Tag: Snippet storytelling

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The Travel Horror Story

My live-tweet storytelling takes readers on a journey through the worst travel day I ever had – and don’t just take it from me, the lady next to me who had been travelling for 30 years agreed.

I lived in Turkey at the time and was just trying to visit my dad in Helsinki for a nice trip and the airline said ‘lol, bet’.

In all seriousness, it took me over 26 hours to get from my apartment in Ankara to a hotel room in Istanbul (a mere one-hour flight) with roller coaster turns along the way. Interested? Check it out here:

Storytelling Principles Used

I used various different writing techniques to help keep my writing suspenseful for this story.
1. This story was told entirely from my point of view. I had no clue when the number of lines would end or when I would get out there. Readers also experienced this as I did
2. I used different style and form, some portions where I make exclamations like ‘I was DONE’ helps get across the frustration and strain of the whole incident without getting to descriptive. The formatting and capitalization did that work for me
3. I left a number of my tweets on a mini ‘cliff hanger’ that encouraged readers to go to the next part to figure out just how the story could have gotten worse.

I also used some common themes of my experience to help tell the story better, including relatability (I’m sure we all have a horrible travel story in some capacity), emotion and authenticity. This is how I would have told the story verbally to someone sitting next to me.

I also tried to include paragraph breaks at the end of sentences to keep the content uncluttered and more appealing to read.

Overall this experience was horrible, especially considering I was a pretty new traveler at the time. But, I got through it and I hope you will too! Thanks 🙂

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My First Christmas with The Simpsons

For over 30 years, The Simpsons has entertained families, adults and children alike. The Simpsons is a TV show about a family of 6: Homer (dad), Marge (mom), Bart (son), Lisa (daughter), Maggie (baby daughter) and Abe (grandpa). The first episode of the show aired on December 17, 1989.

Now you might think that I know all these details about The Simpsons because I, like audiences around the world, have enjoyed watching and rewatching episode after episode over the years. Well, you’d be wrong.

Confession time: I have never watched an episode of The Simpsons.

Not during a high school class, or even briefly while flipping through the channels when cable TV was still a thing.

So, why did I choose to live-tweet me watching my first episode of The Simpsons? As we learned in last week’s lesson, a good story is a relatable story. And what’s more relatable than the antics of a lovable (but slightly dysfunctional) family living in the suburbs of a town named Springfield?

https://twitter.com/JacarusoMarie/status/1551783232428838912?s=20&t=KSdCd1aD1E487JBIqnqkeQ

A Christmas Special in 8 Parts

To help tell my story and recount the events that took place during the episode to my Twitterverse audience, I used the 8-Point Story Arc:

The stasis of the story takes place on a snowy night in December in The Simpson’s in Springfield. After getting home from a Christmas pageant, the family is gathered around the living room planning their holidays. Patriarch, Homer, is excited to plan a special Christmas for his family with some Christmas savings and an expected work bonus.

The trigger occurs when Homer’s boss informs staff that no bonuses will be given out. To make matters worse, Marge has to spend their Christmas savings on removing a tattoo that Bart had done.

Without telling his family about his bonus, Homer begins a quest to make the best Christmas.

The surprise occurs when Homer decides to make up the money for Christmas by becoming a Santa.

After learning that being a Santa only earns $13, Homer makes a critical choice to try betting his earnings at a dog racetrack in hopes of a Christmas miracle.

His quest reaches a climax as he chooses to bet his earnings on Santa’s Little Helper, a dog with a 99-1 odds of winning.

Homer loses his earnings, but a reversal occurs when he sees that Santa’s Little Helper is also down on his luck after being cast away following the dog race loss.

We reach a resolution as Homer decides to return home and confess to his family that he didn’t receive a bonus. After introducing Santa’s Little Helper to his family, Homer learns that the perfect Christmas isn’t filled with expensive gifts, but with love.

Painting A Yellow Picture

I knew I couldn’t group-watch the episode with everyone on Twitter, but I wanted to at least try and give audiences an idea of the world I was encountering on the TV screen.

According to Eric Goldschein in The Non-Writers’ Guide To Writing Better Social Media Copy, “to keep readers engaged with your content, add photos – as well as graphs, charts, videos, GIFs, and other visual media”.

Using gifs inserted throughout the thread, I shared with the audience some of my feelings and snippets of the episode to build a sense of community.

A Happy Ending or Beginning

Now, if every good story has a beginning, middle, and end, what is the end to this story of a girl who watched her first episode of The Simpsons? Well reader(s), I think I now understand what you see in the TV show. So check back on my Twitter to see if I catch a few other episodes along the way.

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The Pinch That Cost Boris Johnson His Premiership! 

As a former political journalist watching the events turn out the way they did this summer in British politics has been nothing short of engaging and exciting.

The perfect recipe of a scandal remains intact in its ingredients – sex, lies, and cover-ups. The fall of Boris Johnson, who took office only three years ago after successfully organizing a coup against the then Prime Minister, Theresa May, has been a cringe-worthy affair. This will always be the story of a man who tainted the land’s highest office while he was in charge and was equally disgraceful as he exited it. The list of scandals and his denials were a match made in hell. The shambolic display of events eventually caught up with this jocular self-serving PM. Here’s how it all unfolded. 

Using Snippet Storytelling Principles 

The elements of my story consist of the Setting, Character, Plot, Conflict and Arc, hence using the storytelling principles to craft better tweets but focusing on Twitter moments while deciding the topic and ways to make it engaging. 

The Setting

The story revolves around Westminster Politics, and the downfall of yet another Tory Prime Minister marred with scandals and cover-ups. A summer of scandals indeed! 

Character

At the forefront of it is the disgraced PM, Boris Johnson, who reeks of lies and deceit as soon as he opens his mouth. Not too far away is his Cabinet Ministers, who have defended him for far too long. Finally, the British Public are as much a part of this nasty business where they continue to be lied to and cheated upon simply because this PM will not stop lying. 

Plot 

One after another, the series of scandals tainted the pillars of this Tory government – Partygate and Pincher was the top of the list where the Prime Minister lied to the British public and misled the Parliament. 

Conflict 

The internal investigation of the Partygate scandal led by Senior Civil Servant Sue Gray revealed multiple gatherings, wine, vomiting and fights in the parties held in No 10. 

“The report also reveals that a leaving do at No 10 on 17 June that year included “pizza and prosecco” and a karaoke machine. During this event – which went on until 03:00 – one person was sick, and there was a “minor altercation” between two others.“

While the British public followed the rules and stayed indoors, at the cost of being unable to be by the side of their dying loved ones in care homes and hospitals while not being able to attend funerals, those who made the rules thought themselves to be above those same set of rules. 

It might have appeared that Boris johnson had survived Partygate by the skin of his teeth. When came the Pincher saga where it was the case of –Pincher by name, Pincher by nature! Serving the fatal blow to Johnson’s Premiership.

Arc 

My story has a clear beginning, middle and end. 

The End 

Once the lies caught up and it was found out that the PM indeed was made aware of the sexual misconduct allegations brought against Chris Pincher even before he was appointed as the Deputy Chief Whip of the Tory Party, it was time for his backbenchers to draw blood. The Cabinet resignations sparked by Sajid Javed, the Health Secretary and Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Ex Chequer, forced the herd to leave Johnson’s side. 

With almost 50 resignations, the PM was now hanging by a thread! 

Twitter Moments

The chosen topic is an ongoing tale of British politics, hence relevant and timely. The political news story presented through snippet storytelling uses images, videos, hashtags and news links to inform and entertain the audience to evoke a reaction and improve discoverability. 

My Twitter story also adheres to the different types of moments as laid out in the Twitter Moments. It’s a commentary on a current story that uses humour and satire to reach a broader audience that does not consider itself political. You don’t have to like Boris the bonkers. You only have to say aww to Larry, the cat! 

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