Cut a long story short

Would your story be twice as good if it were half as long?

In The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee shares this tiny tale:

**Short story** Master short-form content for today’s attention spans.

In 2005, a man diagnosed with multiple myeloma asked me if he would be alive to watch his daughter graduate from high school in a few months. In 2009, bound to a wheelchair, he watched his daughter graduate from college. The wheelchair had nothing to do with his cancer. The man had fallen down while coaching his youngest son’s baseball team.

In just 61 words, Mukherjee gives us:

Motivation. The subject wants to live to see his daughter graduate from high school. The motivation is what gets the story started.
Obstacle. The subject has multiple myeloma. That’s what gives the story its tension: the conflict between the motivation and obstacle.
Result. He lives to see her graduate, not only from high school, but from college! But, making this success bittersweet, he’s bound to a wheelchair.
Punch line. Surprise! He’s in a wheelchair because he was in a baseball-coaching accident.

Master writers can engage readers with emotional, compelling stories in just a few words.

Would your story be twice as good if it were half as long? Master short-form storytelling.

How can you communicate complex concepts?

Call it the magic of metaphor. Metaphor persuades far better than literal language. It lets you say in five words what would otherwise take five paragraphs to explain. It makes readers’ brains light up, helps them think more broadly about your message — even (ahem!) makes you look more attractive.

Learn to charm readers with analogies and comparisons at Master the Art of Storytelling, our business-storytelling workshop starting March 3.

You’ll learn which kinds of metaphors to choose, which to avoid and where to place them in your message. Plus, you'll craft a compelling metaphor with our fill-in-the-blanks formula.

Save up to $100 with our group discounts.