It can be hard to know how to start to tell your story. It used to be that authors wrote or typed their story onto paper, edited it, and kept doing so until the process was complete… or abandoned.

Nowadays we have so many more options with the rise of computer apps and sites to choose from. For the left-brained amongst us, a spreadsheet will quickly get the essential points outlined, and sub points inserted to create an outline. For those of us who are more right-brained, such a task can be difficult. While mind-mapping software makes it much easier for those of use who have a hard time thinking linearly, I have been looking into alternative, and more creative, ways that stories can be created that don’t make us weep.

Online ways to tell your story

For those of us who are more visual, an online site called Mapia is very appealing. It is a site designed for those with travel stories to tell. The site is free to join, and encourages you to upload photos and maps of your adventure. Your story can then be written using the photos and maps to help you organize your thoughts and plan out your story from what you have uploaded. The finished results are beautiful!

If you prefer not to write at all, then record yourself telling your story on video using your (or someone else’s!) smartphone. Use Facebook live to record your story live to Facebook. Once it is complete, you can download the file, upload to YouTube, and have it transcribe your speech. (Full instructions for how to do this are here: https://www.labnol.org/internet/transcribe-video-to-text/28914/) I’ve heard that the results can either be very accurate, or very bad, depending on how well it understands your speech. Either way you will end with a page of text that you can edit s much or as little as you wish, to get it the way you want it.

Apps are another way to tell your story, but in a more creative way. Everyday more apps appear, but here are a few iPhone apps to try. You can read about some innovative and creative ways to tell your story here.

Old school ways to tell your story

tell your story If these methods are too far beyond you comfort zone for ways to tell your story, perhaps you need another route into your story? This site offers some different ways to consider the story you want to tell. It suggests ideas from a micro story – 140 characters on Twitter and up – to telling the story in reverse. If dialogue is more your thing, tell the story only through the speech of those involved. Where the speakers are and what is around them may be unimportant, or can be brought in through the conversation. Often it only takes a little twist – and a perceived breaking of the old rules – to make the way you tell your story much more fun!

 

 

 

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