"I don't write things down to remember them later I write things down to This one pager was an exercise in going back over my notes from Austin "I believe in the power of storytelling because stories open our hearts to a Have you ever wondered what it FEELS like to create a masterpiece? What rememberthemnow". Kleon's excellent pocket-books on creativity, to remind myself why new place, which opens our minds, which often leads to action". was going through Leonardo's mind as he was painting the Mona Lisa? How a writer who draws” so when I met commercial art matters. He calls himself “ did Shakespeare feel while he was writing Romeo & Juliet? Or John Lennon A highly emotive topic like climate change polarises people. It makes them him at SXSW in Austin a few years ago, I knew we would be BFF’s. His books This one pager came about when I was hosting a workshop on sustainability writing Imagine? Or what about J.K. Rowling as she was creating the world of upset. Some people take action. Some make irrational statements as they are packed full of great quotes, advice and anecdotes to help artists survive and social impact based upon Melinda's TED talk about how marketing can Harry Potter? It's a curious question isn't it? base their arguments on their cognitive biases, an incomplete understanding in the commercial world, and I’ve found that writing and re-writing them from change the world. It was fascinating to break down her talk. When journalists, of climate science or their political beliefs. Some get too emotional and 'lose' old notebooks like this helps me to never forget them. analysts or speech writers measure the value of a talk they break it down into Early in his career the great writer Hunter S. Thompson wondered the same their audience. Even some of the best activists and evangelists get caught (Aristotle's) 3 rhetorical elements of a narrative: PATHOS (emotion & values), thing. His answer was to type The Great Gatsby from beginning to end on his out by sharing the wrong facts and figures or having a memory-block when Afewofmyfavourites: LOGOS(reason&evidence)andETHOS(credibility &trust). battered typewriter, just to understand what it might have felt like to be F. they try to remember them. Scott Fitzgerald. At least for a moment. I thought this was a great idea, so I • Don't wait until you know who you are to get started. Unfortunately, most talks bypass the element that Aristotle didn't talk about copied arguably the best piece of theatrical writing of modern times: Lin When I needed to give a presentation about the climate crisis in • Write the book you want to read. very often – a fourth element I only discovered from creating some of the one Manuel Miranda's "My Shot" from the musical Hamilton. The writing is pure Westminster, I knew that I needed to get my story straight and I couldn’t • Side projects & hobbies are important. pagers in this book. KAIROS. Definition: Something that requires urgent genius. It took him two years to write it and every one of the 1,119 words is afford any mistakes (especially since the panel format didn’t allow me the • The Secret = Do good work and share it with people. action (no matter how implausible or inconvenient). Kairos is the essential perfectly positioned (for comparison the average song only has 300 words). luxury of somewhere to put my notes or an autocue to fall back on). To help • Geography is no longer our master. ingredient for any good professional talk? Especially one that requires the It's a wonderful exercise I encourage you to do if you have the time. metodothis, I wrote down all the quotes, stats and stories that I needed for • Be NICE. (The world is a small town). audience to do something. Whether you need a close a sale, influence a vote my talk (from carefully verified sources) and drew some pretty childish • Be BORING. (It's the only way to get work done). or capture a signature – no Kairos, no cigar. 1. Choose your favourite song, speech or story. pictures to help me remember them! This is the one-pager I ended up with. • Creativity is subtraction. 2. Copy it longhand with a sexy pen and a shiny new notebook (I wrote in Watch Melinda's talk to see if you can follow her flow and understand what brown ink with a fountain pen because that's what Walt Disney always Why not try it for something you're trying to learn? Or for your next madeitsogood. did). presentation? What do you have to lose? It's a fun process. And don't let any lack of artistic skills put you off. Any van that you draw can't be much worse • 50% Logos: Making a case for how marketing can save lives. Not only is this a fun way to pass the time, but you will you see it from a than mine! • 21% Ethos: Sharing her personal point of view to gain trust. different perspective, and it will radically improve your writing, speaking and • 24% Pathos: Making an emotional connection with the audience. storytelling skills. • 5% Kairos: Giving an urgent call to action. If you go to film school or take a qualification in screenwriting, at some point Neil Gaiman is an author, film-maker, poet and storytelling philosopher who Why is the world's most commercially successful comedian so successful? We all understand how important EMPATHY is in the workplace, but during your course, one of your exercises will be to watch your favourite puts the success of his writing down to four simple words. Jerry Seinfeld is worth almost $1Bn and still rakes in $40M+ from his TV show, sometimes what we actually need is “TACTICAL EMPATHY". It’s a technique movie along with the actual script – formatted in the way that actors would 22 years after it ended. rarely mentioned in business that the FBI use to negotiate in mission critical read it. It’s a great way to examine the writing and get a sense of why certain And. environments, especially when urgent action is needed to resolve a situation. scenes work and some don’t. Why did that combination of words make you Then. Jerry was once asked "What does $1Bn get you?” feel that way? And where exactly did the tension and drama begin that What. Having empathy builds relationships and shows that you care about the same spiked all that dopamine in your limbic brain, leaving on the edge of your seat Happened. He answered, "3 minutes. Being Jerry Seinfeld allows me to be bad for 3 things as your audience, but what about when the other side is being wondering what happened next? minutes before they boo me off stage for the next guy. Most comedians get unreasonable or irrational? That’s where using tactical empathy comes in. If you can get your audience to constantly think ". You need to understand how the other side thinks and feels, even if you The Coraline author says " less than 30 seconds DON’Tlike or agree with them. Dead Poets Society is one of my favourite films. It’s a simple 3-act structure 'And then what happened?' when you are telling them a story, then you (Aristotle) with 6 stages (hero's journey) and 5 turning points (conflicts & knowyou'redoingagoodjob". I'm a huge Seinfeld fan so it was a lot of fun to dissect some of his bits, trying obstacles). Tom Schulman won the Oscar for writing it in 1990. If you're to understand why he spends up to 2 years on each joke, and why he is so Tactical empathy is NOT about having compassion or showing sympathy, it’s passionate about stories and want to understand more about why they work, After taking a writing Masterclass with Neil, I studied his rules for writing to obsessive about the number of words and syllables in each sentence. about seeing things from their point of view in order to achieve a positive I encourage you to watch your favourite movie sometime and follow along see if I could steal any of them to make my own writing better. outcome for both sides. It's the tactical application of emotional intelligence with the script. You'll be surprised at how much you learn. Being the best at anything takes a certain level of obsession. It's not normal. to accelerate change. Myfavourite is number 8: It takes effort and resiliency. Others think you're wasting your time. But Note: For any D.P.S. fans, I realise the irony of using science and structure to you’re just doing what you love. You survive by surrounding yourself with This one pager was taken from Chris Voss (Former FBI Chief Hostage understand art and beauty! Dr. J. Evans Pritchard Ph.D might approve but Mr. 8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and other weirdos who are just as imbalanced as you are. People who think it’s Negotiator) in his book Never Split The Difference and his lessons on Keating certainly wouldn’t. Most great screenplays, scripts and speeches have confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for perfectly normal to spend a year crafting a good joke. Masterclass.com. I find that it helps to learn new techniques and behaviours a simple framework that works, but just like any other framework or set of life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your like this by drawing them as one-pagers. It’s amazing how quickly you can rules, you need to learn them before you can break them. story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. "The road less travelled is less travelled for a reason". Jerry Seinfeld learn and process new ideas, when you slow your brain down by writing I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter. things down and colouring them in. Chris has forever changed the way I think "No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world". about the art of negotiating and my use of the word “Why”. JohnKeating