Did I tell you the one about ....?

Across a table at Starbuck's, we tell our story with animation. We're
sad when we're supposed to be sad and we laugh when it's funny — or at
least we think it is. Details pour out. Our descriptions are vivid and
we use just the words that relay them to our fellow coffee drinker.

OK, here's your laptop. Write that same story.


The person gets stiff. They're as formal as a black tuxedo and their
emotions are as dry as the Chattahoochee River. Their story is flat.
Though their verbs agree with their nouns and their punctuation follows
the ageless rules of grammar, their story is as flat as their computer
screen.

As an editor, I used to see this over and over in the
newsroom. A reporter would rush into the room and breathlessly tell
what just happened at a government meeting. Everybody would laugh, and
I'd tell the reporter to write that up. When he did, it was a very
proper who-what-when newspaper story — but it did not truly tell the
story.

So at the keyboard, we should tell our stories just like
we would if there was a Skinny Latte on the table. Forget the rules.
Just tell the story.