The Story Here

I have a confession. Despite being an avowed political junkie, I've never watched House of Cards. I know, I know . Even as my husband binged it and sang its praises years back, I just never got around to it. (I've also never watched Game of Thrones...I know !) Anyway, last week during a discussion about politics, he made his pitch again -  " you have to see how House of Cards portrays this! " And since we're inside and I'd binged a whole lot more shows during our first lock down last year, why not? Immediately the first season of the show called to mind some of the things I've been meaning to blog about as it relates to the who of storytelling, particularly the mutually beneficial (until it was very much not ) relationship between Frank Underwood and ambitious young reporter Zoe Barnes. While the relationship was toxic because ... House of Cards, there was a kernel of real life experience there in the depiction of who Frank chose to give his stories to. It...

In my origin story on this blog, I wrote about my own journey as a storyteller , why I love stories and how my training and skills as a storyteller, brought over from the word of journalism, have helped me in my communications career. That's why I care about stories but why should you ?  Over the next few weeks, I'm going to delve into the fundamentals of storytelling, starting with the basics that we use to build any story - the 5Ws and H - Who , What , Where , When , Why and How ? As you would have picked up from the title, I'm starting with the Why. Yes, yes I should probably be orderly and start with the Who which kicks off the conventional order but we just got out of 2020 - what is conventionality? Plus, I think the Why is the most important part to start with because it provides the basis for a storytelling approach in the first place - the 'why' if you will (see what I did there?). So why is storytelling even important in the first place? Why can't jus...

Ok so I can finally now say - we made it through 2020!  *collective sigh of relief* One thing that was for certain in 2020 was a palpable sense of living through history. Sometimes we don't know that we are living through a historical event - it can be difficult to see how all of the disparate pieces are coming together to create a tipping point. But in 2020, we knew this was history right here. First the global pandemic of COVID-19 and its unprecedented impact; for when last did a disease or war or natural disaster or crisis bring the whole global economy to almost a standstill? More than half a century ago. Second was the visceral racial reckoning in the United States and around the world, sparked by the killing of George Floyd. I have a slightly different take on this story which I've only seen in a handful of other places.  On the one hand as we watched the protests unfold on television and unfold and unfold and keep momentum for such a prolonged period, it felt very, ve...

So... 2020 huh? It's 10:15 am AST as I start this, so I'm still a little hesitant to say ' we've made it y'all! ' because... 2020.  In fact, as I write, the volcanoes  La Soufriere in St. Vincent and Mt. Pelee in Martinique are bubbling, prompting the second-highest alert level in SVG and a yellow alert in Martinique - which hasn't been given since 1932. Just 2020 doing what it has done. If I had a dollar for every time this year I wrote in a speech or press release about what an "unprecedented" and "extraordinary" year this has been, I'd have a nice little stack. For me, it begs the question - what will the story of 2020 be? Not the 'story of the year' - we know that is the COVID-19 pandemic , but when we tell the story of this year in the future, how will it be told? Earlier in the year, I saw a comment on an Instagram thread about how challenging it will be for students in the year 2050 when they have to take the ' His...

 I've always loved stories. Perhaps it was inevitable, being the daughter of a librarian and an avid bookworm. I come from a family of story-lovers and storytellers too - older cousins who were screenwriters , playwrights and journalists - plenty of journalists. They showered me with books and magazines - both those they brought for me whenever they visited and volumes left behind at my grandparents' home - and imbued me with a love of stories. Growing up, dinner time was spent with my mum absorbed in a book or maybe a Newsweek or New Yorker magazine and with me digging into the latest edition of the Babysitters Club. I eventually realised that other people consider it rude to read at the dinner table but at home, dinner was quiet, page-turning bliss. I read voraciously and wrote obsessively - plays, poems, short stories and too many unfinished novels to count. I was editor of my secondary school yearbook. Journalism seemed a natural fit for me and as soon I could, I made my...