Well, I hope the past two weeks have been helpful to you and that you have possibly taken something away from the posts. Let's do a quick review:
1) Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, and Sentences, both length and word choices, can make or break a story. There is a good chance you will need to proofread your work.
2) When telling a story, stick to ONE IDEA. There is no need to tell more than one idea in a blog. If you have more, right another blog.
3) Ideas incorporate Who, When, Where, Why, and What. Sometime a How can be added to explain the What and the Why. For example, how did that happen or how did you arrive at that conclusion?
This week I want to talk about perfecting your story (stories). These are a few points that will help you in telling your story.
– Add a photo to your post. Always try to put a photo in your post. A photo, especially something relevant to your story, will help your audience visualize your story. Check out Matt's post on adding photos. Just so you know, we will cover more in-depth on adding and using photos in the next few weeks.
– Know your audience. Think of the ages and demographics are or will be reading your story. It takes practice and time to perfect. Also keep in mind there are some posts that will target better to a specific demographic. For example, financial supporters seem to hone into stories of the people you are working with. Family will generally love hearing from you. College age usually follows stories with tales of social injustices and causes.
– Be creative. Try using conundrums, rhetorical, epiphanies, and irony in your story (I've made up a few of these. They're mine and trademarked). I'll break these down for you.
—-A conundrum is a problem that you state at the being of your story. It could be a team problem, a social issue, frustrations with ministry, or a cause that you are fighting for. You end the story with that problem have a solution or at least hinting at a solution. Here's "Miriam’s Broken Heart ."
—-A rhetorical is ask a question you know the answer to and your reader will have some idea to answer. For you, you will write about the process of self-discovery and how you came to the conclusion you did. This is where the art of good question asking comes into play. Try "a day in the life" for a good example.
—-An epiphany is when something dawns on you. You search for clarity and then it eventually hits you like a bolt of lightening. "It is an ah-ha moment." You write about lesson you learned. It's usually quite spiritual and part of your personal growth. Good example of what I am talking about, "Indiana and Ugali."
—Irony is fun to write. It's usually quite humorous. Best example I know is the typical TIA, "This Is Africa" post from participants in Swazi, Kenya, and Uganda. Check out their blogs and you'll see what I mean. Here's the aptly names, "This is Africa."
**Understand that these are four styles but there are others. Once we get into photo and video blogs, we get a bit more complicated. These are some of the typical styles, I frequently find and are very effective in storytelling.
Well these are few tools now for you try to incorporate into your stories. I would like to ask a very simple question of everyone. Of the four of styles I listed, which one do you think you can naturally write? If I said tell me a story, you would use that format.
