#4 The short story, or long story?

Good Day Brewers - Pang here!

Do you know what I enjoy most about writing these issues?

My own stories.

You heard that right! I enjoy writing and reading my own stories!

You may be wondering.. isn’t that weird?

Absolutely not!

Here’s the thing:

If you don’t EVEN enjoy your own content, how can you expect others to enjoy it?

Next time you publish something, be sure to read through it and LOVE IT!

Then hit PUBLISH!

Estimated reading time: 989 words - 4 mins 9 secs

Most people don’t measure stories by their length..

But the length of a story is fairly important.

Here’s what I believe about stories:

They’re not meant to be short-form.

But short-form stories exist for information to be shared easily.

Have you heard about the “10-second stories”?

Three short sentences and you’re done!

They’re a great way to introduce yourself. Perhaps, even introducing a product.

They’re effective for the limited time you get to speak to someone, but they have a limited impact.

Here’s the truth:

The best stories out there aren’t short.

Steve Jobs gave a speech at Standford in 2005.

He shared three stories.

They were 15 minutes long (not short).

(And you could tell, he obviously wasn’t trying to make his speech short.)

He was trying to bring across a point in the most impactful way.

He does so by first sharing a specific moment.

”Dropping out of college was the best decision I’ve ever made. I stopped taking classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.”

And then he went on to build that moment into something bigger.

Something more inspiring.

“You cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect the dots backward. So you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in the future. You have to trust that something - your guts, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference.”

Read that again if you must.

And be sure to listen to his full speech!

His transition from a specific moment to bringing on an important lesson was smooth like butter.

Look, if you aren’t convinced, here’s another example.

A few weeks ago..

I went running with my friend and we passed by a swimming complex.

I noticed something worth sharing, so I snapped a video of it!

Let’s do a quick and simple exercise.

See if you could discover a story from the GIF below.

Version A

Four individuals swimming in the same lane.

They were all swimming at their own pace.

A simple life lesson on how one should live life at their own pace.

There’s no need for comparisons, yea?

Version B

My friend and I went for a run along this riverbank.

It was a lovely run as we met people from all walks of life on our running route.

A man was fishing on the other side of the river.

We spotted a parent who was pushing a pram with the most adorable little kid inside.

An old man, in his 70s, was enjoying his morning brisk walk.

And then we came across a swimming complex.

We took a quick look at it and were greeted at the sight of this:

Four individuals swimming in the same lane.

The girl on the extreme left. She was wearing a white swimming cap and she was using a swimming board - a clear sign that she was a beginner, practicing and learning the ropes of how to swim.

The guy on the extreme right. The force of his kicks was palpable, causing the liquid surface to ripple and quiver from the sheer raw power - a sign of strength.

The second guy from the left. He had his head underwater while slicing through the surface. A seemingly calm and easy swim for him. He’s probably a veteran.

The second guy from the right. It’s clearly visible that he’s trying to keep his head above the water, perhaps gasping for air. Feels like he’s worn out and tired.

Each of them exhibited different variations of the freestyle - a sign of different stages in life.

Yet they’re on the same journey of trying to finish that lap on the same lane, in the same swimming pool.

Isn’t this a great representation of life?

On how sometimes we may cross paths with others on the same journey?

They may be better than us, or worse. It doesn’t matter.

What’s more important is to focus on our journey. It doesn’t matter how slow we go, so long as we do not stop. And we’ll finish that journey we set out to complete!

Story B was longer. But would you have preferred A over B?

NO.

I hope I didn’t disappoint you though, cause B wasn’t perfect either.

Here’s a quick breakdown.

Story A: The story is short. But it wasn’t specific enough. “Swimming at their own pace.” So what?

Story B: There were too many moments. The first half of the story could be summarized in one sentence as it’s not relevant to the most important message of this story. The most important parts of the story was the swimmers. That’s what I mean by A SPECIFIC MOMENT.

Look, if I had taken out all of the details and descriptions of each of the swimmers, this becomes a boring story.

Not gonna lie.

It took me a while to come up with this story.

I had a tough time figuring out how to describe each of the swimmers.

But I guess I did it!!

Coffee time!

Your Barista,Pang

Enjoying the warm stories so far? Share this link with friends.

Struggling with telling stories? Reach out to me here.