Do you have faith in the story you tell? Part I
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under inspiration, storytelling
I was working on posting this back in the spring right before my Grandma passed away and only now peeked at it. It’s probably a little on the sappy side, but here it is anyways.
I’ll post part II later on when I have time to get a few more thoughts on paper.
Do you have faith in the story you tell?
Found this article on site that deals with storytelling and it touches on a lot of important things for a storyteller of any form. Just replace the word faith with photography where it applies.
People don’t want more information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith—faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell. It is faith that moves mountains, not facts. Facts do not give birth to faith.
Faith needs a story to sustain it—a meaningful story that inspires belief in you and renews hope that your ideas, do indeed, offer what you promise.
That line is especially powerful to me: Photography needs a story to sustain it - a meaningful story that inspires belief in you and renews hope that your ideas, do indeed, offer what you promise.
What do you bring to the table? It’s a safe assumption that most everything has been done in some way or form before, but that doesn’t mean you should not do it. How do you see it? What fresh angle can you bring to the story? Don’t worry so much about the news value focus on the human value.
Genuine influence goes deeper than getting people to do what you want them to do. It means people pick up where you left off because they believe. Faith can overcome any obstacle, achieve any goal. Money, power, authority, political advantage, and brute force have all, at one time or another, been overcome by faith.
Isn’t that one of our greatest goals as storytellers? That no matter the medium, to move people in ways that inspire action? While your work may not change the world it can act as a spark. First though the spark needs to start within your heart. When it does it’ll trickle into every photo you take. You need to care about your stories and subjects. Call upon your passion and when you find it anything is possible. Simply, if you don’t care I won’t care.
My family paid Jenn and I a visit here in KY a few weeks back and we
had a little cook-out.
Further Reading:
Tags: advice, inspiration, quotes, storytelling
3 Responses to “Do you have faith in the story you tell? Part I”
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Jim Korpi Says:
August 18th, 2008 at 2:49 pmTimmy-boy,
A journalism professor of mine once quoted a friend as saying, “If I can’t change the world at least I can nudge it in the right direction.” Since Jane Harrigan told me this it’s made me think deeply about where I stand in the grand scheme of things. The world is a complex being that works on a system of change greater than any one of us. We can only strive to be part of that system. In the end our efforts will be worth it if we try hard, do good work and learn to Love.
Optimistically,
Jimmy “The Finn” -
Tim Gruber Says:
August 18th, 2008 at 9:51 pmI hear ya Finnster. Hope the fellowship is treating you well. When you headed back to Athens?
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Do you have faith in the story you tell? - part II | Waitin' On a Moment - by Tim Gruber Says:
August 21st, 2008 at 9:45 am[...] Do you have faith in the story you tell? Part I [...]
