Notes and news, insights and inspiration from the autonomous collective mind of GS.

Posts by Jay Sanders

Storytelling Gets Ever More Novel

by Jay Sanders on December 20, 2010

Now you can read gripping narrative for free on Amazon.com. Not with Amazon’s annoying “Look Inside the Book” feature, but right there in the customer reviews. Encountering ridiculous product listings, everyday Amazonians are responding in non-everyday ways, morphing their reviews into creative short fiction.

Check out the faux Poe review of Tuscan milk, the “Chimera hunting” write-up on $6800 speaker cables, or the review detailing how to avoid huge ships by the guy who has “a number of problems colliding with various objects in my day-to-day life.” It’s all very meta and 21st century, but age old as well – the basic human impulse to turn life into a story. (Moderately geeky aside: Note that all this excitement is happening well below “the fold” – the part of the page not visible in your browser unless you scroll down. “Keep everything above the fold,” the web old timers say. To which we reply, “Want some Flash with that, Grampa?” People know how to scroll.) Speaking of old timers, Hemingway’s six-word novel set a standard for compelling short fiction that won’t be beaten anytime soon. Here it is, in its entirety: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Categories:

Communication, Inspiration

Tags:

Amazon

Ideas for Sale — Free

by Jay Sanders on July 26, 2010

Got a good idea? Give it away.

That sounds like a weird thing to say. Especially if your livelihood depends on the quality of the ideas you come up with. Stashing them away to be strategically deployed at “ah-ha” moments when you can be the hero seems a much more profitable course, yes?

No.

The world needs helpful people more than it needs heroes. Doing your part to create an environment in which people trust and rely on each other will do more for your agency, your clients, and your career than being a glory hog ever will.

This holds true even if you’re the most insanely creative marketing person ever to walk the face of the earth. Which, by definition, only one of us will be. And it’s not me.

So share freely. Take your basket of great ideas and start tossing them out to anyone who looks like they could use one. Better yet, slip one into their hand when nobody’s looking.

The other side of the coin? Borrow wisely. There are only so many truly original ideas in the world. If someone has already placed the cornerstone, build on it. And give credit where credit is due.

Take this blog post. It’s based not on my idea but on one I read a few years ago in a book by Paul Arden called It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be. Here’s what he had to say about keeping good ideas to yourself:

“The problem with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually you’ll become stale. If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish. Somehow the more you give away the more comes back to you.”

So enjoy. And pass it on.

Categories:

Communication, Inspiration

Here’s Some Words. Now Start A Blog.

by Jay Sanders on June 3, 2010

Often as a society we decide something is too important to be left to professionals. Think punk rock. YouTube videos. And, yes, blogs — that wonderful web invention that allows everyone, including you and me, to become published writers. Great. Now I’m a writer. How do I start?

First you need an idea. Preferably something more substantial than a Facebook status update. We’re going to assume you have one and focus on the next step: getting it onto paper (or into binary code, as it were). Here are a few techniques to give you a jump-start.

Tell a story.

We recall events, organize thoughts, form opinions, and share them with friends all the time. It’s called conversation. When you write about something, picture yourself telling it to a friend. Then write it the way you’d tell it.

Spit it out.

Instead of staring at a blank page and sweating over the perfect opener, just start writing. Set a timer for a minute or two, and force yourself to write without stopping until the timer dings. Type the same sentence over and over if you have to, but just write. Chances are you’ll wind up with a decent chunk of what you wanted to say. Now you can go back and organize it.

Keep it simple.

Simple words. One-thought sentences. Active voice. Be conversational and direct. Don’t try to look like a brainiac or test our vocabulary skills. Just lay it out there.

Show it to a friend.

Let someone who knows where you’re coming from give it a quick read. If it makes sense to them, chances are it’ll make sense to other readers too.

Trust yourself.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have to be an expert to have something to say. Even if you haven’t spent a lifetime studying whatever it is you’re writing about, you still have a unique point of view. Yours. And we want to hear it. Enough words. Now get out there and start blogging.

More Inspiration:

Categories:

Communication, Inspiration, Social Media

Tags:

blogging, writing