The front door lurks in a recess. Its ancient black paintwork is spattered with road splash, and the shallow pane of glass above its jamb betrays no light within. An empty milk bottle has stood in its shadow so long, city lichen has bonded it…
(Or, how marketers and nonfiction authors can use the curiosity gap to hook readers and draw them into your world.) I recently critiqued the first twenty-ish pages of a new writer’s thriller. The character intrigued me. The setup was solid. The premise was compelling. But…
A few months ago at the gym, my weight lifting trainer asked me what I was up to that weekend. I told her I was teaching at a writing conference, and that I was worried about a presentation I’m supposed to give on how to…
Writing customer stories was my bread and butter for many years as a freelance copywriter. They’re super popular in B2B (business-to-business) marketing because B2B buyers are looking for a product’s tangible value—they want to see exactly how you solved similar problems for someone else, and…
The basics of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey framework, and how to use it for your own Signature Story. I was a certified mythology nerd in middle school and high school, so when I came across a battered copy of Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth…
After almost every storytelling workshop I teach, someone asks a version of the same question: “That’s all great, but… how much of my story am I supposed to share?” There are usually a few reasons that people ask this question. Any of those reasons are…
(These examples of how to tell your signature story in one line come from my presentation at the Scalable SheEO Summit earlier this week. If you didn’t get a chance to see my talk live, I believe the replay is still available for free—and you…
Whenever I’m ghostwriting a nonfiction book for a client, I always push for them to add more stories. Some of my authors are natural storytellers, and they have tons of examples in mind. Some would rather just talk about the meat of the content, and…
Yesterday, my husband and I had friends over for brunch. After a few hours of chatting together, the boys retired out to the backyard to talk about manly things (RC cars and bicycles, I assume?) while my friend and I stayed inside to talk about…
Recently, I was trying to help a friend define the origin story of her business. She’s a coach, and she described how she guides women through periods of change. Career change, leaving a relationship, loss—basically any time in a woman’s life where she’s stepping through…