Stories That Matter

As you might know, I’ve been in business as a freelance storyteller for over 6 years now.

What you might not know is that this isn’t my first time freelancing. In fact, my very first “job” out of university was working as a freelance writer.

I say “job” in quotation marks because the truth is, I had a very hard time finding a full-time job right out of school, and so I essentially made one up… by starting a blog and doing contract work.

My first paid writing gig (exciting!) was with a new food magazine. I was delighted: I could combine my passion for food and restaurant culture with my love for writing. (And of course, my very real need to make some money.)

Before getting started on my assignments, I asked the editor-in-chief: “what’s your mission statement?”

“I’ve never been asked that before,” he replied, seeming a bit miffed by the question.

He blew me off, and I was slightly perplexed. Wasn’t it a reasonable question to ask any new business or publication about what they do and why?

In retrospect, the interaction tells me two things:

For me, asking that deeper question was a sign of what I really wanted to do — not just write but to help people tell more purposeful, meaningful and effective stories. Stories that make a difference, that have an impact in some way.

Secondly, and more generally, his response speaks to a gap in how we tend to approach storytelling work. (And probably work in general.)

It often seems that we think too little about the things we do, even major undertakings. We can get caught up in the logistics or the exact words or the mechanisms we’ll use to get our story across… but skip over the essential questions about why we’re doing all this in the first place.

I believe that improving our storytelling (and the results of our work) starts at the beginning: with asking ourselves some basic questions about what we’re doing, who it’s for, why we’re doing it, and how we’ll approach it.

So for today’s issue I’ve created a free downloadable template to help YOU answer those very questions.

This isn’t a formal mission statement template but rather a set of prompts you can use to approach your work with thoughtfulness and intention.

Grab your free template here: www.camilledeputter.com/what-who-why-how

Play around with it, experiment a little, and see what you come up with. (And feel free to write me back with some of your answers, if you like!)

I believe in you and your story, and the difference you can make.

Now more than ever, your story matters.