The Art of the Short, Short Story

Once upon a time, I used to subscribe to the New Yorker magazine. Mostly for the cartoons and short stories.

Back then, there were two pieces of fiction in each issue. I'd always read both and afterward dream about being published in the magazine one day.

Did I ever submit anything? I sure did.

I mailed in several stories, complete with an SASE as insurance, in case they might be returned. (Though I truly believed that would never, ever happen.)

However, the dreaded envelope with my writing on it always arrived a few weeks later. And my hopes were dashed by a form letter rejection that always stung when I read it.

"So it goes".

You see, I wanted to become a novelist. I went to writers' conferences. I wrote. And I published two books of humorous fiction, one of which was a collection of interrelated stories.

Once, I was lucky enough to meet my writing idol, Kurt Vonnegut, at an event where I walked right up to him in a crowded room, patiently waited for an opening—thinking back, I can't believe I had the nerve to do this, clearly I did not understand reciprocity—and asked him if I could be his apprentice.

His response was characteristically funny and put me at ease: "You mean like the middle ages," he said?

"Yes," I replied, "But without the armour and sword."

It's only now that I realized I should have said, "without the armour because the pen is mightier than the sword."

That's one of the benefits of rewriting. You can always craft a better story.

Slow Down for Creativity

On social media, we're all in such a hurry to get our thoughts out there, our words, images and videos, to retweet and reshare.

And the speed of it all does make it feel exciting.

But it's also one of the reasons disinformation spreads so quickly online. And that's why we need to feather the brakes before we post. (Here's a good primer on how spot and slow the spread of false news from the Institute for Public Relations.)

More often than not, our creativity could benefit from a bit more time, to revise, proof or even reconsider. For instance, when I came back to this post after a bike ride, I realized the opening I had was a little flat and I had to polish it.

That applies to longer-form content and our social media posts.

These days, we're inundated by so many ways to share brand stories, including the popular episodic format introduced by Snapchat, copied and popularized by Instagram and now available on numerous other platforms, including Pinterest and LinkedIn.

I like the Stories format a lot.

It's a quick, effective way to communicate because it incorporates words and visuals in fresh, imaginative way.

And it showcases your brand voice and personality.

Start with a Script

But how many of you get an idea for a brand story and put it out there improv-style without thinking about the flow?

You might find you get higher and more consistent engagement if you tried scripting them first.

And by that I don't mean writing a traditional screenplay.

I mean drawing it out in a storyboard (comic books are a good model, but it doesn't have to be that fancy).

Consider who your characters are, what motivates them, their conflict or challenge, and what they're going to do along the way (the plot).

Even if it's episodic, it's important to craft your story so your customers want to know what comes next.

Move Over Tik Tok, There's a New Kid in Town

Which brings me to the latest Digital Marketing Trends video.

It's all about Instagram Reels, the app's copy and paste TikTok clone, that offers you yet another way to tell your company's story. Check out the video and let me know what you think.

Have you tried Reels? Would you give it a thumbs up or down?

Connect with Martin

And now, we've come to 'the end' to issue number 16.

As always, thank you for reading and subscribing! I appreciate you being here.

If you have any thoughts or ideas on how to communicate brand stories, or recommendations for your favorite fiction authors or social media story creators, please share them in the comments below.

Be sure to reach out if you have questions about any of the videos in Digital Marketing Trends, or my other LinkedIn Learning courses.

Feel free to follow me or connect on LinkedIn or Twitter. (And if you are connecting on LinkedIn, please add a short note so I know how you found me.) Or visit my website and send a message or a question.

Check out the #LiLDigTrends hashtag for quick updates between videos.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Till next time ...