I had a productive writing retreat last week in Crested Butte, Colorado. This mountain town has always been a home away from home, even as I was growing up in Oklahoma. In fact, it’s where my husband and I chose to be married 3.5 years ago. Usually, I’m able to shop, hike, and enjoy being at home in the mountains, but this trip was all work. I was by myself and had a mission. It worked. I worked. Pam RuBert left a question on the blog about structuring creative retreats, so I wrote about them on the blog. See http://www.artbizblog.com . Although I was far away from my office, I still felt connected to my class participants and clients. These are the people whose stories I tell in the book I’m finishing up. Many have been more than generous in allowing me to feature them, and I know I need the stories. I can talk all I like about marketing and self-promotion, but until I share with you the real stories of those for whom it has worked, you have every right to be skeptical. Stories are a powerful connection. Here’s to your stories,

Are Your Marketing Materials Up to Snuff?

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The Relatively Pain-Free Artist Statement

Need a new statement before the gallery season begins in September? My four-week journaling e-book will walk you through the process. I won’t lie. It takes time for a good statement to incubate. Good enough reason to start now. $24.95. http://www.artbizcoach.com/resources/statement.html

How to Document Your Art using Professional Guidelines

Complimentary Recording

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FEATURE ARTICLE

Work on Your Stories

Have you ever noticed how the right words out of someone’s mouth can take you from utter boredom to an entirely new level of interest? The same thing happens when you pick up a book and open it to the first page. It either grabs you or it doesn’t. Really good authors know exactly how to hook you from the start. Deborah Davis did just that to me in the first paragraph of her book “Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X.” It opens:

“Eighteen fifty-seven was a good year for Anatole Avegno and a great year for New Orleans. Early that year, a group of enterprising locals had decided to revive and reinvent the age-old custom of Mardi Gras. . . . It was all very playful and innocent--until the spectators started throwing things back. . . . “

Of course, I had no idea who Anatole Avengo was, but I know about Mardi Gras and already in the first paragraph people are throwing things and disrupting the status quo. Action! And in the opening of a book about a famous artist and a notorious painting scandal. My expectations were on the rise and I wasn’t disappointed in the rest of the book. Never mind that John Singer Sargent’s name nowhere to be found. I could tell this was going to be a good story.

When I worked in museums, I regularly shared artists’ stories with visitors and volunteers. People who had no sympathy toward a particular artist were suddenly turned around with the few words that came out of my mouth--words that might have been about the artist’s background or materials, or about a location in a painting. I think you’ll find the same thing happens and that you’ll sell more art when you work on your stories.

Good stories take time to incubate. They usually don’t roll right off your tongue or flow magically from your fingertips. You have to work at them. Start with the basics of a story, and then allow yourself to elaborate and have fun with it. A good story usually doesn’t try to share everything in one telling or reading. Instead, it covers the juiciest stuff. Once you hook people, you can start reeling them in.