Presentation Skills, Titles & Hooks

Happy Friday!Kevin Maguire from The New Fatherhood, a weekly newsletter on modern fatherhood, wrote a great thread on mental health this week. He finished with news of what he’s doing every October to support dads with mental health issues. If you want to support him or simply join a community of fathers who are trying to be a bit better, subscribe now.

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OK. This newsletter hitting your inbox means the weekend has officially landed. Enjoy the links. Have an ace weekend. See you all next week.

Hugh

Formats Unpacked: After The Tone (4 min read)David Bowie - “Always Go a Little Deeper Into the Water” (quote)Henry Miller on the Relationship Between Creativity and Community (3 min read)Do One Thing Well - How to Write Hooks (38 min watch)How TikTok Incentivises New Posts (6 min read)Want to Improve Your Presentation Skills? (3 min watch)Newsletters Don’t Stay Newsletters (Tweet)How About Never? Is Never a Good Time For You? (4 min read)The 100 Best Music Performances on the BBC - Ranked (List)What Makes A Great Title Sequence? (8 min watch)

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1. You want to talk to us about content production: podcasts, videos, animations, illustrations, editorial. 2. You want to talk to us about content strategy or format development.3. You want to create a brand or an identity that makes it easier to communicate your message.We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch. 

Formats Unpacked: After The ToneI loved writing this week’s Formats Unpacked. At Storythings we believe that everyone has a story to tell, that the first step to understanding others is through stories, and that when you tell great stories in a format you become a part of people’s lives. This format does those three things really. If you’d like to know how, give this a little read. (4 min read)David Bowie - “Always Go a Little Deeper Into the Water”I went to see Moonage Daydream last week. It was excellent. Visually stunning and hugely inspiring. Like all great pieces of art, I couldn’t stop thinking about it the next day. Two things really struck me. The first was how smart it was of filmmaker Brett Morgen to use mostly live versions of songs. This meant that uber fans, who the film is mostly aimed at, were hearing familiar songs in an unfamiliar way. Simple but genius. The second thing was the full version of this quote. If you like that, you may also like this from John Lennon on his writing process: “Every song I’ve ever written has been absolute torture… except for the ten or so songs the gods give you and that come out of nowhere.”(Quote)Henry Miller on the Relationship Between Creativity and CommunityThe Marginalian is like one of those friends that I should really spend more time with. Every time I visit I come away feeling a little wiser. Today I enjoyed this from Henry Miller on creativity and community: “Usually the artist has two life-long companions, neither of his own choosing… — poverty and loneliness. To have a friend who understands and appreciates your work, one who never lets you down but who becomes more devoted, more reverent, as the years go by, that is a rare experience. It takes only one friend… to work miracles.”(2 min read)Do One Thing Well - How to Write HooksDavid Hieatt from the Do Lectures talks about how to write hooks that people will click. He talks about what all great hooks do, what Pixar know about hooks, and gives case studies of how people have tested their hooks and book titles. (38 min watch)How TikTok Incentivises New PostsThis is a fascinating read on how TikTok’s ‘recommendation forward approach’ incentivises users to post regularly but ensures they never have too much power. On TikTok, the algorithm increases the possibility of having a viral hit because of a recommendation rather than having to build a huge audience. The randomness of recommendation coupled with the promise of possible future random viral hits makes it a bit like Uber. It wants to maximise the consumers whilst reducing the bargaining power of the creator. (6 min read)Want to Improve Your Presentation Skills? Of course you do! So watch Marcus John Henry Brown’s short but entertaining video on how he does it then download his template. Once you’ve done watching that bookmark this. All the best presenting advice you could need from Giles Turnbull, Russell Davies, Ella Fitzsimmons and Matthew Sheret.(3 min watch)Newsletters Don’t Stay NewslettersThinking of starting a newsletter? This is an interesting list of newsletters that pivoted to become hugely successful businesses. I found this through Ben Dietz’s brilliant newsletter. I also found this stat interesting from Substack: “Two years ago, two publications made more than $1 million a year on Substack. Today, there are more than a dozen. How many newspaper or magazine writers are making more than $1 million a year? … Even among bestsellers, how many authors whose names aren’t James Patterson or J.K. Rowling have been able to build that sort of wealth?”(Tweet)How About Never? Is Never a Good Time For You?I’m enjoying this relatively new Brands & Humour Substack from Paddy Gilmore. Each week Paddy looks at a different aspect of how brands relate to, and use, humour. It’s a little like Formats Unpacked but for funny adverts. This week, however, Paddy tells the story of how a New Yorker cartoon changed his career. (4 min read)The 100 Best Music Performances on the BBC - RankedYou can shout at The Guardian as much as you like for this list not being how you want (55 and 53 should be a lot higher and WTF is 86 doing in there?). This is why ranked list formats exist - to get you shouting at them. Regardless, you need a rabbit hole to fall down late on a Friday afternoon and this is the perfect one to set you up for the weekend. (List)What Makes A Great Title Sequence?Opening credits and title sequences can be purely functional or they can become opportunities to tell a richer story. They can set the tone for what the viewer is about to watch and they can tease characters and plot lines. This video from StudioBinder takes a look at some great and not-so-great examples of how to do title sequences well. (8 min watch)

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Thanks for reading. We’ll see you all next week.

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the whole team at Storythings.