No One Cares What You Did Last Weekend
Creative Ways to Tell Your Stories
No one cares what you did last weekend… unless you tell one hell of a story.
A lot of us write personal blogs. We tell stories about sleep deprivation, summer vacations and other “everyday” things.
Let’s say something happens and you decide it makes good blog fodder. The easiest way to write is to purge it all from your mind. Type, type, type it out.
But sometimes it ends up sounding a little like “First we did this. Then we went here. And then. And then.”
It could have been the most hilarious, off-the-wall, OMG-did-that-really-happen story EVER but if you don’t capture your readers’ attention in the first few lines, they’ll never finish reading.
So, How Can You Tell Your Story More Creatively?
Write a Letter
Brittany from Mommy Words could have just said “Violet turned one. I can’t believe how time has flown…” Instead, she wrote a letter to Violet herself to express what it means to turn one. Writing a letter gives Brittany’s readers a more intimate look into her love for Violet as opposed to just telling her readers about it.
Format Like a Poem
Stephanie from Nie Nie Dialogues writes about her experience speaking at the recent Altitude Design Summit. She keeps the sentences short and centered on the page. It’s a quick read yet still a vivid recollection. While this is typically how Stephanie writes, I just love this poetic style of writing.
Highlight the Ying and the Yang
The holidays are full of moments worth remembering… both good and bad. Heather from Theta Mom wrote a fun post that highlighted pieces of the holidays in a way that reminds us of the ups and downs of such a time of year. In the spirit of Twitter hashtags, the good ones got a #woohoo and the bad ones? A #lame. I give it a #clever.
Add in Some Dialogue
Tell a story like you would in a book by adding in some dialogue. I still remember Jen from Heligirl writing a post in October about her Car Rental Hell story. She recounts the incident with the car rental agent by writing out the conversation word for word. Not only is it easier to follow the story this way, but it really emphasizes the ridiculousness of the conversation.
Do a Play-by-Play
Gigi from Kludgy Mom wrote this hilarious (yet embellished) play-by-play of waiting for two very important phone calls. She tells the story in a time sequence– short, quick snippets that keep you reading until the end. This method really drew readers into the anticipation she was feeling.
Talk about Yourself in Third Person
While it’d drive you crazy if your best friend Beth started walking around saying “Beth is really hungry. Beth really should get something to eat,” talking about yourself in third person can be a creative way to tell your story. Shell from Things I Can’t Say writes about her past in a series of posts that you just can’t stop reading. It reads like a fictional story which is a fresh change from a typical blog post.
Make It Relatable
Lisa from Crazy Adventures in Parenting describes what it was like saying goodbye to her military husband. Knowing that so many families go through this, she made her story more relatable by weaving the untold rules of military goodbyes into her own personal experience. Powerful stuff.
Any other techniques for telling a story creatively? Have you tried any of these before?
This article was originally posted on my other site, Adventuroo, where it racked up over 40 comments. To see the great conversations within those comments, visit this post on Adventuroo.
