Hi after not writing for a long time…

Well, business is moving forward. We feel like stone cutters, cutting our way through awareness to the connection between storytelling and everything we offer. At first people look at us as if they were thinking “hu?!” but the more they say, the more feedback we have to lean on to tell them our story the way they need to hear it. Insisting on declaring we are storytellers even in the most business/organizational environments is proving to be a great brand strategy - they can’t always accept our offer but they will not forget us so standing out is good for business - it makes people stop for a moment and think.

Notice the domain name of our new website - storyteling with a single ‘l’ - strange hey? still - part of a brand that speaks differently. Marketing and branding companies spotted us out first - they know their business.. so did companies that need a good brand story. At the same time we’re getting into organizations. Several days ago I spoke to the financial division of a large HiTech company. You should hear my financial interpretation version for ‘puss in boots’…

The website is right now only a simple landing page. We’ve decided to take a longer path and collect ideas from surfers and clients. So, what would serve you best if you could find it on ‘the story telling company’’s website?

A new excercise on Storytelling Coach.

The Quest Master I’ve attached a new article written for a presentation in an upcoming conference - the 15th industrial engineering and management conference, Tel Aviv. Except from the description of the idea and facility I’m suggesting a glance into a storyteller’s brain trying to put the complicated wiring into simpler words. Hope it will make sense to the readers and help create an understanding about the narrative of the art.

Last time I wrote about Story, Storyteller and Audience. Let’s continue…

Narrative - big word with many meanings attached to it. For me it represents everything which is part of the world of the storytelling act. Bits of information, some of them big some small, which present part of the world all this happens in. Things you can gather through your senses - sights, small detalis, places, objects, smells, feelings, sounds, flavors, textures; Thoughs relevant to the place the story takes place at, thoughts relevant now, then, in the future; relevancies of ideas, links in the imagination; people, animals, characters in general and the telling event itself.

In the technological world some say that the technological interface is part of the narrative too like a human storyteller. Before you agree or disagree - think for yourself:

Does a human storyteller feel to you as part of the world the story happens in as the telling evolves? Does a technological interface feel the same? Whether your answer was Yes or No, if you didn’t give the same answer to both questions, thay are not the same for you.

Why is narrative important? because it helps materialize ideas. If ideas don’t wear a shape or form, if there are no relevant details you can sense - an idea can not be passed on. Most of the details of the narrative will not appear in the final story but you need as many as you can get so your telling feels real even if you are telling fantasy. The audience of your story or game want to know you can see something and you want to make them feel that something is worth while looking at so they will let you tell the story - out of curiousity, feeling of adventure or something else to gain.

In the case of games - many parts of the narrative are in them for the player to discover and the more the better, especially if they are interesting and not that easy to find. One of the problems I see in games has to do with repetition of the narrative. For various reasons, not many games are well invested with narrative details but they are getting better. Still, if you are busy starting over in order to master a skill or a phase in a game, you are going to meet the same parts of the narrative again and again until you don’t notice them anymore. There is of course the possibility of loading a huge amount of narrative details onto the game and allow them to appear in random in relevant parts but then you are into new trouble - cost.

Because when you see a storyteller you can not see a fixed set of narrative details, when you listen your own imagination will bring up the parts of the narrative you need to see at that moment - no more, no less and with no cost what so ever. I find this to be one of the most amazing features of this art. Then, when you hear the same story some other time, you bring up the relevant details you need which might be very different from the first time.

The storyteller can choose to emphasize certain narrative details and fix them in your imagination - sizes, lengths, features - what ever - and they can choose differently every time they tell the story. What is important to understand is that the choices the teller takes are not accidental. I can compare this to editing a movie - details that are not necessary to create the drama - are cut out. If the story can do without them, they need not be there. This rule is true not only for the text but for other expression channels too - voice, gesture. I often see storytellers overdoing with those two. If you are, you are bringing into the story information that is not relevant to the drama. You want to do min. and allow the audience to do max. and that is a good enough reason for them to stay with you.

How is this relevant to game design? choose wisely and you might even save some money. You want to bring in those parts of the narrative that will do the most for your audience’s imagination.

I’m getting used to the new workplace and just this morning, as I was quietly minding my own business I heard someone shooting pecans from the roof…

 Thanks to Eric Wolf for making me realize that splitting blogs isn’t such a great idea if it has no real justification and to Karen Chace for helping me make up my mind. Good advice. I’ve deleted the other blog and from now on everything will be posted here.

Where is our place? we couldn’t think of a regular office - this is a story telling company. After some pondering we’ve decided to find a nice little hut in the middle of the country, something that is close enough to civilization but still keeps the feeling of being close to nature. We found exactly what we were looking for under a huge Pecan tree..

Look at all the work waiting for us on the ground… so we started cleaning up and after an hour’s work the place looks different already.

And as it happens in many stories we found pots full of Gold and a lot more of it is still lying on the ground..

A new post on ’storytelling coach’ page. Enjoy!