Can you tell a story?
Apparently, there’s some concern that Hollywood (of all places) is losing the knack. It’s not so much the obscure avant-garde French movies that are a concern, but rather the way social media (Twitter = 140 characters = not much room for the Third Act Denoument) and gaming (keep things open for what’s next, don’t provide closure) are influencing the ability to write story-based, contained mainstream movies.
MIT is setting up the Center for Future Storytelling to help, and for all of us in the mood to do more Great Work should pay attention.
Here’s why.
You can’t do Great Work alone.
You need to attract people to help.
The best people are busy, they’ve got their own stuff going on.
But you need to attract them anyway, you need to grow a Godin Tribe
People buy stories. Or said better, people engage with stories.
Ergo* … If you want to do Great Work, you need to have a story to tell
Where to start, where to start. “Once up a time…”
Here’s a less-than-conventional place to start: Scott McCloud’s Understand Comics. A genius book, and one strongly connected with story-telling
*Ergo = Latin for therefore. I spent 6 years learning Latin. The least I could do is flaunt one of the four words I remember
