Story Start?

There are all kinds of resources available to help struggling writers get a jump start on their ideas. I was browsing in the bookstore at the Guthrie Theater on Saturday and came across one that was kind of unique. This one was made up of three panels: top, middle, and bottom. Each section was separate and you could flip to different selections in each one.

In the one I looked at

• Top was a situation
• Middle was a person
• Bottom was something happened.

I didn't flip or anything, I just opened it where each section kind of fell to. So here's the story idea it gave me:

While writing his autobiography the Elvis impersonator changed his identity.

I stopped a second, furrowed my brow for another second and then broke into laughter. What a neat idea; what an ironic twist of a story; the double meaning (or even a possible double entendre) could go a number of places. Some would be serious; others with a comedic bend in the road; still another might explore what identity really is. It could be fun.

I don't know if it will go anywhere, but it might be interesting to see where a short story goes with that.

---------------

Couldn't resist adding this, inspired by thinking of "double entendre" above. I originally heard this on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion joke show at least 10 years ago. I love it.

A woman walked into a bar and asked the bartender for a double entendre. So he gave it to her.

Here's One to Think About

Came across this quote in the book 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. It is so deeply profound in its simplicity, not to mention truth:

This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: "At the time, no one knew what was coming."

In that unwillingness to live with uncertainty we do more difficult and harmful things than we can imagine. We don't want to live in uncertainty. We read horoscopes or look for prophets. We read tea leaves and the Dow Jones average. We look for clues where we would like to think there are some and refuse to admit that the future is absolutely inscrutable.

Think about it.

An Ancient Machine Still At Work

The Linotype machine.

I know- many of you have never heard of it, let alone seen one. But it was a true second revolution in printing after the invention of movable type by Gutenberg. I came across this video teaser of a documentary on the Linotype. As I watched, I was transported back 50 years to the neighborhood where I grew up. Three doors up the street, out back where the rest of us had our garage, Mr. D. had a print shop. It was small and independent. I don't remember if he had anyone working for him or not. But it was filled with machines that are now antique.

There was, of course, a printing press, But just as interesting was the Linotype. Just like the gentleman in the video, Mr. D. would sit and type the copy and out of the machine would come the lines of type (hence, Linotype). One year I wrote and helped produce the first student handbook at our high school in many years. I would walk up the street to Mr. D.'s shop and work with him on the process.

There was something neat and even exciting about the printing process when you would see the hot metal lines come out and be put into place for printing. We don't need to do that anymore. A few years ago I produced a book of my Christmas stories. It was fun and exciting- and a lot easier than the old printing press method. Plus I was involved in the creation process at my own computer.

Fortunately, with other modern technology we can go back and see these revolutionary machines at work. I hope the film is shown on TV on PBS or Discovery or one of them. It should be fun.



"Linotype: The Film" Teaser from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

Payoff Quote:
How does the Linotype fit in with the new technology?
It doesn't.

Looking to the Future

People are really working hard on ways around the fuel costs (other than the "official" idea of digging more wells and building more refineries). Here are two videos of inventors with some good-looking prototypes who will still use gas but one of the most abundant around- air. (A Hat Tip to Dwight.)

Now HERE'S an Idea

With fear at angering any retail-based people out there, I pass this on from Seth Godin last week.

The $8 billion story/scam By Seth Godin

In case you had any doubt that human beings are irrational creatures, driven by stories, consider the case of the gift card.

Christmas has become a holiday about shopping, not about giving. Case in point: the $100 gift card, now available from banks, from stores, even in a rack at the supermarket.

Last year, more than $8,000,000,000 was wasted on these cards. Not in the value spent, but in fees and breakage. When you give a card, if it doesn't get used, someone ends up keeping your money, and it's not the recipient. People spent more than eight billion dollars for nothing... buying a product that isn't as good as cash.

Along the way, we bought the story that giving someone a hundred dollar bill as a gift ("go buy what you want") is callous, insensitive, a crass shortcut. Buying them a $100 Best Buy card, on the other hand, is thoughtful. Even if they spend $92 and have to waste the rest.

The interesting thing about stories is that the inconsistent ones don't always hold up to scrutiny. Consumer Reports and others are trying to spread a different story. One that sounds like this:

Gift cards are for chumps.

If enough people talk about this new story, people will be embarrassed to give a gift card. It's a waste. It's a scam. It's a trap for the recipient.

The irony is that the gift card companies could easily spend, say, half the profits and create a wonderful, better story... where every $100 gift card also generates two or three dollars for a worthy cause. That would resonate with a lot of people... But I think it's unlikely.

If I were a creative non-profit, I'd start marketing alternative gift cards. They would consist of PDF files you could print out and hand over to people when you give them cash. It could say,

"Merry Christmas. Here's your present, go spend it on what you really want. AND, just to make sure we're in the right holiday spirit, I made a donation in your name to Aworthycause."

Stories come and go. It's up to marketers to spread the good ones.
--Seth Godin

As usual marketing superstar Godin has hit the nail on the head. And he does it with a new perspective on what we have come to see as "norma."