Author: Crystal

I’m a January baby, which frankly sucks. There’s not much to celebrate about that first month: it’s cold, it’s dark, and the post-Christmas crash has everyone feeling fat, dejected, and broke. The third Monday in January has even been called the most depressing day of the year; my birthday falls on January 19th. Not the best omen.

Despite that, I always managed to find something nice to do on the day, whether it was go out for dinner or have a games night with a few friends. But 10 years ago, I discovered the absolute best way to counter the mid-winter blues: host a murder mystery party.

HOW IT BEGAN

Just after New Year’s 2013, while I was Googling party game ideas to lift my spirits, I came across a company that offered downloadable murder mysteries. I’d done a couple of those boxed sets way back in high school, but this one intrigued me because the murder happened during the party. Not knowing which one of my friends would drop dead added to the suspense and excitement, so I decided to give it a try.

The mystery came with character descriptions, three rounds of clues, decorating tips, and even food ideas. I was careful not to read anything that would give away the plot, since I wanted to play along as one of the characters.

My husband was initially reluctant to wear a costume and act out a part—but fortified with beer, even he had a great time.

It was such a success that it became an annual tradition. I now spend the better part of the year checking out themes and thinking of new ways to transform my living room.

CHOOSING A THEME

For that first party, I went with a superhero theme because a) I figured it would help overcome male reluctance, and b) we had the right number of characters.

My circle of friends skews female, so it can be tricky to fill the male roles. I don’t worry about it anymore, though, because our group has gotten so comfortable with these parties that some of the women are happy to play a male character. That gives me a lot more leeway when choosing a mystery.

Since that superhero party in 2013, we’ve done a wide variety of themes:

• Fairy tale
• Old West saloon
• Pirates
• 1920s gangsters
• Ancient Rome
• Steampunk time travel
• Trailer park
• 1980s prom
• Medieval
• Vegas

I’m partial to the ones from totally different time periods, but we’ve done so many that I’ve had to branch out.

DECOR

Decorating is one of my favourite parts. I love creating as immersive an environment as possible.

In the early years I simply worked around what I had in the living room.

But things got more elaborate as time went on. The first big adventure was putting actual saloon doors on our kitchen for our Old West party. People would wander into the kitchen for no real reason just so they could go through those doors. When we took it down I had to patch and paint a few holes where we’d anchored it to the wall, but it was totally worth it.

The next year, we moved the furniture out and built a pirate ship.

Then I discovered what a difference those plastic scene setter rolls can make.

COSTUMES

Some of my more creative friends put together outfits sourced from different thrift stores. Others (including me) prefer to rent from the one year-round costume store in town. I call it my happy place; they know me so well I don’t even have to give my name when I walk in.

One thing I have definitely noticed: the more all-out I go with the decor, the more people are inspired to take it up a notch when it comes to costumes.

FOOD

The theming carries over into the food. All the mysteries I’ve used are built around having dinner, so we do a buffet that reflects the story or time period.

Sometimes the choices are obvious: the ancient Rome party featured wine, cheese, grapes, and bread with olive oil. And sometimes things are a little more abstract, like the dice cheese ball and crackers in rows like poker chips for the Vegas party.

THE TRADITION CONTINUES

I keep saying that we’re running out of themes, but somehow I always find a new one that intrigues me. Up next: murder at a luau!

Want to host your own murder mystery party? Have a look at this infographic for some key tips.

If you want your marketing efforts to have more impact, start telling stories.

Human beings are wired to respond to narratives. Stories appeal to our emotions, which in turn have a powerful effect on our actions.

If I tell you that 90% of a college’s graduates get hired from their internships, you might be mildly impressed. But if I tell you about a single mother named Paige who’d been stuck in low-level retail jobs for years until landing her dream job as a cartoon animator thanks to her experience at that college, you’re much more likely to remember the details—and much more likely to think of that college when it comes time to further your own education.

While statistics may be forgettable, we identify with the characters in a story and get swept up in what they’re feeling. As it turns out, there’s a biological reason for this. When we’re told a good story, our brains get a surge of the feel-good chemicals oxytocin and dopamine. That draws us in and creates an emotional bond between us and the storyteller.

A well-crafted story can engage your audience, help them remember your message, and most importantly, inspire them to buy what you’re selling.

Need some hard data on why storytelling should be central to your content marketing strategy? Have a look at the infographic below that illustrates some interesting statistics collected by Marketing Words.

I chose to live-tweet a championship rugby game involving my son’s team. A sports story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, and lends itself well to suspense, so it seemed like a good event to try.

THE STORY IN A NUTSHELL

After a season in which I didn’t actually get to many matches (parenting fail!) I finally had a chance to watch my son compete in the U16 rugby championship. I only know the very basics of rugby and had to rely on the spectators around me to figure out what was happening, but even I could tell the first half didn’t go well.

In the second half, my son’s team tied it up, then pulled ahead, but at the very last minute had a penalty called against them and had to hope the other team missed the kick. Thankfully the kick was no good, time ran out, and my son’s team were crowned champions. It was almost like a movie.

Yep, that’s my son with the tampons in his nose

STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES I USED

The question of who would win the championship drove the suspense. It was interesting to write from a perspective of not knowing the ending; even I was invested in finding out what happened, so I tried to make the reader feel the same way.

I kept the posts short, wrote in a casual style, and used sentence fragments for the most part, much like a play-by-play situation. But I deliberately set out not to just parrot the action. To provide value with each post like Eric Goldschein advised, I tried to entertain the reader or add interesting context to the unfolding events. I also added visual elements including photos, gifs, and emojis.

Following a Hootsuite tip on live-tweeting and writing for social media, I even created a poll to engage the audience and provoke a response.

THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE

The agony of watching your kid compete and not knowing how things will turn out is a universal theme that I think a lot of people can relate to, and I enjoyed experimenting with the live-tweeting format. I’m not a very visual thinker (or writer), so this was a challenging but interesting project.

No one will ever convince me that Arthur Christmas is not the greatest Christmas movie ever made.

Released in 2011, this animated film addresses the question of how Santa is able to deliver presents to all the boys and girls of the world in just one night–and what it means when even just one child gets overlooked.

The story revolves around Santa’s youngest son Arthur, and it follows Kenn Adams’ story spine structure:

Once upon a time…there was a klutzy but well-intentioned boy named Arthur whose father was about to retire as Santa Claus, the current figurehead of a family-run organization that delivers presents to every child on Christmas Eve.

Every day…Arthur answered letters to Santa from children around the world and did his best to share the magic of what makes Christmas special.

But one day…he discovered that Santa’s high-tech gift-delivery operation somehow missed a child, and the folks who ran the show said it was an unfortunate error that couldn’t be rectified.

Because of that…he snuck out on a time-critical mission to personally deliver the gift.

Because of that…he overcame many setbacks and obstacles to get to the child’s home before she woke on Christmas morning.

Until finally…Arthur delivered the gift just in time.

And ever since then…Arthur’s genuine devotion to the Christmas spirit made the other Clauses realize that clumsy, lovable Arthur deserved to take over the role of Santa.

I first saw the film with my young kids, and I was so taken with the story that I made watching it an annual tradition (even though my kids are teenagers now and so sick of the movie that they roll their eyes when I suggest it.)

Why was this particular movie so memorable? For starters, the premise was intriguing. In a modern world where we can track anything through smartphones and GPS, how does the concept of Santa in a sleigh fit in? It was an interesting update of an old storyline, which was enough to pique my interest.

I stayed hooked because I could totally identify with the main character, a good-hearted soul who means well but inadvertently causes problems everywhere he goes. You can’t get made at someone who is so nice and tries so hard, but you still want to throttle them sometimes because of the havoc they wreak.

Arthur’s noble struggle to overcome his shortcomings, defy expectations, and do the right thing had me rooting for him every step of the way. And as Pixar storyboard artist Emma Coats reminds us, we admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

What really stands out about the film for me is the way it jokes about things you would never expect to hear mentioned in a traditional Christmas movie. The funniest character is crotchety old Grandsanta, who has lines like:

• “The elf fell out of the sleigh over Lake Geneva. Never saw him again.”
• “Dasher! Dancer! Prancer! What are the others called? I could never ruddy remember. Bambi?”
• “I didn’t know it was the Cuban Missile Crisis! I nearly started World War III!”

The ending is never really in doubt (of course Arthur delivers the gift and saves Christmas) but there’s enough charm, humour, and originality along the way that it leaves me with a smile on my face.

Every single time.