I made the younger Mr. Wilner almost spit out his drink when I told him about the guy who challenged me to a writing contest.
The rules of the contest were according to this other fellow fast and loose to which I replied, “just how you like your women right.”
It was an intentional smart ass remark that went over his head because the latter part of the phrase didn’t resonate with him and so I was reminded there might be a generational disconnect between myself and him.
The genesis of this silly situation began in a work setting in which this other fellow assumed he knew far more about my background than he did.
It should have been set in a pool hall and I could have called upon the ghost of my paternal grandfather to come help. I could have asked him to tell me again about how Kowalski knocked upon the door of the house and told grandma he wanted a chance to win his money back.
But it didn’t start there and so we end up with a tale that could be enhanced but won’t be because I don’t have the wherewithal to go deep on it tonight.
Instead I’ll share that 20 years of blogging and far than that writing silly tales makes it easy for me to come up with a never ending fountain of story ideas.
They didn’t have to be good or fleshed out, they just had to be shared. Hell, I threw out the titles of the last posts just because I could.
At The End Of The Day and The 13th Divorce were accompanied by the story of A Band Called The Tasty Nipples.
Don’t ask me where these things come from or how I come up with material because I pull as much from personal experience as imagination.
Educate, Inform & Entertain
Were you to engage me in a conversation about blogging and or storytelling in general I would tell you to remember educate, inform and entertain.
I would tell you to remember that a story has a beginning, middle and end and then I tell you I make up the rules as I go along.
When you use one, two or all three of those elements there is a good chance you’ll capture the eyes and ears of your reader and they’ll hang around to finish.
Fifty-four years of life provides a wealth of experiences to draw upon especially when you can draw upon thousands of books, movies and songs.
If you’re clever you take that material and weave a tapestry based upon common experiences that others can relate to.
So maybe you talk about who kissed who first and the anxiety you had asking someone out. Maybe you talk about going on thirty seven job interviews before being flown out for a series of final interviews only to be ghosted by the company afterwards.
Those are things people understand. Those are stories that people can relate to.
There are 10,000 movies that use one or both of those themes.
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a college student who tried to tell me I couldn’t relate to what college is like today.
I laughed.
There are differences that I won’t relate to. There are things you can do with technology that didn’t exist when I was a student.
I didn’t have an online syllabus. I didn’t have digital downloads.
But I had to study. I had good professors, bad professors and those who were in between. I had to navigate relationships with people.
The guy I was talking to tried to tell me I still didn’t get it so I made it what some refer to as “simple stupid.”
“Were you ever attracted to girl in class. Did you ever ask her out. Did you ever try to figure out how to get her to sleep with you?”
He answered yes and I said, “me too.”
I followed up by reminding him that we could look at biblical tales. King David was interested in a woman so he sent her husband off to fight so he would have a shot.
“You ever have a 6’1 obstacle to the woman you were chasing. Or maybe he was 5’10, 6’5 or 4’2. That isn’t any different now than it ever was. And let me assure you, I hear the stories from the people my age and it still happens.”
****
It has been a long while since I read Gladwell’s book about 10,000 hours being the mark at which point you gain some real expertise in a particular topic/skill.
While I am not certain if I have put 10,000 hours into writing and storytelling I have put enough time in to talk about this for more than a couple of moments.
And as the younger Mr. Wilner can attest I can pump out silly ideas with reckless abandon. If you don’t let yourself get caught up in whether the idea is good it is simple to come up with a list of 50 plus ideas.
Heck, if you have spent any time working on this kind of stuff you have engaged in this sort of exercise more than once.
A Teaching Moment
I took advantage of the story time with my son to remind him that people are not always simple to read and assess.
The plumber, mechanic or electrician doing blue collar work could be very well educated. They could have a degree or several.
You can’t tell how many languages someone speaks or understands just by looking at them. Take a minute to give people their due and consider who they might be.
If you spend time with them you’ll figure it out. Hell, sometimes the most important thing you can do is spend time with someone to really see who they are.
I am kind of grumpy and there is a growing list of people who irritate me, but there are those who don’t. There are those I like speaking with and could survive being trapped on an island with.
Sometimes you have to be willing to take a chance and see because you’ll never know what lies on that other side if you don’t take the chance to check it out.
And if they are a pain, well make them Ex-Lax brownies and they won’t hang out very long. Better yet when they hustle off to find shelter they’ll give you a very pleasant goodbye and think warm thoughts regarding you.
Just make sure they don’t see the box or any wrappers from the mix.
Did I mention that was another story, Tales Of a Crappy Brownie. 😉
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