I’m not sure how good I am at telling visual stories.
I probably have SOME things I could tell you, about visual story-telling. For example, it’s good* to:
- Have visuals people can see, clearly enough.
- Make chronological or other connections among the visuals, in a credible way.
- Put yourself (and other compelling characters) into the story, as best you can.
- Show growth or other development, in the characters or other elements.
- Have conflict, tension, or suspense, which resolves in some way.
- Don’t try to show everything.
I have no idea how well I’m going to meet those criteria. I’m just going to do what I decided to do when I started writing this post: (1) show you photos I’ve taken since my last blog post and (2) try to make some sort of story out of them.
Before the visual story-telling commences, I shall express this concern (thus letting go of it): I hope that my indulging so gleefully in non sequiturs, two posts ago, hasn’t weakened my story-telling skills.
Spoiler (which-isn’t-a-spoiler-if-you’ve-been-reading-recent-blog-posts) alert!
(Yesterday, I returned to work after being out for over a month with pneumonia.)
I’ve never done a spoiler alert before, so I did the best I could, making the alert more obvious and the spoiler less obvious.
Are we ready to begin?
Wait! First, I’d like to balance the warning tone of the spoiler alert with a note of safety. For example, I could say, “No animals were harmed in the making of this story” and that’s certainly true, but that seems a little … I don’t know …. long-winded, clichéd, over-used, and not so much in-the-moment* (even though animal welfare is important to me).
I’ve got it!
This story is 100% gluten-free.
Okay! It’s time to begin.
A Visual Story
by Ann
Hmmm. I think I can make this story more focused if I have a more specific title.
Work: A visual story
by Ann
When I go to work, I park my car near an iconic baseball park. Then, I pay respect to an old hero, as I walk by.
Yesterday was no different. I hat-less-ly returned the hat tip to Mr. Yastrzemski — with a little hand-to-head salute.
Moments later, I saw this:
Arrgghh! There are TWO problems with that photo: (1) Inexplicably, it’s showing up on its side and (2) it’s violating my first rule, above, regarding good visual story telling: “Have visuals people can see, clearly enough.”
Let’s see if I can fix all that:
Better.*
Best.*
Then, I had a meeting with Employee Health, saw people I haven’t seen in over a month, sat at my desk, made phone calls, and left after a few hours. I could go into more details, but I don’t have any photos for any of that.
Later, I saw these interesting* things:
The End
How do you think I did, with that visual story-telling? I think I did well enough, despite some challenges.
Now that I’ve written “The End,” though, I’m aware of what I have NOT included, such as:
- letting my regular readers know that I successfully* used the waterpik before I left for work,
- reassuring people that I felt okay enough, in my shorter work day, yesterday, and
- this photo, which was going to be an example of “Things I’m not good at making work”
… which is okay, because that’s a terrible* title, and photo, too.
One more thing: In case people are wondering whether my story truly was 100% gluten-free, as guaranteed, I did some fact-checking, and found this, on Facebook:
Skinny Cow Hi, Heather! I’m excited to tell you that we have quite a few gluten free options! The list below are all of my gluten free products:
Caramel Truffle Bars
Chocolate Truffle Bars…See More
And that’s all I needed to see.
Thanks to Skinny Cow, Heather, Carl Yastrzemski, the guy wearing the “Excellence” t-shirt, Goodwill Industries, story-tellers everywhere, people who do their best (letting go of judgment and otherwise), and to you — of course! — for looking here, today.
______________
* In my humble opinion.
Good morning, Ann. Hoping your health is improving. If it is nice there, go get some sunshine. (smile) Love, Amy
Thanks for this caring comment, Amy!
You are so welcome, my friend. Take care. Love, Amy
A most lovely visual story Ann. ❤
Diana xo
Thank you for this lovely comment, Diana, from my heart.
Let’s see. You:
-Went back to work after a month off with pneumonia
-Wrote a delightful post as well as a visual essay for fans around the world
-Considered your readers’ needs for gluten-free treats as well as for Ann updates
-Tangled with the mystifying, physics-defying, invisible force known as plastic wrap
-Mastered a new technology that blasts water towards your gums and didn’t run the other way, like many of us would
-Saw a guy walking sideways through space and time, and righted him
I’d say that you are doing pretty well — and I’m very glad to hear it.
VERY good to know.
I just re-read this comment, out of the pure pleasure of it, and was very glad I did.
Reading your wonderfully worded visual post today, Ann, I have been struck by a thought that perhaps I have been precipitously under-thinking the parameters for my posts that I consider visual in orientation.
Here are my usual goals:
Put good pictures within my story.
Put interesting pictures within my story.
That’s it, Ann.
Yikes!
I’m glad you had a rewarding first day back to your desk. Rewarded by a Skinny Cow, anyhow. I reward myself with a sugar-free Skinny Cow as an after-dinner snack sometimes. The ice cream sandwich. Delicious.
Thank you for your illuminative visual post. The sunset picture is gorgeous.
Thank you for this, Mark, which — even though it did not have pictures of any kind — was as vivid as can be. Let’s toast to this perfectly parametered comment with … a Skinny Cow!
Yes. A Skinny Cow sugar free ice cream sandwich to you, Ann.
And a Skinny Cow Chocolate Ganache Cone to you, friend Mark.
That is such a cool statue.
Isn’t it? Thanks for seeing that, Alex.
I enjoyed your visual story telling and photography post. Think, I will try. Thank you for sharing
And, as always, I enjoyed you sharing your thoughts. Many thanks.
I have never seen (nor met) a Skinny Cow. I understand what the chocolatey covering is about. But, what is the utopia underneath? That seems to be a secret worth pursuing.
You’ve never met a skinny cow,
I think you might regret that.
What makes utopia, anyhow,
And will we ever get that?
Your sublime rhyme is just in time; well worth the climb and oh, so prime.
But as far as utopia… I still have myopia
So I guess there’s no hope-ia?
There always is some hope-ia,
no matter what the scope-ia
of my- or hyperopia.
Perhaps there lies utopia.
You are our non-judgmental
poet-elemental;
A laureate, our poet
and historyat
(Roughly translated, this means that you are the Queen of Rhyme)
Sublime.
You might like to know that I smiled and my eyes stayed longest on the pink sky at night. I enjoyed the story as a continuation of the one we are all following.Thanks for the visuals summary – I am trying to design a book cover at the moment.
I did like to know that — which photo made you smile and gaze at, the longest — as well as everything else you wrote in this comment, Hilary. Many thanks, and good luck with the book cover!
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