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How to Grab the Prize at Your Next Conference that Will Propel You Forward

Jun 6, 2013 | Leading | 2 Comments

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” —Proverbs 27:17

Image courtesy of bigjom at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

You have a conference coming up. You harbor anxieties. The material will overwhelm you. The contacts you make will fall flat. Like past conferences, this one won’t make much difference in you or your work.

If you use the following tips, you’ll take steps forward in your area of interest. These tips are in addition to the standard conference tips, such as dress code.

Image courtesy of tungphoto at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

∞

Tip 1: In each session, listen carefully to your fellow attendees who add comments. Experts sit among you. Possibly in the very area you need the most help, but is only briefly covered in the presentation.

Sometime after class, introduce yourself to this “expert.” Thank her for her helpful comments. Exchange cards and ask if you may email her with a question or two.

The result may garner a mentor, a valuable new friend, or simply answers to a couple of your questions.

∞

Tip 2: Don’t get overwhelmed. Look for one gem said or done in each encounter and write it in your “notebook.” Then by conference end, you’ll have collected manageable jewels of information you didn’t have prior to the conference. You can build on these nuggets of knowledge. You don’t have to remember or learn everything.

Most learning is a process, anyway. Perhaps at this conference, you’re only to become familiar with terminology and processes on a particular subject. This will prepare you to take in more specific information and understanding in future encounters or during research on the subject.

∞

Tip 3: What some of us call divine appointments at conferences are most often with people other than ones you’ve targeted. Yes, it’s good to speak with agents, editors, gallery owners, the presidents of the company of your dreams, and well-known experts in your field.

BUT more often, another attendee in line near you, at your lunch table, or sitting next to you in a session is a more valuable contact. He has an experience you need to hear. She has a friend who’s the perfect person for you to contact. So, note what these people share in your “notebook.”

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Tip 4: Help others you meet. You have expertizes. Maybe someone needs another person to listen to his idea. He may ask you what you think. You can tactfully give him your honest thoughts. Add him to your “notebook.” Although you help him because it’s the right thing to do, perhaps in the future he will remember you and return the favor. It happens.

∞

Tip 5: If interviews are part of the conference, treat an interviewer as a person like you. He’s doing the best job he can to find the right person to move his work forward. You’re seeking to propel your work forward. Work together to see if a match is possible. This attitude can help take the tension out of interviewing.

Write in your “notebook” the things you learned about interviewing from your experience and incorporate them in future interviews.

∞

Tip 6: When you return home make time to create a post conference action plan and schedule the tasks. The following are suggestions:

Go over your notes in your “notebook” and handouts. Sooner than later.
Order materials recommended at the conference you listed as helpful to move you forward. Read them.
Visit blogs and websites you jotted down as good resources.
Send thank you notes (emails or notecards) to session instructors whose gems you wrote in your “notebook.”
Contact the people you said you would.
Choose a few of the most important actions you learned that would take your work to the next level. Schedule time to work on these few items.

∞

Now, having returned from a writers’ conference, I will make my action plan.

Can you share a conference tip that helped to propel your work forward?

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5 Cautions in Adding Humor to Your Creative Works

May 30, 2013 | Creating | 2 Comments

“The secret to humor is surprise. ” — Aristotle

We know humor adds much to engaging an audience. This is true whether our works are art pieces, presentations, dramas, novels, short stories or non-fiction. But we also know humor, unlike other elements in our creative works, has a greater chance of falling flat.

Here are tips that will make your humor less likely to produce deadpan stares or full-blown cringes.

Caution 1. Don’t keep trying to make something funny that’s resisting you. A good reason most likely lies behind the roadblock. The idea could be offensive or hurtful. The idea may need extensive background or setup and risks losing the audience. Or it may not be right for the setting of your work. Some ideas are too outdated to tickle current audiences.

See what you think of this example:

A 1958 film, Mon Oncle, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and other awards. It had audiences rolling, especially the kitchen scene. (I remember.) Here’s its IMDb blurb: “Monsieur Hulot visits the technology-driven world of his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, but he can’t quite fit into the surroundings.” Check out this short clip and decide. Timeless or passé humor?

Caution 2. Don’t overdo the humorous moment in length or drama. But do give the moment what it needs to be recognized as a humorous tidbit. Look for a balance.

Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen King have appeared in films of their works for a bit of humor. You decide whether the film professionals gave their appearances the appropriate length and drama for the work. Here are YouTube clips showing Hitchcock’s cameo appearances and one of King’s.

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Caution 3. Don’t create humor that’s complicated and makes audiences work hard for their laugh. Many enjoy slapstick because it’s easy to “get.” Others prefer wit and humorous situations that lead them to their laughs.

You decide if the table ballets in films, Benny and Joon and in Gold Rush, are simple and humorous (and timeless). See both clips here starring Johnny Depp and Charlie Chaplin.

Caution 4. Don’t repeat witty or slapstick elements for the sole purpose that the humor will work a second or third time in the same work.

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Unless perhaps you’re one of the Three Stooges, repetitions lose the element of surprise and become less entertaining with each re-appearance. Possibly, you can make the idea work again if you’re able to add a fresh angle.

Caution 5. Don’t include slapstick in writing, drama, or presentations unless it’s well planned and orchestrated.

Slapstick is defined as: “comedy based on deliberately clumsy actions and humorously embarrassing events.” (New Oxford American Dictionary) I think the key element is the humorously embarrassing event. Random clumsy actions alone have no story and can take away from the work. You decide if Mr. Bean, as he paints his room, has an effective embarrassing event for his clumsy actions.

What were your decisions on the film clips? What cautions do you have in using humor?

The Secret Ingredient to Engaging Your Audience

May 23, 2013 | Leading | 2 Comments

“Communicating an idea juxtaposed with its polar opposite creates energy. Moving back and forth between the contradictory poles encourages full engagement from the audience.” —Nancy Duarte

You step back from your creative work and, no matter how hard you rationalize its appeal, you know in your heart something is missing. The ingredient that takes it from dull to fascinating.

Most of us know the secret ingredient already. Then why don’t we use it? I’ll address reasons why we overlook the secret ingredient after I give you some examples of how it’s been employed.

Secret Ingredient: CONTRAST.

Example 1: My favorite rhythm activity with preschoolers is freeze dance. In Bible Study Fellowship and Sunday school, we danced to music pieces on the small keyboard I carried. Then I’d punch the stop button. The children froze arms, legs, and face expressions. I tried to catch them in a stumbling stop or moving when silence dropped. They enjoyed the dancing, the anticipation, and avoiding getting caught.

The freeze dance provides these contrasts:

freely moving bodies vs. rigid frozen bodies
doing our own thing vs. obeying the rule to stop
anticipation vs. fun result

When we solely put on music and let them dance with scarves, the children didn’t stay engaged very long. Unless they used their scarves as whips (creating their own contrast).

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Example 2: If you sat in a waiting room with a blue wall in front of you, how long would you stare at the wall with interest? Now, say the wall was white with a foot-by-foot blue square painted on it. Would your eye wander to that blue square now and then? Would you wonder why someone painted a blue square on the white wall? Might you imagine what you would have put on the wall instead of the blue square? Or what you’d add to the blue square?

The contrast of blue and white, big and small, and the why and why not of the blue square creates more interest than a solid blue wall. That’s why artists use light and dark, shadows and highlights.

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Example 3: Would you sit through a movie or play where the actors constantly shouted? Or issued nonstop dramatic emotion—always whining or always blubbering or always laughing? Actors and storytellers know sprinkling subtle and dramatic emotions, shouts and whispers, and movement and stillness engages their audiences.

Too much of anything gets old and audiences lose interest.

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Example 4: And for me, the greatest contrast of all: Creator and created. If the Bible were only about humans and their sinful natures and fleeting brief lives on earth, our future would be hopeless. But the Bible reveals the nature of the almighty Creator who sent His Son to earth to save us from our sins, give us eternal life in His kingdom, and make us whole.

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Why doesn’t a writer, an artist, or presenter use contrasts? Here’s reasons that came to my mind:

He does, but uses less than polar contrasts. The contrasts fall short of appearing different to the audience. The actor reduces his screams to shouts.
He fails to put the contrasts he sees in his mind into his work. This is a common problem of novice writers. They imagine a scene and its emotions but fall short of transferring what they’ve created in their minds to the page.
He uses an experience in his personal life. His emotional struggles with the experience convince him to avoid one side of the contrast. Contrasting costs too much pain.
He thinks the one element that intrigues him is sufficient to attract his audience. He forgets his passion must be related to the audience. Contrasting that element to its opposite helps the audience see his viewpoint.

Can you share an example of how you’ve contrasted elements in your creative work?