Stories Set to Song, and Storified, and other Social Media I Haven't Tried Yet

Today I thank Tommy Tomlinson for doing many writers a great service, delivering a lecture on good writing structure without making it sound like a lecture. Rather, it sounds like a classic ballad. It's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

It's not the first time Tomlinson has waxed lyrically on Nieman's Storify Storyboard.

(Yes, that's the correct spelling, as it belongs 

to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at 

Harvard, not the high-end department 

store. Although I must say, Neiman 

Marcus is doing some interesting 

stuff with social media, too.)

While I'll admit that I'm really glad Tomlinson did it, and he did it really well, I'm kicking myself for not doing it - or something like it, just not as good - because I've always thought songwriters make the best storytellers. Elton John, David Bowie  (Ziggy Stardust), Billy Joel, James Taylor, and John Denver are the first that I think of, and there are many more. 

But instead of focusing on one thing I haven't done yet, why not worry about two or more? "Learn how to use Storify" hovers near the top of my lonnnnnnnnnnnng list of "things to do." (I haven't figured out what Pinterest is good for yet, either, but Storify is a much higher priority, at least for me.)

When I searched for a "Storify primer" Google coughed up one on the Harlem Shake, which didn't exactly make me feel like dancing. 

So now that another deadline is looming and I have to get back to my "real" job, I ask you, dear readers:

What do you use Storify for? where can I find a free, Storify 101 course online? Is there a Storify for Dummies?

You know where to find me....

~Diane Stresing