Systems to Power Creative Work, A Useful Editorial Guidelines Template and AI Generated Bowie Videos

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10 stories we've enjoyed this week

Hi All,
We're doing some research on how we find, use and share stories now. We'd love to speak to some people that have always worked from home. Would you be interested in joining a roundtable discussion we're having next Wednesday afternoon? It's a paid gig and will last an hour. If you have some interesting thoughts on this we'd love you to get in touch.

The application deadline for our Operations and People Manager role is rapidly approaching. We're looking for someone that can help us shape and consolidate our operational strategy, systems and processes. Is that you? Do you know someone who fits that description? Find out how to apply, or share with anyone you think would be interested.

Inspiration this week comes from Nathan Martin, Ben Dietz and Steve Bryant. Subscribe to their newsletters, like their posts and buy their things.

Have a fantastic weekend and enjoy this week's stories.
Hugh

The Short Story

How I Use Systems to Power My Creative Work
(5 min read)

The Televised Unconscious
(7 min read)

Patented: History of Inventions
(Podcast Series)

Where Do Memes Come From?
(Report)

An Editorial Guidelines Template For Your Brand or Product
(5 min read)

Noah Brier Was Born to Research
(12 min read)

When AI Creates Images for Bowie, Led Zep, and ELO Music Videos
(3 min read)

Inside the Pain Cave
(18 min read)

Stanley Kubrick Meets Gucci
(1 min watch)

You Need Three People to Make Cultural Content That Isn't Crap
(3 min read)

The image is an AI generated illistration of children dancing in a multicoloured field. The green, red and yellow floor is lit up by lights. Text at the bottom reads 'let all the children boogie."

How can we help you?

Storythings is a strategy and content company based in Brighton and London. We'd love to help you with some creative and bold ideas.

Here's 3 reasons to get in touch.

1. You want to talk to us about content production: podcasts, videos, animations, illustrations, editorial.

2. You want to talk to us about content strategy or format development.

3. You want to create a brand or an identity that makes it easier to communicate your message.

We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch.

The Full Story

How I Use Systems to Power My Creative Work
Adam Westbrook is a brilliant filmmaker for the New York Times. He read James Clear's book Atomic Habits and put some of the principles outlined into practice. Here he talks about the difference between a habit and a goal and shares the result of his new habits (or systems as he prefers to call them): "Since November 2019, when I started this system, I have filled 11 sketchbooks, written 26 short stories, entered three national competitions, and I’m weeks away from completing my first short story collection. None of these achievements were motivated by a big goal — for example a distant dream to publish a graphic novel — they have happened as the inevitable output of the system."
(5 min read)

The Televised Unconscious
One of our favourite writers, Steven Johnson, revisits his obsession with narrative structures in this really interesting piece. Steven chats to Michael Schur—the writer or co-creator of classic shows like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and The Good Place, about the classic “mockumentary” device of one character glancing silently at the camera, sometimes in eye-roll mode, after another character speaks. Schur brilliantly breaks down how each glance to the camera in The Office told a revealing story about the character doing the glancing.
(7 min read)

Patented: History of Inventions
I'm really enjoying, Dallas Campbell's podcast on the history of inventions. In this episode, he talks to Tim Harford about the invention of the bike. They discuss its social impact, the rise of the e-bike, and the tragic story of how Clive Sinclair's C5 destroyed the reputation and business of a really smart man.
(Podcast series)

Where Do Memes Come From?
This report from the smart people at Know Your Meme tells an interesting story about how the internet has changed over the last decade. Starting in 2010, it breaks down the data around the social platforms that launched memes on a year-by-year basis. The internet is a very different place now than it was in 2010.
(Report)

An Editorial Guidelines Template For Your Brand or Product
This is another really delightful free resource from Steve Bryant. If you need to write and share a set of guidelines for your company, organisation, or product, this template takes away a lot of the stress of knowing what needs to be included. You may remember Steve's 12-Step Brand and Content Strategy Framework which was the most clicked link when I shared it a few months ago.
(5 min read)

Noah Brier Was Born to Research
This is really useful. If you do a lot of research and are obsessed with people's processes you'll love this interview with Noah Brier, co-founder of Why Is This Interesting. He talks about the tools he uses for organising everything he ever reads so that the 14,000 notes he's made about those stories are findable and usable for his work.
(12 min read)

When AI Creates Images for Bowie, Led Zep and ELO Music Videos
As mentioned last week, we've been playing around with DALL-E 2 recently to try and get a sense of where, and if, AI might fit into our sphere of work. I found this interesting. These videos are made from AI-generated images using various tools. I quite liked the Starman video. There was some weirdly interesting imagery in there that evoked quite a strange emotion whilst watching it.
(3 min read)

Inside the Pain Cave
I'm mentoring someone at the moment who is about to embark on a 250-mile ultramarathon - which blows my mind. So I enjoyed this story of Courtney Dauwalter, the world’s greatest ultrarunner, who has a visualisation method that helps her conquer hundreds of miles at a time. It's a good read for runners as well as non-runners.
(18 min read)

Stanley Kubrick Meets Gucci
I love the work of Kubrick and Gucci in equal measures so this was always going to go down well with me. Across the campaign, you're taken through some of Kubrick's most memorable moments from Clockwork Orange, to The Shining and 2001: A Space Osyssey.
(1 min watch)

You Need Three People to Make Cultural Content That Isn't Crap
If you work in arts and culture and wonder why the content you produce isn't connecting with your audience, Adam Koszary from the Audience Agency thinks he has the answer.
(3 min read)

We hope you've enjoyed this week's newsletter. I'm sure some of your friends would love to read it. Sharing it would be really appreciated. If you've received this from a friend you can subscribe here and get it direct to your inbox every Friday.

Thanks for reading and see you all next week,

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the team at Storythings

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Systems to Power Creative Work, A Useful Editorial Guidelines Template and AI Generated Bowie Videos

10 stories we've enjoyed this week

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