I took a moment to revisit the articles I've written over the last 7 years and I realized (or reaffirmed) that above all else, I always talk about stories. As part of my process of self-discovery, I'm always trying to define what I do professionally, trying to give it a name. Something that isn't just a job title.
When someone asks me, it takes me a few seconds to respond: I work with culture, I'm in the content industry, I work in technology... sometimes I talk about the format, the type of company, the sector, the business model... but I always felt that these descriptions didn't quite capture what I've been doing for the past decade. Recently, I managed to define it better: I'm a bridge. A bridge between stories and people. I've been doing this in different places, in different ways, with different content formats, but always connecting stories and people. Always connecting with those people, with those stories.
Every time I recount my journey in the content industry, I start from the beginning, saying that I was born into books – my mother discovered she was pregnant on the night of her children's book launch – and that there was no other possibility in me than working with stories. But when I fast-forward a few decades and reach the early 2010s, this becomes a profession: I start with books, ebooks, multiformat projects, audiobooks, and podcasts. Always and in various ways, being a bridge.
That's why I believe so much in multiformat content – no, I'm not abandoning audio, but rather embracing other formats that can also help spread a good story. I remember when I started working with ebooks, I hammered the point home all the time and at every opportunity: "adding formats doesn't subtract readers, it multiplies readings."
Because that's what I believe in as tools for knowledge, freedom, and access: many stories in multiple formats. Because good stories will always exist... what changes are the formats and platforms we use to tell them. We began with spoken word, then writing, images... and today we have all of this together and available. Even when I look ahead, I see an incredible future for good stories: a metaverse or anyverse without stories, without our stories, is just barren land... it's the content that generates empathy, identification, empowerment, liberation!
And when I talk about multiformats, it's not just about the obvious: paper, screen, audio... it also encompasses each of these formats. Audio, for example, includes audiobooks, audio dramas, podcasts, dramacasts, storycasts, fiction podcasts... and many other formats that are yet to emerge. Just like me, formats are bridges, connecting a person and a story through a piece of paper or a pair of headphones.
That's why those of us who work every day in this craft of connecting dots and linking stories should never worry about formats, because as Tyrion Lannister said in Game of Thrones, "Stories – there's nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it."
And you, have you been a bridge for which stories out there?
Comments