Once upon a time, there was a woman who loved stories. She loved telling them, reading them, hearing them – she loved everything about them.

Luckily, her interest in stories and storytelling led to a long, happy career, first as a journalist and later as a public relations consultant.

Writing stories about people, places, products, research, and advances in business, education, and healthcare became her livelihood. And she had fun researching, writing, and producing them!

Good stories surprise us, writes former Pixar executive Shane Snow on Hubspot. “They have compelling characters. They make us think, make us feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that numbers and text on a slide with a bar graph don’t.”

In fact, Snow notes, research indicates that 78 percent of CMOs think content is the future of marketing and two thirds of marketers think branded content is superior to public relations, direct mail, and print advertising.

“As the majority of corporations start thinking of themselves as publishers, the defining characteristic among the successful ones will be the ability to not just spew content, but to craft compelling stories,” she adds. “Fact is, no one cares about your marketing goals. But everyone likes a good story.” The business people who can tell one will have increasing advantages in the marketplace.

Snow believes storytelling will be the biggest business skill of the next five years. “The fact is, people have evolved to be storytellers and to respond deeply and emotionally to storytelling,” he writes. “If brands want to be as successful online as they were in traditional media a few decades ago, they need to relearn the basics of storytelling.”

I’ve turned storytelling into the backbone of Cathi Douglas Communications, so I share Snow’s view that, beginning with a good hook, you must rivet the readers’ attention and get them to care immediately about the people and action you’re writing about.

Showing a change happening is critical, he notes. “When you craft a story, you need to show a character or characters changing. Do it right, and you'll engender a change in the audience, too.”

Connecting with readers on an emotional level requires the writer to use personal, shared experiences. Crafting a strong story structure comprised of a beginning, middle, and end will give you the necessary framework to involve conflict, challenge, accomplishments, and success, he writes.

Perhaps most important, you must be authentic in your story, writing, and message. Using data and research to bolster your points is critical.

The most memorable stories I’ve written include magazine features about foster kids enrolled in the groundbreaking Guardian Scholars Program at Cal State Fullerton and a profile of a woman with a fatal disease who fought valiantly but unsuccessfully against California’s death with dignity law.

In both cases, the people were compelling characters that you cared about. The message of each story prompted people to donate funds and support pro-life causes. 

I’ve written stories about recovering addicts with a second chance to chase their dreams thanks to programs offered by the Orange County Rescue Mission; young scholars from poverty-stricken areas who are successfully pursuing a college education thanks to the University of the Pacific’s Community Involvement Program; and doctors at Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital dedicated to helping young children fight life-threatening illnesses.
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In each story, stories about people and their challenges colorfully illustrated the success of programs designed to help them. Personal stories are more compelling by far than stories about things – and they have become a hallmark of my writing for clients in the higher education, nonprofit, and healthcare industries. 

I’m often asked about how I pivot from writing a newspaper column to authoring an annual report, or from penning a magazine feature story to developing a marketing brochure.

The real question is, how easy is it to write in the voice of a client? How does a writer switch perspective and tone from objective third person to direct address, and back again, as indicated by the client’s goals?

Asking the right questions
The answer? It’s not difficult at all to adapt your writing style. If you are curious and want to learn from other people, asking the right questions comes easily. The key to the most successful communications tactics begins with the writer asking questions that provoke thoughtful, detailed answers with the client’s goal in mind.

Put another way, the best writing begins at the end. If your client’s goal is to generate sales or event attendance, then you will ask questions about the performer, the performance and the venue to help spark interest in the performance. If the client wants to sell widgets, then your questions will center around the products’ usefulness and value.

Beginning with the end in mind keeps you laser-focused on the outcomes your client desires. When you’re tempted to go off on tangents – however interesting they may be – you rein yourself in and hone in once again on the goal.

Incorporating client goals
It isn’t enough to have a list of your client’s top goals and then to develop the proper communications strategies to meet those goals.

First you must get to know your clients. Even if, like me, you work remotely and rarely attend face-to-face meetings, conversing with clients regularly about their work and their lives provides the insight to tailor your writing voice.

In addition, understanding the possible sensitivities that surround your client’s events, products or services is critically important. Know the kind of language to avoid, the proper tone for client communications, and the ways the company handles troubling issues.

Engaging readers
A newspaper column in a specialized publication will speak to readers in much different ways than a glossy corporate brochure. In the same way, the words you choose will be shorter, more concise and more direct in a news story and more formal in a brochure.

The content can be the same even if the presentation looks different. As you write, just as important as knowing the hot buttons to push when generating attendees at a concert is your understanding about the motivations of potential investment partners and the way consumers make choices.

In conclusion
Finding your own voice as the basis for all your communications work is most important of all. Being true to your vision helps avoid burnout and allows you to continue to make progress as a writer. The discipline of writing requires practice and patience and focusing on using your voice to create various publications in different voices is one of the chief ways you will grow into the best writer you can be.

Like many others, I try to count my blessings every day. “Try” is the operative word there. It’s easy to go days, and sometimes weeks, without consciously appreciating the many people who have made and continue to make my life happier and richer, more interesting and rewarding, and, well, worth living.

So, it is with a grateful heart that I take these moments before Thanksgiving Day to lift up those who have made me who I am and those who fill my days with joy.

In the beginning
I wouldn’t have had the irreplaceable experience of being a journalist without the professors who saw me through the first steps of my career. At Cal State Fullerton, the late Carolyn Johnson and past dean Rick Pullen took the time to encourage me to excel in journalism. At that time, working in newsrooms was entering a man’s world. It was daunting. I am grateful for their guidance and encouragement.

During college and afterward, a host of journalists helped me polish my skills with several doses of real-life experience.

The late Nick Harder and the late Al Hewitt, my editors at the Fullerton News Tribune, gave me a place to start as a stringer. My editors during two internships for the Los Angeles Times’ Orange County edition built up my confidence as a writer. Janell Shearer, my internship supervisor at the now-defunct Orange County Illustrated magazine, introduced me to the medium that has been a big part of my career. Editor Marilyn Leary convinced me that being a member of the Orange County Register team that launched the Community Edition papers was a prestigious position. I learned graphics and copyediting under the patient supervision of Dave Campbell and Helayne Perry. Colleagues everywhere I went saw me through rough rides, often becoming my friends.

I am grateful to all.

Thanks, but no thanks
The former mayor of Brea, Wayne Wedin, who asked me to craft a local cable news show that later launched the careers of Phil Blower, Fox San Diego anchor, and Vikki Vargas, OC Bureau Chief for NBC, gave me the chance to discover that TV is not my area of expertise. Thank you!

On to the next
Special thanks to Grif Amies, who took a chance and helped me develop my career in public relations. Also to Janell Shearer once more, because she recommended me to Chapman University President Jim Doti to be the college’s first full-time PR director. And extra special kudos to Paula Selleck who hired me at my alma mater CSUF and launched with me the Titan magazine, which went on to garner local, regional and national awards. It couldn’t have happened without the design, web and writing teams at Fullerton and Paula’s patient encouragement.

Although it was a harrowing event at the time, I also should thank my former bosses at CSUF, who laid me off after nearly 15 years. The ax from Fullerton provided me with the astounding opportunity to strike out on my own.

Now and into the future
I am grateful for my clients, who provide me with new challenges every day. I am also indebted to my colleagues in IABC OC and PRSA OC who hold me to exacting standards and offer me the opportunity to give back to the profession I love.

My deep appreciation goes out to my family, who believed in me from the very first and who always have my back; to my mother, who is always proud of me; to my network of friends from grade school through my alma mater, Marywood High School, my work places and my college years – who always love me no matter what.

Thanks.

If you are like most people, you dreaded writing class when grammar, spelling and punctuation were discussed.
Ho-hum.

Truthfully grammar can sometimes elude me, so I have a backup person who acts as my grammar expert. I also installed the free service, Grammarly, which points out grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors as I write. It can be annoying because it interrupts the flow of ideas, but I’ve relearned some things I had forgotten from my early school training.

Agreement is Easy to Reach
Writing coach Ken O’Quinn, writing in Public Relations Tactics in February 2017, says the mechanics of writing needn’t be overwhelming, if writers avoid common mistakes such as:
Subjects must agree in number with their verbs. O’Quinn notes that this can be tricky.
Our company’s powerful blend of industry knowledge, range of products and experienced service professionals combine to help your clients stay protected.
The subject is “blend” and the verb is “combine,” but it should be “combines.” People make this mistake, O’Quinn says, because:

• If you put more than five or six words between the subject and verb, then it creates too much distance and you lose sight of which word the verb needs to agree with. The noun “professionals” resonates in our brains because it is nearby, so we write the verb that agrees with it.
• Plural verbs don’t have an “s.” We add “s” to nouns to make them plural, but it’s the reverse with verbs. Add an “s” to make them singular and drop the “s” to make them plural.

Dangling modifiers
O’Quinn says dangling modifiers usually surface at the start of a sentence with an opening clause or phrase containing a verb form, like:
Using the United Way as a case study, basic principles and strategies will be explored.
To encourage customers to accept the change, rules will be revised.

The verb form in the opening element of both sentences above refers to someone doing something, so the person or thing doing that action needs to appear quickly after the comma. Otherwise, O’Quinn explains, the modifier dangles, or hangs there, because it doesn’t logically connect to anything in the sentence.

In the first sentence, the principles were not using the United Way as a case study. Whoever is doing the exploring needs to appear after the comma. Similarly, in the second sentence, the rules did not do the encouraging. Insert whoever is doing the revising.

On a Parallel Course
One thing that stuck with me from early writing class was parallelism. If a sentence lacks parallel structure, the reader can stumble. The principle of parallelism says that when you have a series of elements (two or more), present in the same form, that is, the same part of speech, they must balance equally.

“Parallelism is not important to please your old English teacher,” O’Quinn admonishes. “As readers of English, we like consistency, so when elements are similar, we can see how they are related.
The recruiters want professionals who are creative, attentive to detail and demonstrate initiative.

Three words describe the professionals: “Creative” and “attentive” are adjectives; “demonstrate” is a verb. You could say “creative, attentive to detail and motivated.” You also could recast the wording to say, “who are creative and attentive to detail and who demonstrate initiative,” so the two “who” clauses are aligned.

Proper Pronouns
It is acceptable to use “they” as a gender-neutral pronoun to avoid referring to men or women. In the 1900s, O’Quinn notes, language scholars condemned the practice, but Chaucer did it in 1395, and it has been common ever since, because writers often don’t know whether the people referred to are all male or female. This usage has new life today because writers value gender neutrality in their text.

But – and this is one of my pet peeves – don’t use “they” to refer to an institution, such as a company. Rather than say, “I would like to work at that company. They value their employees,” change it to “it values employees.”
Consider what function the pronoun has in the sentence. It can only be a subject and an object, and its role will determine the correct form.

In “please keep this between you and me,” the pronoun is the object of the preposition “between,” so it must appear in the objective form (me, him, her, them).

Wrapping it Up
I find that if I try to learn just a few rules at a time, grammar is a little easier to master. I like to give myself a little treat when I master several important ways to make my writing clearer. Perhaps I’ll go find “The Canterbury Tales” and curl up with a cup of tea.

I believe effective writers and marketers must think visually to produce their best work, even though that quality isn’t listed in their job descriptions. Designers and writers who work in silos often find themselves at odds with each other when it comes to producing work that is suitable for publication or a client presentation.

In the many workplaces I’ve worked in, some stand out vividly. Why? Because the employers there embraced their teams’ creativity, nurtured original approaches, and allowed the creative process to develop.


Ample brainstorming and thinking time is encouraged, forcing designers and content developers to dream up all kinds of wacky ideas and then hone them down to something outstanding. Thus were born unique pitches to the media, eye-catching brochures and memorable magazine layouts.

New perspectives on storytelling
It seems that at each stage – story planning, writing, photography, design and editing – working professionals were awarded for thinking beyond boundaries.

Indeed, some of the most stimulating and enjoyable moments I’ve experienced in the workplace occurred in the brainstorming meetings I had with creative teams whose members respected one another enough to collaborate on innovative approaches to produce striking design and writing packages.

Take it slowly at first
Still, it may not come naturally for those of us who work with words to expand our horizons beyond the story we’re writing. Every time I’ve been forced to look up from my work and take a breath, it has widened my perspective. In developing my stories, I often include my clients’ art director, photographer and graphic designer into the key messages I’m trying to impart. In doing that, I become a better storyteller.

One reason is that artists ask a lot of questions: Is that the best way? Are there other options we could explore? In “7 Real-World Ways to Think Like an Artist for Better Content Marketing,” Sonia Simone, co-founder and chief content officer of Rainmaker Digital, notes that “It truly doesn’t matter what your topic is. If you ask questions – lots of them – you’ll start to come up with interesting answers. Questions lead us to new places. They build cathedrals and pyramids and space stations.”

How can writers change our ways?
Just as participating in a writing workshop can help your writing become crisp and lean, so can conversing with your colleagues and asking their creative advice about our stories.

Thinking visually requires us to include creativity in our world. We visit museums full of amazing works of art; we walk our dog in the park and breathe the fresh air; we take a drive to the beach and enjoy the sound of the pounding surf.
Those experiences beg us to use our senses fully, and can be the seeds that lead to ideas and approaches that come from very different places than we’re used to. We must be open to the possibilities and the perspective of our photographers and designers. Melding words with pictures is the best way to communicate our ideas quickly and concisely to our audience.

Delving into your artsy side can introduce us to new ideas and renew our creative energy, so much so that you return to your computer focused, inspired and ready to rock and roll.

Putting it all together
Becoming open-minded to creativity means not dismissing original thinking as silly or dumb. Each idea may be the kernel of a new approach; you never know what will come out of a good brainstorming. That said, it’s important that everything you produce have your ‘stamp’ on it. Your writing style, thorough research and attention to detail make your writing distinctive. And your writing is only enhanced by a brilliant photo in a sophisticated layout.

Most important, don’t let criticism discourage you. Criticism can be one way to learn and improve. But don't let thoughtless input squash your creativity or cause you to doubt yourself. You are doing what you love – and that is made clear in everything you produce.

Additional Reading
Six Proven Ways to Increase Your Creativity