantasies—and travelling through words or images to other minds. We see them outside of us, on paper or on screen, never under the skin. But we do feel stories. […]
We are watched by large and awful faces – @execupundit
Here’s a haunting quote from Hilaire Belloc, via the insightful and productive Michael Wade: “We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. […]
Echoes through time: Vex not thy spirit
“Vex not thy spirit at the course of things; They heed not thy vexation.” Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180), Meditations (Book 7)
The rehabilitation of Michael Gove
Since leaving office, in the bizarre aftermath of the Brexit vote, Michael Gove has returned to his prior career as a writer, writing a regular column for the Times. His two latest contributions are excellent, objective observations on current events. The first, in the immediate aftermath of the Westminster attack, contemplates how best to respond […]
Food miles – not what they seem
An interesting post from Oliver Riley on the Adam Smith Institute blog: Save The Environment – Don’t Buy Local. “Those who encourage us to buy locally often do so with the view that reduced transport distances will result in less CO2 emissions. Seems simple, but what such people neglect is the fact that the majority […]
Praise of the commonplace
Kurt at Cultural Offering points to the concept of the commonplace book. It’s a powerful idea. I started mine – inspired, I think, by the same underlying sources of TheCramped.com and the Ryan Holiday post – only in October 2015. I use one of my Monsieur Notebooks and, though I number the pages, I haven’t yet […]