{"id":517,"date":"2012-04-26T11:00:26","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T23:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=517"},"modified":"2012-04-26T11:00:26","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T23:00:26","slug":"tell-me-a-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=517","title":{"rendered":"Tell me a story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=516\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-516\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-516\" title=\"storybook\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/storybook1-291x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"291\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/storybook1-291x300.jpg 291w, https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/storybook1.jpg 392w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 291px) 100vw, 291px\" \/><\/a>Pick up any newspaper \u2013 on paper or online \u2013 and you\u2019ll find some of the best writers in the sports section and the business section.\u00a0 (Mind you, these are also the sections in which you will find some of the worst writers.)<\/p>\n<p>What makes these good writers good is partly their passion, their old-fashioned enthusiasm, and their knowledge.\u00a0 But it\u2019s also their mastery of the craft of writing.\u00a0 They know how to choose the right word.\u00a0 They know how to write a good sentence.\u00a0 They know how to tell a story.<\/p>\n<p>You can agree with their views.\u00a0 Or you can disagree with them.\u00a0 But it\u2019s usually very hard to ignore them.\u00a0 When a good writer starts telling a story, you want to know: <em>what happens next?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In most organisations, the people responsible for writing proposals, reports, and similar documents are also knowledgeable.\u00a0 And many of them are also passionate about their subject matter.\u00a0 But all too few have mastered the craft of writing.\u00a0 \u2018I\u2019m an economist, not a bloody poet,\u2019 one such person told me recently.<\/p>\n<p>Well, that may be so.\u00a0 But if you want to <em>tell<\/em> me something \u2013 or <em>sell<\/em> me something \u2013 you had better learn to be a story teller.\u00a0 You had better choose your words carefully.\u00a0 (And avoid clich\u00e9s.)\u00a0 You had better learn to write a good sentence \u2013 followed by another good sentence, and another after that.\u00a0 And you had better get me wanting to know: <em>what happens next?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pick up any newspaper \u2013 on paper or online \u2013 and you\u2019ll find some of the best writers in the sports section and the business section.\u00a0 (Mind you, these are also the sections in which you will find some of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=517\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":519,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions\/519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}