The Tiny Solution to Your Communication Problem

The Art of Tiny Stories and One Big Question

Small can be mighty (photo author’s own)

There are sometimes big ideas which you need to communicate. Your new business plan, a personal breakthrough, your ambitions as a writer…it can be tricky to get ideas across which don’t necessarily mean much to other people.

It’s really great that you’ve come up with a new life plan, and that taking yourself seriously as a writer, but also…who cares? It’s great to share your goals, and makes you more likely to stick to them but also…so what?

So what?

One of the greatest teachers I ever had would get me to explain what I wanted to work on, and then say ‘so what?’. If I could answer that, I would get on with the project. If I couldn’t, then I needed to either ditch it, or do some more thinking.

So, let’s assume that the news you want to communicate is your new Grand Plan. It might be for your business, or your writing, or to try and get life a bit more on track, but it’s a plan which you want to tell people about and which is A Big Deal for you. Let’s start with the question.

I’ve got a new business plan

So what?

So, it’s important to me?

So what?

So I think telling people about it will hold me accountable

So what?

So, it might other people be accountable too

So what?

So telling people about this could be the start of me building a community, no matter how small, to reinforce and help make this plan a reality.

Ah…ok. Got it.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

So what now?

Now, it’s time to think about tiny stories. It might not be the right way to communicate your message, but it’s a great way to practice what you want to say in an imaginative, creative way.

Tiny stories can be just a few sentences long, and offer a glimpse into a world, or a quick look at some characters. They’re a way to explore metaphors, to explore your project and to explore your own perspective on things. They can be aimed at younger or adult readers, or can just be for your own/your staff’s amusement.

You might find a new way of thinking about your project.

Let’s look at a super easy formula to get you started.

1. If your project had a narrator, who (or what) would it be?
2. If your project had a hero(ine), who would it be? It could be the same as the narrator?
3. What’s the end goal of the project? It could be ‘to make barrels of cash’ or it could be ‘so I can find a good life balance’.

Got it? Great. So, let’s say we’ve gone for…

1. The project would be narrated by an older woman, full of life wisdom but cynical about people talking about their dreams.
2. The hero is a nameless stranger, newly in town.
3. The project’s aim is to make the most of the skills you have, and put them to good use. You don’t feel comfortable putting this on any official documents but, honestly, you just want to feel proud of yourself and make small changes in the world which help communities.

OK, so in this story, we could want at the end for the cynical older woman to be impressed. Maybe proud? But what could the hero do to make her proud? What does your project do to make yourself proud?

Maybe changing something in the town which nobody knew was broken. Maybe quietly getting on with stuff while the louder people shouted about how they were going to change the world, while not doing anything. Maybe by placing kindness at the heart of all their actions?

How about this?

I’ve been sitting here for years, watching the drip, drip of water leaking all over this town. They come in all the time with fancy ribbons and shout about how they were the ones to fix it, if only we’d all BELIEVE in them. And then they’d quit, trailing grubby ribbons behind them and say we didn’t believe again and on and on the drip would go, sinking into the dust.

They were different when they came in. The moved quietly, staring long and hard at the drips. At first people slapped them on the back and laughed that some things would never change, champ, but bless you for thinking you’re the saviour. And the stranger smiled and nodded and went back to looking at the drip, head tilted to one side. And the people rolled their eyes and went about their day, complaining about the dust everywhere as they kicked it up with shuffling feet.

One morning, I come out here and realise there’s no drip drip to watch. And no stranger watching the drips. Just everything, quietly working away like it had always been that way.

Now I smiled and nodded and leaned back and stared at the big, blue sky.

A tiny story which can help clarify how you want to work, how you want to be seen.

Now, this might not be right for you. You might not want to be someone who doesn’t fit expectations, and quietly does an effective job and moves on. Maybe your story is about someone who confidently marches into a place and sprinkles rainbows everywhere. You might need to make everyone laugh, or be happy. You might need to be entrenched in a community, and build trust over years and years.

Write the story, and see what your imagination shows you.

And if it’s no good? Well, then we can go back to our big question:

So what?

Thanks so much for reading. I’ve linked to some of my other work below, and will be blogging once a week about creative communication and storytelling. Hope to see you again soon.

Siân (you say it ‘Sharn’)

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