Storygridding The Tipping Point

Recognizing Opportunity

Storygridding The Tipping Point

It’s time for Malcolm Gladwell to deliver a fourth piece for The New Yorker. He decides the moment has come to open up that tipping point sardine can that he’s had marinating in the back of his mind’s idea pantry for ten years. The question now becomes how does he make it interesting to a… Read more »

Finding a Voice

Storygridding The Tipping Point

So it’s 1996, about ten and a half years after the party in Washington D.C.’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood in the rented apartment where the young pishers Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg formed a lifelong bond. To see just how young these guys were, check out this interview with Weisberg when he was an intern at… Read more »

Making Connections

Storygridding The Tipping Point

So it’s the mid-80s and as young men do, Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg throw a lot of parties at their Washington D.C. rental on Adams Mill Road and Kenyon Street. At one such low rent Bacchanalia, Gladwell shoots the breeze with Jefferson Morley, an assistant editor and one of the supervisors along with Michael… Read more »

“Stealing” Ideas

Storygridding The Tipping Point

Eight years ago, I had knee replacement surgery. As one is required to do after being made bionic, I imprisoned myself post-op at home. Rehab centers are strictly for the better insured. For the first two weeks, I remained doped up on Oxycodone in between grueling physical therapy sessions. A charming older woman, an emigre… Read more »

Writing Within the Context of No Context

Storygridding The Tipping Point

We’ve all had experiences like this. Some kid moves into our neighborhood and shows up for baseball tryouts. He steps up to bat and blasts screaming line drive after screaming line drive into the left center and right center field gaps. And then he takes the field and plays shortstop like Ozzie Smith. And he… Read more »

Ten Thousand Hours

Storygridding The Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell, back in 1998, faced the same writing dilemma we do today–having “easy” access to the nuts and bolts of book publishing, but struggling with whether we’re good enough to make use of the opportunity. As he sat down to the pile of rough “Tipping Point” book materials on his desk that would be… Read more »

The Stakes

Storygridding The Tipping Point

When contemplating a writing project, let just one question guide you: What’s at stake? Not just what’s at stake in the Story—if it’s not earth shaking, find another one to tell—but what’s at stake for you personally. If you could skip the project and forget about it the next day, it’s not one to devote… Read more »

Staring Down the First Draft

Storygridding The Tipping Point

Let’s pretend you’re Malcolm Gladwell. It’s midish-1998. Google won’t start up until September. Facebook is more than five years away. The Kindle launch is almost ten years away and not one publisher sees eBooks as a viable product. In August, Amazon.com publicly acknowledges that it plans to sell more than just books and CDs. Everything… Read more »

The Six Word GPS

Storygridding The Tipping Point

While I’m in the lab finishing up and testing my Story Grid Spreadsheet for The Tipping Point over the next couple of weeks, it’s a good time to focus on process. What actually happens when we take on a project and work it until completion? Is there a universal experience of sorts that anyone who… Read more »

In the Weeds

Storygridding The Tipping Point

My last post, Hitting the Wall, struck a chord with a number of readers and I’ve received a lot of incisive comments about my views on the Five Commandments of Storytelling and their application to Big Idea Nonfiction. So first of all, I have to thank everyone who took the time to go down that… Read more »

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Storygridding The Tipping Point

Recognizing Opportunity

Storygridding The Tipping Point

Finding a Voice

Storygridding The Tipping Point

Making Connections

Storygridding The Tipping Point

“Stealing” Ideas

Storygridding The Tipping Point

Writing Within the Context of No Context

Storygridding The Tipping Point

Ten Thousand Hours

Storygridding The Tipping Point

The Stakes

Storygridding The Tipping Point

Staring Down the First Draft

Storygridding The Tipping Point

The Six Word GPS

Storygridding The Tipping Point

In the Weeds

Storygridding The Tipping Point

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The Book

First Time Writer

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Storygridding The Tipping Point

Still not finding whatyou're looking for?

The Book

First Time Writer

Resources

Still not finding what
you're looking for?