22: Shane Snow Explains The Elements of Good Storytelling

Shane Snow is the bestselling author of Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success. He’s also the Chief Creative Officer of Contently, a technology company he co-founded in 2010 with the mission to create a better media world.   An alumnus of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Shane's writing has appeared in Wired Magazine, The New Yorker, Fast Company, Mashable, Gizmodo, The Washington Post, Business Insider, and The Huffington Post.   Shane has been named one of Forbes's "30 Under 30 Media Innovators," Inc.'s "30 Under 30 Entrepreneurs," and Business Insider's "100 Coolest People in Tech”.    I spoke to Shane about the elements that make a good story. He also talks bout how to apply storytelling techniques to shorter form content like social media posts, or blog posts on LinkedIn, where he’s one of the first Influencers on that platform.    He also had some interesting things to say about how artificial intelligence might be changing the way stories are being written in certain areas like sports reporting.   And he opened the door to his writing studio and gave us a peek at his writing process.   You can find the show notes to this episode with links to his book and websites, along with a link to a free 9-part video course on email marketing, over at writewithimpact.com/episode22.   Follow Write With Impact on Twitter @impactfulwriter   Like Write With Impact on Facebook at facebook.com/WriteWithImpact