Story is trending. Storytelling is trending. Old news, right?
Everyone’s talking about storytelling and storification and story-[add your favorite composite] as a business and marketing tool. Everything’s a story, a narrative, an elevator pitch…
Fair enough. I have no bone to pick with those who aim to storify anything and everything remotely monetizable. It works. It always has. It always will.
But this morning I’d like to remind you about the antithesis of the elevator pitch. It’s called “slow storytelling” and it’s not new or trendy, not even buzzwordy. It’s older than the campfire and probably a defining characteristic of our human DNA.
Slow Storytelling is Real
Slow storytelling is organic and free range. No sophisticated genetic modifications, and no quarterly earnings reports. The hook (or hooks) may be different for each member of the audience. And the narrator may still be trying to sort out the plot, characters, and conclusion in real time with the audience. The emotion is real. The energy is U manufactured. The takeaway is sometimes whimsical, sometimes transformative, sometimes nonexistent. Sometimes laughter is enough. Other times slow storytelling is a lullaby or a lesson. Often it’s just a story, as human and vital as breath and nourishment and love and shelter.
Slow storytelling evolves. Sometimes it loses itself, degenerates. Other times it finds itself, discovers its reason. Blooms. Enchants. Looses its pollen…
Slow storytelling is our Holy Grail.
Have a great day!
