storytelling

Jun 11 2010

Whitespace

My little brother was born into a world where the internet already existed. A world where all the information in the world is available at your fingertips. I can find out in 15 minutes what it took a few days to find out a few decades ago. So with all this information that we have, we cram in more and more and more. You can open yahoo.com and see how they cram in so much into just one page.

Of course, having a whirlwind of data isn’t always the best either. There’s always a thing called whitespace.

Whitespace

When you have too much information at a time, your brain won’t be able to process all of it at once. It needs space between information. For example, that pause people make after saying something important. Or the way a webpage looks so so soooo much better when everything useless is taken out and you have the minimum to see.

One reason why people like the facebook layout  is because it doesn’t cram too much on the same page (or at least that’s true if people don’t have a bunch of apps). By spacing the columns of information and limiting the information that gets there in the first place, you can better appreciate and concentrate on what you DO have on the page.

Put large blocks of space in between the blocks of text and things look much better.

Learning whitespace

So I think that we might need learning whitespace too for the same reason. Learn 3 things in half an hour and you’ll walk away with all 3. Learn 48 things in a half an hour seminar and you’ll still only walk away with 3. You might have written all 48 down but in the end you’ll only grasp the overall concept of all 48 and not the individual concepts of each.

So we need learning whitespace. And that’s when I realized what storytelling really does.

I’ve always been a believer that the best way to get information across is to tell a story. Our mind has evolved over thousands of years of oral storytelling to accept stories as the best medium to send information across generations.

A story (a well told story) compresses information into the format that’s best to learn in. Data like dates and names are spaced properly, with the story parts in between to catch your attention again. So you get a bit of info, then while you’re processing it, the author catches your attention with a little story before going on to the next bit.

Books should only have a few major points

I always complained that those hundred ringgit books would only have 3 or 4 main points in a book. Sometimes only 1 point in the whole book! Now I realize maybe it’s better that way.

Of course this only goes for books that aren’t story books  in the first place. Because any book that wants to get a point across should always use stories to do it.

So…

Whenever everything looks too cluttered, just add a little whitespace.

By Lutfi Torla • Communicating, Understanding Behaviour • 0 • Tags: , , , , , ,

Apr 8 2010

What I learned from theatre

I was feeling bored at the time, with a light course load that semester. So I wandered around, appearing more in the faculties of economics and human sciences than in the engineering faculty where I should rightfully have been studying in front of a textbook. I guess it comes as no surprise then that I had a lot more friends from other faculties. One group of them were English students whom I knew through my good friend Matiin.

And so I heard about how they wanted to cast a play (for an internal theatre competition) and how the English department had a lack of men (because they were taken up by the other competing plays). Put together a bored engineering male (student) and an English play that needs males; what do you get?

We practiced day and night for months! Memorizing the scripts, acting out the lines, vocal training in the middle of the night… It was so much fun. We had a great director too who really knew her stuff and showed us exactly what we needed to do to get it right.

Then we reached the night itself and we performed in front of hundreds of people! I’ll admit I’m an amateur but I didn’t embarrass myself too badly that night. We came out of it feeling pretty good about ourselves. And I came out of it feeling a little wiser about some things.

1. It taught me that I’ve come far.

You don’t know what you can do until you do it in front of 500 people. I’ve always had a bad reaction to speaking in front of people. And I’ve always tried hard to fight against it. Performing on stage was just the best test to see how far I’d come. I was pretty happy.

2. It taught me that rehearsing the same script a thousand times doesn’t make it dull.

Repeating that script a thousand times didn’t make it dull. It was the same script, day in and day out. But instead of boring me, it made me more connected. Once I knew them by heart, I could stop looking at the paper and really let my imagination move me instead.

But every time we rehearsed it, there would be something else that could be changed, something else to be improved on. So we practiced again and again, each time improving, until we could pull it off with the emphasis needed.

3. It taught me that I can do more.

Too many times I see people limited by what they do. Don’t get me wrong, engineering is awesome, maths is fun and physics is the most interesting thing in the world. But they’re not the only things I want to be able to do. I want to do more.

4. It taught me how to speak a little louder.

For those who know me, they know I prefer to keep my voice low. I hate people who shout for no reason, especially when they’re on the phone. I always imagine that they’re shouting because they’re afraid the person on the other side is too far away to hear them. After all, they’re sometimes a few hundred kilometres away! Lol.

Those vocal exercises they use are really good. They were good enough that they helped us ‘project’ our voice to the whole audience (we weren’t using microphones). So yeah, I can speak a little louder now. But maybe I choose not to.

5. It taught me that you always need to have their backs (in a calm way).

Loyalty is good but it doesn’t mean anything unless you can cover your friends’ backs when they mess up. One of the things we had to be ready for is if one of us messed up during the actual play. If I forgot a line, or someone else came on stage a little slow, what do you do?

You have to be able to cover. You have to be able to calmly see that there’s a problem and not freak out. then you have to do or say something that will prompt the person who made the mistake and get the play back on track again.

And you have to do this calmly so that the audience doesn’t suspect there was ever a problem to begin with.

What it sums up to…

…is that theatre is a very enjoyable experience. If you ever have the chance for it, give it a try.

By Lutfi Torla • Reflections • 2 • Tags: , , , , ,

Apr 3 2010

What I learned from reading stories

I grew up in that age when computers weren’t common. We had one at home (that ran Windows 3.1!!) that I played some disney games on (hey, I was 6 ok!). But we never played it that much. My parents always pushed us to play properly instead. By properly I mean imagining trolls and wizards, heroes and ninja swords, fighting together to save the world. Well, I was 6.

But even better, they pushed us to read. So when my sister started reading a whole bunch of story books, I figured that I should follow big sis and read as well. Now, when I think back, I realize it was peer pressure. She was half of my play group (my little brother was the other half) so I had to bow down to peer pressure!

So I read a few books. Then a few more. Then more. And then I finished off the books we had. I still remember them. Mostly Enid Blytons at the time; stories about little kids who dealt with imps and witches, stories of children who climbed trees a hundred stories high, stories of boys and girls with a hollow tree in their backyard.

And we begged to buy more books and my parents said yes! So while we waited, we read the books a few more times. Then we went to the bookstore and bought a ton of books (like 3 or 4!!). And we devoured them in a few days. Then wanted more. So we read the same old ones a second time. And a third and fourth and fifth time.

I’m kind of sad that a lot of my generation and the generation after me don’t read as much. It taught me so much more than just the stories inside.

1. It taught me to see from 2 perspectives at once.

By its very nature, reading a story book means that you have to see from 2 perspectives. You have to read it and be the one telling the story, telling it as how the author wrote it, with emphasis here, a question there, an aura of mystery when the hero opens the door. You also have to be the one receiving the story, the reader who sits back and enjoys the tale that the author has spun.

It gives you that oh-so-important skill of being able to speak in a conversation and understanding how you are saying it (as the author) and how the listener hears it (as the reader).

2. It taught me to imagine.

How do you teach a kid to have fun and imagine and play? Well, you could just get him a huge empty box and he’d build a fort out of it. Or a time machine. Or a transmogrifier. That’s what my parents did. Got me a big empty box I mean. I don’t think they know how to build a transmogrifier.

Reading stories only gives you the words. It’s up to you to imagine those words, and those worlds. How the heroes look like, and how sturdy the forts are. How fast the horses gallop and how an elf talks. It forces you to imagine, and so… you do.

3. It taught me proper spelling and grammar.

Yes, I’m that guy who hates it when people don’t spell properly. If I’m not spelling properly, please tell me. I’ll be glad to fix it.

4. It taught me what good manners can be like.

A lot of those stories I read as a kid were stories about kids. And it was always emphasized that you must have good manners. They would mind their P’s and Q’s when visiting other peoples’ homes. They would tip their hat to ladies. They would always help neighbours carry groceries in from the car.

These are acts  that can barely be found any more. At least not in my parts of the world.

5. It taught me to write.

How can you know how to write properly until you’ve seen it done before? Therefore, to write properly you must read properly. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to put your thoughts into words, even if it’s only for just you alone to see. It’s part of why I write on this blog, to write more often so that I don’t forget to.

What it sums up to…

…is that reading stories is such a rich experience that I pity those who do not enjoy it. I hope that people will start reading more, just because it’s amazing.

By Lutfi Torla • Featured, Reflections • 8 • Tags: , , ,