Martin_11_I

Ha, it looks like Simmons shares my distrust of stories about animals doing something that teaches us a valuable lesson. They just aren't very effective among adults, especially in a business setting.

Simmons also wrote, a little too late, that we shouldn't focus on the outcome too much while telling a story. That was a problem that I'm sure many of us had. There was the time limit (which wasn't really a big problem and added some degree of strategy, which was nice) and there were the 6 categories that Simmons mentions and to which we had originally planned on adhering. I'm not sure if these things actually negatively affected our storytelling. What do other people think? Let's see if anyone reads this extremely late blog post.

Overall, I've had to read some pretty terrible books in my college career and this was not one of them. Really, this was an easy read and, content-wise, was great. I can't help but feel that Simmons sees too much power in storytelling and her own methods, though.

Links of Goodness

Here are some links that were mentioned in class tonight!

The Color Wheel for the groups.

And Colorzilla, a plugin for Firefox that can tell you the RGB or Hex data of any color you browse to.

Till next Tuesday,

Vince

Han_11

We have heard that some people can mak a lot of many just by talking. Is that really easy to make money only by talking? Many people must think being a storyteller is not a difficult job because talking is the only thing needed. Actually it is not as easy as what we thought. The stories we talk not only should be meaningful and the people who talk stories also should know how to make stories be interesting.

I don't think every one can talk stories well. I don't think every one can make stories be intriguing. Some people can stories in a very interesting way even though the stories are boring. This kind of people definately can make a lot of money by talking because he/she is talented to make the stories not just the words.

I think some poeple might not be born as a storyteller, but they can train theirselves to be a good storyteller by learning from others. I believe being a professional storyteller must have been trough a lot of experiences.

Matt_11_I

Overall, I think I learned a thing or two from this book. Though, as Sarah said earlier, I think we may have learned a little more from each other in class. No offense to Simmons, but I doubt that I will refer to this as being among my favorites. But it was a little more enjoyable than your average textbook. In this last chapter, I'd say the part that stuck out for me was where Simmons acknowledges that storytelling is a two-way street with the audience.

John B_Chpt 11_I

I appreciated the way Simmons finished off her book. This chapter had several great points throughout it, especially the last few paragraphs. I like the idea that "control chases stories away." I like control in just about every aspect of my life. When i (i'm sure like most others) are not in control, i certainly feel way out of my comfort zone. Here Simmons continues on by telling us to have faith and confidence in what we tell, and that it's ok to step out of our comfort zone as long as we follow our instincts and emotions. This will lead us to more meaningful stories.
When I think about it, this class was a perfect example, I always needed to think about what story I was going to tell. I needed to control my stories by telling myself them in my head, going over certain details, before telling them aloud to the class. I think this is the practice that Simmons is referring to (for me).

Brandon_11_I

“Since 1983, Children’s Miracle Network has turned thin air (radio waves, music, and stories) into $2.2 billion for 170 nonprofit children’s hospitals.”

I think this is a great way to exemplify the power of good storytelling. Simmons tells us that storytelling can generate great things from “thin air.” If you are a good storyteller, you can get what you need.

It’s not the product you are selling, it’s the packaging. Included in the packaging is the pitch that’s given to sell it, the story. So true.

Erik_11_I

Simmons pulls back in this chapter and sort of looks at the text as a whole... and on her philosophy as a whole. That is, she talks about her whole idea of the power of storytelling. That in mind, I'd also like to look at it as a whole. Throughout the book, I was struck by HOW business-oriented this book was. Of course, this was the intent of the text, but it consistently struck me as odd and amusing how Simmons was using storytelling (one of the most natural and pure ways in which humans interact) as almost a business currency. I thought this book felt like one of those business networking/motivational type texts... think: "How to Win Friends and Influence People." To a certain degree, I thought that Simmons was dirtying the concept of storytelling. Using it as a tool (and strictly as a tool) seems somehow wrong.

Sarah_11_I

The part of the chapter that stuck out most to me was when Simmons says that storytelling is a reciprocal process of listening and telling. Basically, it's a two-way street, and the storyteller isn't always going to successfully direct traffic where he/she wants it to go. We may have a story to tell that we think is hilarious or poignant or life-changing, but maybe our audience doesn't quite agree or even get that same feeling after hearing the story. All we can do is tell our stories and try to convey something meaningful in the process. You can't force the audience to get what you're saying, but you just have to let them try to get it on their own. It can be a frustrating experience, but it can also be rewarding.

Brian_11_I

This is going to be one of those long posts...skip it, I suggest. It has almost nothing to do with the Simmons chapter other than the world 'objectivity'. Perhaps there will be a point near the end but that's unlikely.

I've been trained for many years as a journalist and (much to the surprise of folks like Liz) individually we all strive for objectivity. It's not until you introduce power structures like heavy-handed advertisers and high-level political influence do we begin to see biases. At the micro level, most journalist are objective and don't allow their personal opinions to interfere with non-editorial content. I could rant for hours at the absurdity of 'liberal media' - but buy me a beer or four and I'll take you on all night.

That being said, Simmons is begging us through this chapter to get away from objectivity and process. Unfortunately, that's been pounded into my head for years. Furthermore, I want to fight for quality objective journalism sans any corporate or political involvement (that includes sponsorship - looking at you Jim Lehrer) for the rest of my life. It makes me so damn sick to look at university newspapers with sissy-ass faculty advisers too afraid of the deans/president coming down on them for allowing their students to fight for a good story and learn from the process. College papers are one of the few entities in the world that should support journalism over anything else. There are no power structures that should stand in their way and advertisers in this setting should go kick rocks. We are the most sought after group to marketers so college journalist should not be afraid to do a story that disenfranchise their advertisers - there are plenty more where that came from.

Here is a personal story that I'm damn proud of. Many of you know I was General Manager at TV2 back at Kent State. Our station did two LIVE newscasts daily - most of which looked like your typical local-market news. Now most of our field reporters were crappy; story titles like "drinking causes bad grades" were aired nightly. There wasn't much I could do as the GM as the news division rested with our News Director (whom I tried to get fired at least 3 times but 'by laws' said I couldn't).

So it's near the end of the school year and my mentor and now ex-professor, Karl Idsvoog, comes bursting into my office to tell me about a story his student picked up. This guy was an investigative journalist for 20 years and also ran his own first-amendment think tank before coming back to academia so you know right where his heart is. Turns out his student found a story about the provost of our university hiring one of his family members to a non-posted, high-profile job. It was literally the biggest story to come across my desk in my tenure at TV2 News. Plus the Daily Kent Stater (newspaper) hadn't even caught the smell of a story let alone doing the leg work so it was ours!

I give the story the green light, load it into the playback server, and wait for 5:30 to roll around. I even bumped the majority of the A block so that this story could get the most prominence.

About an hour after meeting with Karl, our crappy news director strolls in and starts going over the rundown. He sees the story and pulls it. Turns out another professor, a jack-off with tenure and a bad haircut, got smacked around by the Dean upon hearing of the story and told the news director to pull it. Now let me explain why this kid sucked so bad...apparently he has no idea or passion for news, he just happened to get hired by a faculty board who was too dumb to realize this individual was a waste of sperm and eggs. So ignoring the fact that it was a breaking story, we had NO OBLIGATION to suck-up to administration, and it was the most unique publishing environment he'll ever work in...it gets pulled.

I get quietly enraged. The student that produced the package comes to me obviously upset that his best work of his life will never make it to air and I tell him, "I'm sorry, he's news director". This whole time I had no intention of letting this jack-off ruin my newscast. Aside from being GM, I was also the Friday director and it just happened to be my day.

About 10 minutes before the newscast, shortly after the news director had left for the day, I reloaded the package and my old rundown and sent it to the producers. They were ignorant and just followed my instructions. 5:30 rolls around, "and in 3, 2, 1..." - it's on the air. Within the first minute of the package my switchboard lights up. The Assistant Producer is yelling across the control room, apparently that crappy professor was on the phone sceaming. I tell her to transfer the call to me and I pick up the phone and put it back on the hook. Then I just leave the lines open and wait for the package to finish.

People in the newsroom and the control room are all frozen once we get to break and I go into the studio and tell them to get ready to see some administrators and to just stick to script and to let me handle everything. Sure enough by the middle of the C block, the professor who pulled the package is looking through the window along with my crappy news director. I politely inform them of their titles along with mine, 'you would be the faculty adviser and my by-laws say you have no editorial control what-so-ever', 'you are a news director, I am a general manager, I trump you...don't come back to this newsroom till next week'. Obviously they weren't going to give up so, catching wind of the controversy occurring during a live newscast, Karl (the good professor) gets the media lawyer in a full sprint to our building. The lawyer comes in, says that the professor was stifling my first-amendment rights and insisted that he leave the room. He does and things calm down and the rest of the newscast goes on without a hitch.

Then the 6:30 newscast comes along and all of a sudden my rundown is out of ENPS and my teleprompters aren't working. "Wow, just wow" I think to myself and inform our talent that tonight they'll be reading their printed scripts for the A block (which they did better than anyone I've ever seen in a flighty situation like that). We go to air, the story airs, and again I'm getting phone calls. I just ignore them.

Ok, so this great story goes to air, whoever saw it saw it. I felt that, as a journalist, it was my duty to inform the public of this happening on campus before some PR bitch over in the president's office got the chance to 'smooth things over'. I got some flak here and there but the true journalism professors all recognized what I had done (along with the student who produced the package) and in certain company I was a hero.

I graduated about 3 weeks after that and I consider it one of my best accomplishments of my life. Karl called me about 3-4 months later to tell me the package had won a Society of Professional Journalism awards and that the student was now getting amazing job-offers across the country. That award wouldn't have been possible had the story not made it to air. In a little twist of irony, I later saw the crappy professor talking up the award on some internal video - complimenting the excellent work of this student. What a prick.

My whole point on telling this story is that in certain professions true objectivity is more elegant than any heart-tugging story you can pull out. This student will go on to become a premiere journalist soon and it it weren't for professors like Karl Idsvoog it would have never been possible.

To quote Simmons, "It is kind of scary to intentionally stop being objective, even temporarily; but to tell a moving story, that is what it takes." Yeah right, go kick rocks.

I actually find Simmons book to be overall pretty great for this class. I think it's one of the better books I've read on storytelling. Most of our criticism through the semester was at her presentation and uppity attitude not the actual content. Just my two cents

Sarah_11_I

So perhaps I was naive in my thinking that the final chapter would bring it all together. I find it ironic that Simmons closes with “Story thinking is subjective and sensory; it follows strong emotions and is unpredictable… Control chases stories away….” Does anyone else find it ironic that her book teaches how to tell a story, yet closes with “storytelling is unpredictable…” Anyway, small rant. Overall, I think our class has grown a lot since we first started telling stories. I don’t know if it is because of Simmons’ book, or because we learned from each other. Either way, we have grown. I enjoyed hearing everyone’s stories each week- what are we going to do the rest of the semester!?!?!

JohnJ_11_I

Why doesn't all the world tell stories?

I really do admire Simmons. I really think she is trying to reteach the way humans communicated in the day before print. It is a powerful way to teach, entertain, and motivate people. But I think that if your really did just tell stories, it would lose it magic. There is a reason for powerpoints, list, memos; and that is time. Lets take from her these skills and mix with them what we already know. A story is a great way to lead off a meeting, a lecture, or a celebration, but I feel that just as a powerpoint with all text, one with all stories will be just as damaging.

Sam_11_I

What story being told?
How the stories developed?
Every time when I look back to Chinese history, there are really a great deal of stories being told by storyteller, novel writer. I am now compelling them (the English version) and hope to show you guys in the end of next semester.

Chad_11_Q

With the final chapter, I might finally get it. By the fact Simmons defines "traditional wisdom" as the opposite of storytelling, it becomes clear who she's writing for, and who she's trying to win over, in each of her gigs.

Sure, I knew all along she was writing for the corporate audience, but Chapter 11 is where she most lucidly defines them. To her (and to me), they are people who value visible results. That is, facts, figures, ink on paper, charts and this kind of thing. Approach a corporate guy with a story in your hand and risk coming back with a bloody stump.

By the end of Chapter 11 I get a better understanding that Simmons' work is an uphill battle. The people who come to her sessions don't necessarily want to be there. Some of them might actively resist her appeals, in fact. So it's necessary for her get her point across the way she has done in this book: with repetition; with simple, clear ideas; and with endless stories, all of which could be considered one more visible result for the corporate listener.

We grad students might come from different stock. It could be safe to say we value open-mindedness, and progressive thinking. What Simmons has to say could have been written for the grad student audience in 50 pages.

Yet, hasn't this book presented us with a unique challenge? And haven't we, in our own ways, presented Simmons with a different type of uphill battle? One in which she doesn't have to pound her ideas into our heads, but in which she must be careful not to lose us in the first hundred words?

Vince_11_I

I think the best message in the chapter applies to trying to force a message on people. The story that they used to illustrate it with the Golden Goose was a good way to convey this message to others. If you try to get to the point too soon without letting people catch on and relate to you, it is going to go nowhere.

Weaving a good tale

Liz 11: I
Mystery, intrigue, a sense of wonder all pop up in this the best chapter of the book. Simmons states that "recipes and formulas only take you only to places already mapped". The adventure of a story is undeniable especially when the author takes a risk in breaking some rules. Bella a beautiful true story (new movie) about a cook, a waitress and a child & a day that changed their lives is a case in point. Like the author Tim O'Brien in The Things They Carried The storytellers here jump in a non linear fashion but by the end of the story a revelation of a completed story occurs. The director of Bella said that he went to FLA film school to learn all the rules to break. The editor took an element that would have fit in the introduction of the movie as the inciting incidence and placed it near the end almost book ended with the critical turning point. Simmons would probably applaud.

Weaving a good tale

Liz 11: I
Mystery, intrigue, a sense of wonder all pop up in this the best chapter of the book. Simmons states that "recipes and formulas only take you only to places already mapped". The adventure of a story is undeniable especially when the author takes a risk in breaking some rules. Bella a beautiful true story (new movie) about a cook, a waitress and a child & a day that changed their lives is a case in point. Like the author Tim O'Brien in The Things They Carried The storytellers here jump in a non linear fashion but by the end of the story a revelation of a completed story occurs. The director of Bella said that he went to FLA film school to learn all the rules to break. The editor took an element that would have fit in the introduction of the movie as the inciting incidence and placed it near the end almost book ended with the critical turning point. Simmons would probably applaud.

Iris_chapter 11

Here is a quote that stuck out to me:
"...the number-one ingredient for good storytelling is a "big dose of humility". (...) Listening to these stories slows time, erases economic, social, and racial differences; and creates a visceral emotional connection (...)"
I know that this quote was in context of the Children's Miracle Network's radiothon but it reminded me of the speech the Dalai Lama gave in Bloomington last Saturday.
The things he talks about are really obvious and universal but he does it in a very humble way. He doesn't try to be the big religious leader (he actually is) and stresses that he is just a regular human being. He convinces through his calmness and in addition he has a nice sense of humor....a little bit dry I would even say. Other religious leaders try to "sell" their religion as the "best one" but he even detaches the topics from it at all. That is quite impressive....

Josh_11_Q

I'm intrigued by Simmons' comments on a "second style of perception," Story Thinking. As a student of a digital storytelling program I would like to say that I regularly use this skill. I might also consider the possibility that I was drawn to the program two years ago because I regularly think in this manner. However, Simmons say on page 257, "Unless you are an artist, critical thinking will still be your primary mode of thinking."

I don't necessarily consider myself an artist; certainly not in the traditional sense. Am I confined to critical thinking?

What do you all think? Are we story thinkers or are we, like the CEOs and execs Simmons targets, crippled by critical thought?

Daleville Schools

Will the group that taped at Daleille Schools please contact your friendly neighborhood Digital Storytelling Liason at ctsutterfiel@bsu.edu ? The school thought you were GREAT! Now I have something to ask.

Curt Sutterfield