Comments on: Can You Tell Your Story in One Sentence?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:02:52 +0000

Hmm i’ll give it a go some of these are really good.

It is easy to make fun of the 23yo girl who is afraid of fireworks, until you find out that it’s not the fireworks shes afraid of, but the sounds that remind her of gunshots.

By: Tom Chandler

Tom Chandler — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:57:46 +0000

Wow.

By: Selina

Selina — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:11:10 +0000

I don’t want him to see that I carved the word FAT into my arm with a razor, not because of what he’ll think of me for being a self-harmer, but because he might agree with my arm.

By: Brian Clark

Brian Clark — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 01:34:05 +0000

When the second tower fell, I saw a different world as I glanced at my daughter.

By: Tom Chandler

Tom Chandler — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:03:32 +0000

Aha! Sounds like I should do a Minnesota School of advertising retrospective.

And the Guardian reviews site is hilarious.

I never really expected this post to generate much commentary, but it’s damned interesting.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:15:58 +0000

It’s hard to beat the dry wit of the Guardian’s digested read, which sums up a novel in a sentence. http://books.guardian.co.uk/digestedread/

By: Michael Stelzner

Michael Stelzner — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:11:55 +0000

Folks – Don’t get me wrong, I am all for headlines. But usually headlines are not stories, they are teasers.

I believe in the power of stories and the power of a single sentence, just not so sure they always go hand and hand.

Mike

By: Katie Cummings

Katie Cummings — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:53:28 +0000

I agree with Steve. The right one sentence story is exactly what you want for an ad. Your ad should model the structure of a story. You have your protagonist (the reader), your antagonist (the problem), your plot, your climax, and lastly your resolution (the solution). Problem solved. End of story, right?

By: Tom Chandler

Tom Chandler — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:46:23 +0000

Steve: You’re correct, of course. The one-sentence story is a staple in marketing; witness the power of the ads produced by the “Minnesota School” of advertising in the 90s.

Some of those headlines and images still reverberate in my head, and it’s been more than a decade.

Still, the site I referenced isn’t a commercial entity, and the stories are personal in nature (my college friends would call it fine art writing).

These aren’t marketing messages, they’re personal revelations.

By: Steve Olson

Steve Olson — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:38:35 +0000

Michael,

I think there is value in a one sentence story.

Art and fun are both valuable… I don’t know about pointless. I guess that depends on your point a view.

Couldn’t the right one sentence story be very powerful advertising copy? Especially combined with images?