Story Telling

In all of human history the art of story telling has always been a critical element.

Not everyone has a great talent for telling stories and sometimes I wonder how Facebook, Twitter, and other sites effect our skills in storytelling.  We are forcing our stories into short abbreviated posts that don't allow us to develop some stories that deserve development.  I use these sites and even shorten up stories on this blog.  Every once in a while I look back a post and think how I could have told the story better.

I get reminded of this as I listen to great story telling podcasts.  People that don't rush through a story and take time to really tell it.  Some examples of great story telling can be found at The Moth, This American Life, and Snap Judgment.

For some, telling a story comes naturally and without much effort.  That's not true for me.  Especially when I'm telling a story online, it takes time.  It takes planning.  Sometimes it is hard to make the time to sit down and properly plan out how I want to tell a story.  That's something that I hope to do better on this year.  I don't intend to make my all of my blog posts longer (ain't nobody got time for that!), but when I feel like I have a story to tell I intend to take more time putting thought into how it's told.

While I continue to use social media and short story telling on Twitter, I plan on practicing telling a full story as well.  By the time I'm retired and sitting on the porch I should be ready to keep anyone willing to listen occupied for a long time.