5 Steps to Better Storytelling, Originality is a Bourgeois Parlour Game, and a Hack For Sharpening Your Values

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10 stories we've enjoyed this week

Two illustrations by Hanna Norberg-Williams – Work with Hanna

Hi All,
Thanks to Chloe from the Storythings team for looking after the newsletter whilst I was away on my honeymoon. Last week's newsletter was a joy to read. If you missed it dig it out. It's ace.

Friend of Storythings, Adrian Hon has a new book out this week. It's called 'You've Been Played' and looks at the problem of gamifying everything in our lives. For almost two decades Adrian has been one of the smartest thinkers and writers on the subject of games, whilst also making some incredibly smart and successful ones. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in. If it sounds like your thing, buy it, read it and review it.

Last week saw the release of the new Bellagio Bulletin, a newsletter we produce with The Rockefeller Foundation all about past residents – academics, activists and practitioners – of the Bellagio Center on Lake Como and what they're doing now. We'd love for you to take a look.

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

The Short Story

An Outstanding Piece of Radio on the Media Noise Surrounding The Death of HM the Queen
(22 minutes)

Originality is a Bourgeois Parlour Game
(8 minutes)

5 Steps to Better Storytelling
(4 min read)

A Hack For Sharpening Your Company Values
(4 min read)

Learning From Tom Stoppard's Indiana Jones Script Edit
(9 minutes)

Does It Matter If the Days of the Podcast Blockbuster Are Over?
(9 min read)

Orson Welles and the Importance of Not Knowing What's Impossible
(2 min watch)

10 Rules For Learning Reimagined by Roxane Gay, Alexandra Grant, and Others
(8 min listen)

Freddie Mercury, John Lennon, Heath Ledger as They Would Look Now
(Instagram account)

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The Full Story

An Outstanding Piece of Radio on the Media Noise Surrounding The Death of HM the Queen
I think this might be up there as one of my favourite pieces of radio. The Skewer is a twisted comedy show that mashes up the weekly news in quite a brilliant way. It pushes boundaries and oozes creativity - the perfect ingredients for public service radio. How they handled the death of the queen was always going to be interesting. Well, they did it with a little bit of help from Werner Herzog, American Werewolf in London, and Coronation Street. It really is something special. I've made a lot of radio over the years and am in awe of the effort that goes into making a show like this.
(22 min listen)

Originality is a Bourgeois Parlour Game
Creative Director Richard Turley was recently asked to guest edit It's Nice That. To wrap up his editorship he offered some final points of guidance to navigate the messy map of the creative industry. It includes some smart thinking on why you need to trust your gut more, why there is such thing as having too much taste (a theme continued with Orson Welles below) and why it's important to be contradictory and stop making sense. A must read for anyone embarking on a creative career.
(8 min read)

5 Steps to Better Storytelling
Whilst Jad Abumrad has spent much of his career telling audio stories for RadioLab, tip number three is an interesting technique for all kinds of storytelling: "Jad listens to the best-of composition a few times himself, to get a sense of the story. Then he walks away from it, finds someone who knows nothing about it, and tells them the story himself, in his own words. As they listen, he's taking note of the moments where their eyes get wide, they lean in, or otherwise engage—and the moments where they lose the thread. Jad calls this a 'physical kinetic act of telling the story to see what works.'"
(4 min read)

A Hack For Sharpening Your Company Values
A good set of values are essential for shaping the company culture. The problem is a lot of them sound more like platitudes, something you absolutely do not want. Case in point: Enron’s “core values” were “Respect, Integrity, Communication and Excellence”, and look how that turned out. This useful hack will help you sharpen your values and find their edge.
(4 min read)

Learning From Tom Stoppard's Indiana Jones Script Edit
This piece compares two drafts of the Last Crusade script, revealing point-by-point how Tom Stoppard polished the original Jeffrey Boam script. It's full of detail and advice on how to make your writing better: "Change is the essence of comedy (and drama) and one may recall the old acting advice: If the script requires that you answer a phone and it’s good news, then start out the scene in a bad mood (or vice-versa)… the sudden emotional change will magnify the impact of the news."
(9 min read)

Does It Matter If the Days of the Podcast Blockbuster Are Over?
When the podcast Serial launched, it propelled the medium into the spotlight. It was followed by other big narrative releases such as Missing Richard Simmons, Mystery Show and S-Town. But it's eight years since its release and it's hard to remember the last time a series was released that had everyone talking. Like radio, the world of podcasting has become over-reliant on big names. Nick Quah asks whether the loss of the blockbuster in this post-monoculture era is such a bad thing.
(9 min read)

Orson Welles and the Importance of Not Knowing What's Impossible
I love Orson Welles' answer to the question where did you get your confidence from?: "Ignorance! Ignorance! Sheer ignorance, you know. There’s no confidence to equal it. It’s only when you know something about a profession that you’re timid or careful."
(2 min watch)

10 Rules For Learning Reimagined by Roxane Gay, Alexandra Grant, and Others
In the 1960s, artist, educator, and social justice advocate Corita Kent asked her students to collectively reimagine what a learning environment could be. Their contributions comprised the now widely recognisable Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules (commonly referred to as “Ten Rules”). Now, the Ten Rules has been reimagined as an audio endeavour—former students and contemporaries, artists, community organisers, and thought leaders each read from the ten rules and provide a personal reflection in their own words.
(8 min listen)

Freddie Mercury, John Lennon, Heath Ledger as They Would Look Now
With the help of AI, this Instagram account shares pictures of dead celebrities as they would look now. This isn't a new idea, but there is something about these pictures that really struck me.
(Instagram account)

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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Bourgeois Parlour Game The Rockefeller Foundation The Short Story new Bellagio Bulletin

5 Steps to Better Storytelling, Originality is a Bourgeois Parlour Game, and a Hack For Sharpening Your Values

10 stories we've enjoyed this week

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