Conference on World Affairs

Overall Impression:This conference showcased two different types of story tellers. One group told stories in the theatrical sense. This group captures stories in the reporting or movie making sense. There were some good insights into what goes on behind the scenes in capturing a good story. We see a concise finished work, but there is so much more to finding, capturing, and telling a good story.

William the Nack

Bill is a great storyteller, but he also has some great stories to tell. Some of those stories feel like they handed to him by God. There were three things I noted in between the two stories he told us. (Which are probably in his new book - My Turf)

• The best stories you write lean. Just tell the story. Finding the story is more important.
• A common theme in all great stories is death or some other act of finality.
• Someone asked the great writer Red Smith how he writes great stories. His reply was, "I just open a vein and it comes out a drop at a time."

Stephanie Oswald

Stephanie is a travel writer and is currently producing Travel Girl magazine. She noted that the best travel stories she got were unplanned. They were always discovered in the context of some planned travel stories, but the good ones all seemed to show up under her nose, or just around the corner. It was being alert and open to an interesting story that allowed her to discover them. While doing a basic tour story about Australia she found out that her driver wrote poetry about Australia and they were able to combine his recitations with music and pictures to produce a great story about Australia. Based on a question afterwards I learned that you probably have to have a plan, but you need to be able to modify it if something interesting comes along.

Fredrick Marx

For Frederick great stories come from knowing his own passions. It gives him the ability to appreciate the depth of a story. He tends to favor stories about the underdog. It has been said that a filmmaker makes the same film over and over. In Frederick's case that film is about outsiders looking for a way home.

Several other interesting ideas showed up in his talk.

• Telling a story versus capturing a story. [Based on what Bill said, capturing may be the most important skill. The theatrical story tellers need to be able to tell a story. Although I learned from chatting with one of them that often the story has a general structure and you modify the details to fit your audience.]
• When telling a story you need to know your own story and the story you are working on. You need to know when to blend and separate.
• Hearts most tested are the most beautiful. (Like diamonds under pressure.)
• Stories offer ways and situations to examine social problems.
• Sometimes a compelling image is a great starting point for a story. A teacher told him about an image of a man just rocking in a chair in an empty room. From that single image they were able to construct both a back story and the future to produce a great story.

QUESTION PERIOD IDEAS

• Great stories have tension.
• One can breath in pain and suffering and use their body to transform it into a story.
• Ability versus credibility.
• Great story tellers, in this reporting sense, are born with curiosity about other people's lives. (Perhaps to avoid looking at their own.)
• If you are interested in the story, you can make someone else interested.
• A profile story on a famous person might not be interesting. Some people lead boring lives. 99% of a celebrity's glamour may rest on promotion.