I was surprised at how many of the following stories may be interpreted as restoring balance or creating balance where none existed before.

Libraries restore balance in people’s lives and communities. … The story goes on to describe how, in an effort to restore balance, the protagonist’s subjective expectations crash into an uncooperative objective reality.” But then there’s as event – in screenwriting, we call it the ‘inciting incident’ – that throws life out of balance. “It begins with a situation in which life is relatively in balance: You come to work day after day, week after week, and everything’s fine. In a story, you not only weave a lot of information into the telling but you also arouse your listener’s emotions and energy.”Īgain Robert McKee tells us.

The best way to do that is by telling a compelling story. “The other way to persuade people – and ultimately a much more powerful way – is by uniting an idea with an emotion. That’s not good enough, because people are not inspired to act by reason alone. Second, if you do succeed in persuading them, you’ve done so only on an intellectual basis. While you’re trying to persuade them they are arguing with you in their heads. “ you build your case by giving statistics and facts and quotes from authorities, there are two problems…. In 2003, the Harvard Business Review asked McKee why CEOs of major companies should be telling stories. Robert McKee is a world renown screenwriting coach who gives four day workshops on how to written award-winning movie and television scripts. Why CEOs and librarians should tell stories This often involved presenting circulation and programming attendance statistics to the mayor, city manager and city council.

I have tried to encourage librarians to tell mayors and city councils what the library does. I am often told mayors and city councils never come to the library and don’t know or appreciate what the library does.

Public library and other stories