What if there was a way to get around writer’s block?
What if people in creative jobs figured out a way to cultivate a steady stream of ideas and stories to tell?
After all, there’s no such thing as a day where a newspaper doesn’t print, or a broadcast station doesn’t have a newscast.
Melanie Deziel, a friend of this podcast, brand storytelling consultant and founder of Storyfuel, believes this is possible. She’s so committed to the idea of reshaping how people come up with ways of telling stories, she’s written a new book: Content Fuel Framework.
“I think a superpower most journalists have is the ability to always find a story,” she says. “You never don’t put out a paper or don’t update a website. For a lot of adjacent disciplines, if you’re in communications or PR or marketing, that comes a lot less naturally. There’s a tremendous amount of writer’s block, creator’s block, what am I posting today? The book is trying to pull out of my brain and my background how do we do that, how do we consistently find ways to find new stories, say something different.”
She also discusses how different ways of telling stories can help job creativity. Is a story best told in an article? A tweet? A Facebook post? An infographic? Maybe it’s a Tik-Tok video instead.
“There are totally new storytelling formats we’re having to think about in new ways,” she says. “How do we line up different focuses and themes and lenses we can bring our stories through.”
Deziel admits she wonders whether journalists have these same struggles, in addition to those faced by content creators, marketers and other types of writers. She’s facing it herself in trying to figure out the best way — or ways — to promote her own book.
“It’s a huge challenge to feel I have to walk the walk and create this epic content to promote the book. I am trying to explore different ways to promote the book, to talk about the book, but also to create interesting content around it,” she says. “Would it be useful to have an infographic about the book? How many pages it is, when does it come out, making quick facts digestible in a visual format? Maybe a principle guide to the book to follow along with it.”
It’s All Journalism host Michael O’Connell is joined this week by Melanie Deziel, brand storytelling consultant and founder of Storyfuel, to discuss her new book, Content Fuel Framework, about how storytellers have more ways to tell stories than ever and why that can be intimidating.
