Storylogic Media

08/31/2021

As old-school journalists say, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

While working on articles for an IT client a few years ago, and I came across a staggering claim: 60 percent of small businesses that suffer a cyberattack close within the next six months. Wow, I thought, this could be … Continue reading →

11/11/2019

Our client OhioGuidestone is the driving force behind this new institute, and we’re honored to be part of its important work.

Severe Stress Doesn’t Just Kill — It Tortures First by Frank W. Lewis · Published September 26, 2019 · Updated November 1, 2019 TweetSharePinShare0 Shares Perhaps you’ve seen this quote shared on social media: “You cannot suffer the past or future because they do not exist. What you are su...

09/20/2019

Inserting yourself in your own non-fiction writing with personal pronouns (”told me”) and descriptions of your reporting process is rarely necessary or interesting. This piece, however, is an exception. It’s a long read but worth it.

Fueled by guns, poverty and isolation, middle-aged men are dying in record numbers from su***de. Stephen Rodrick reports.

08/03/2019

05/13/2019

“Good writing — exceptional, memorable, and persuasive writing — is a skill, not a commodity, and should not be eroded or overlooked because it doesn’t easily appear on those spreadsheets tracking KPIs and ROI.”

Effective content begins with the writing. Content marketing leaders need to be more like editors to better assess and guide the content they commission.

05/02/2019

There is nothing natural about writing. Verbal language is around 100,000 years old, and sophisticated grammar about 40,000. The ability to translate ideas into symbols, and vice versa, barely registers on the evolutionary clock. That’s why children can pick up language just by listening, but learning to read and write requires years of effort. Our brains have not caught up. So when you struggle, just remember that if you can write at all, if you’re even trying, you are wielding forces nature did not intend for you to access. You are basically a wizard.

02/14/2019

“Dryden does not state why he finds this to be ‘not elegant.’ And yet somehow this completely unexplained, tiny criticism, buried in his mountain of works, lodged itself in the grammarian mind, and continued to be taught for hundreds of years later. This casual little comment would arguably be Dryden’s most enduring creation. It’s a little bit sad.”

It all goes back to 17th-century England and a fusspot named John Dryden.

12/17/2018

“When we build joy processes, we don’t need so many rules. Children are more likely to behave when they experience sufficient joy and care in their lives. So we need to equip families with the capacity to find more joy. The rest will follow; as group mammals, we are hardwired to develop social connectedness. We want to be loved and to love. We just have to be shown how.”

Read the introduction to the book we wrote with Dr. Ben Kearney of OhioGuidestone, the largest community mental health provider in the state.

Building Together cover

12/11/2018

You don’t have to love Star Wars to appreciate this video on how much George Lucas’s story was improved by careful editing. And even though it’s about filmmaking, the same principles apply to editing a novel, or even a non-fiction book. Half of writing is re-writing, and it’s best undertaken in collaboration with someone who understands what you’re trying to achieve and shares your enthusiasm, but also sees it from a different perspective.

A video essay exploring how Star Wars' editors recut and rearranged Star Wars: A New Hope to create the cinematic classic it became. Check out more essays at...

10/20/2018

“Best practices” often means nothing more than “what everyone else is doing.” In this case, everyone was following the lead of a company whose motto is “move fast and break things.”

As media companies tried to divine the desires of the world’s biggest platform, they fired writers and lost their way.

10/10/2018

“When you commit to mastery, you increase the likelihood of producing something with emotional resonance. If it has emotional resonance, it will continue to spread without hacks and tactics.”

A few days ago, I interviewed Danielle Laporte for Creative Live’s podcasting week. My host Drew asked me what advice I would give someone…

02/24/2018

“Steve Jobs once said that people don't want to know about computers; they want to know how computers will help them live better.” A good lesson for content, too.

Once you realize your customers don't care about your 'product,' you'll be more likely to make a sale.