Long Story Short

the darker a situation, the better story it will eventually make.

Let time pass between the event and talking about the event.

There should be some closure to the situation.

I am a light sleeper, who can only sleep in a bed, never even on an airplane, despite the over-twenty-four-hour flight I took to Australia once. Oh,

Studies show that many of us tend to stereotype the people we encounter, even if we try not to.

The more specific you are, the more relatable you are.

If you are just a generic person from a nonspecific place in time, who dresses nondescriptly, has generic taste in music, fantasizes about no one in particular, and simply eats “food,” how can we connect?

We are flawed creatures, all of us. Some of us think that means we should fix our flaws. But get rid of my flaws and there would be no one left. —SARAH VOWELL,

We root for underdogs, plain and simple. Be an underdog in your story.

What makes you an underdog? What have you struggled with in the past or even on a daily basis? What are you bad at? Sports? Dating? Keeping a job?

I am also a little sick of the cool kids calling themselves nerds.

If you present yourself as flawless, we won’t be on board with you

On the flip side, it’s very easy to get us on board with you from the start.

Simple adjustments can get us on board with you much quicker. So don’t start stories with details that may come off as bragging.

In order to really connect with your audience, you have to put your flaws out there and incorporate them into your piece.

The more vulnerable and flawed you are, the higher you will soar.

Tell their story from your perspective, inserting your inner monologue, reactions, theory of what happened, etc.

Great stories throw us for a loop and take us somewhere we never anticipated.

remember who your audience is. And play to that audience.

A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed. —TOM ROBBINS,