Storytelling and Digested Error

Age is opportunity. An opportunity to view new problems with experienced eyes, and thereby see these problems for what they really are.

The more you know, the slower you move; slow is actually lightning-fast when action is not based on elapsed time, but on how efficiently one identifies distractions to which others fall prey. Understanding this is an asset to your storytelling.

When you sit down to write a story, no matter the subject, be careful to not only concentrate on what matters but what matters most. Be careful not to reveal, but to point to revelation.

One of the hidden elements of storytelling is perspective, or as I call it in my classes, The Angle of Expression.

When we say an individual operates in wisdom, what we are really saying is they operate in digested error. That all they have seen, all they have done wrong, and all they have witnessed have been digested. Their advice, then, is pulled from the well of wrong to move us closer to what is wise. Without error, there can be no wisdom.

One should walk through the garden of storytelling with a perspective that doesn't reveal the answers to your reader, but rather, allows the reader to arrive at these answers independently.

In your storytelling, create a mood, create a learning environment where the reader has to do some work. The reader has to open the box to see what's inside. Implication and inference are powerful. Both move readers from observers to participants.

For example, one person may write, "Daniel dressed in layers this Monday morning. It is 10 degress outside with a forecast to reach below zero before day's end." But a storyteller would write, "Daniel grabbed his snow pants and ear muffs. This time of year, winter's warmth is found in the morning."

What's the difference, you may say, both are good. Correct. However, the first version prevents me from thinking; the second version forces me to.

Storytelling wisdom is knowing how to provide a platform for others to learn the lessons you learned, in this way; you don't give them a fish; you teach them how to fish on their own.