Almost anyone can write. All it takes is an idea and a keyboard or pencil and notepad. That’s why there are approximately 200 million active blogs. But writing isn’t the same as storytelling. Writing communicates an idea or facts; it speaks to the intellect. Storytelling evokes an experience in the reader.
The intellect has limited functions—and transformation is not one of them. The intellect is good for analysis and strategizing, but not so much for experience and connection. If you write about your research, for example, and you’re writing to explain, sharing data point after data point, that’s probably going to have a really limited audience (and they’ll have to be super-dedicated to your topic, to finish reading something that’s all data). In addition, without a story, the sharing of information remains intellect to intellect; readers might tell others they read an “interesting” book, but the listeners will be able to sense that this is an intellectual engagement. The entire process is limited to the mind.
However, if you can create an experience in the reader, engage them in such a way that…
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