How to Make a LONG Story SHORT

"Try to leave out the parts people skip." - author Elmore Leonard

Remember when Andy Warhol said we’d all get our 15 minutes of fame?

Well, in today’s rush rush world, we don’t have 15 minutes to get people's attention, we have seconds.

I’m not making that up. That's from Harvard researcher Nancy F. Cohen who found that goldfish have longer attention spans than we do.

That's why it's smart to Cliff Note complicated ideas into a compelling sentence. Once people express interest, you can expand upon it because now they want to know more.

Sound impossible? Not if you link your idea to something people already know and like.

Here's an exmaple.

Author Amy Krouse Rosenthal noticed many first-time mothers lack confidence in their parenting skills. They don't have extended family members nearby to teach them how to handle their newborns so they're constantly worrying whether they're doing it right.

Amy's premise was babies don’t understand language. so they respond to their parents' temperament. If the mother is stressed and anxious, the baby will probably be stressed and anxious. If, on the other hand, the mother is calm and serene, chances are the baby will be calm and serene.

Amy wanted to write a book that showed mothers how to relax and be more tranquil so their babies can relax and be more tranquil.

See, it took me several paragraphs to explain that idea. I made a story ... long.

And therein lies the problem.

If you were trying to get across that idea at a noisy PTA meeting, networking event or business luncheon, people may have wandered off because if we're long, they're gone.

Instead let’s make Amy's story short by linking it to someone who is famous for being calm, serene and tranquil. How about Mother Theresa or Gandhi or the Dalai Lama?

Hmmm... Dalai Lama has potential. Let’s use a technique from my POP! book and "alphabetize" Dalai Lama. That means run it through the alphabet to see if we can come up with a clever variation that would capture people's interest.

Dalai Ama, Dali Bama, Dali Cama, Dalia Dama .. and so on until there’s ... Dalai Mama!

Boom! That would get people's eyebrows up and motivate them to want to know more.

That's just one way to make a long story short.

Victor Borge said, "The secret to being a bore is to tell everything."

And Robert Frost said, "All thought is a feat of association."

From now on, remember, NOT to comprehensively describe your idea in detail. That's a prescription for being a bore, snore or chore.

The secret is to say just enough to intrigue people so they are curious and want to continue the conversation.

As mentioned, one way to do that is to associate what you want to get across to something people already know and like.

When you do that, chances are their eyebrows will go up and they’ll say, "Telll me more." That means you just got your idea or story in their mental door.

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Want more ways to quickly intrigue people and turn INFObesity into curiosity? Click here and check out Sam Horn’s books POP!, Tongue Fu! SOMEDAY is Not a Day in the Week,Washington Post bestseller Got Your Attention? and her 3 TEDx talks to disscover why her work has been featured in New York Times, Forbes, INC, Fast Company, on NPR, and presented to Intel, Cisco, NASA, Accenture, Capital One, YPO and EO.