In The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee shares this tiny tale:

In just 61 words, Mukherjee gives us:

• Motivation. The subject wants to live to see his daughter graduate from high school. The motivation is what gets the story started.
• Obstacle. The subject has multiple myeloma, a cancer that starts in the plasma cells in bone marrow. That’s what gives the story its tension: the conflict between the motivation and obstacle.
• Result. He lives to see her graduate, not only from high school, but from college! But, making this success bittersweet, he’s bound to a wheelchair.
• Punch line. Surprise! He’s in a wheelchair because he was in a baseball-coaching accident.

Master writers can engage raiders with emotional, compelling stories in just a few words. In fact, a short-form story may well be more effective than long-form storytelling in social media and other channels.

1. All the lonely people …

“I once wrote a 75,000-word series on local hospital politics, after which a wise friend said, ‘Walt, you cannot exhaust a subject but you can exhaust a reader.’”

— Walt Harrington, former staff writer for The Washington Post Magazine

The Beatles’ song “Eleanor Rigby” has only 179 words. Yet the song contains three stories — and a chorus.

Can you do as much with so little?

2. Snowball, Snowball

I still remember — more than a decade later — one of the thousand heartbreaking stories about Hurricane Katrina victims, an AP report about the Superdome evacuation:

Many people had dogs, and they could not take them on the bus. A police officer took one from a little boy, who cried until he vomited. “Snowball, Snowball,” he cried.

3. Portraits of grief

The New York Times Portraits of Grief series tells the stories of every single person who died in the 9/11 attacks. Here’s the life of Eddie D’Atri, stitched together from just 157 words:

How did reporters pull off these tiny profiles? Times editors write:

“The portraits were never meant to be obituaries in any traditional sense. They were brief, informal and impressionistic, often centered on a single story or idiosyncratic detail. They were not intended to recount a person’s résumé, but rather to give a snapshot of each victim’s personality, of a life lived.”

Not bad for mini portraits that weigh in at roughly 200 words each.

Cut a long story short.

Cutting a long story short is often a matter of selection, not compression. So start by focusing your story angle as tightly as possible.

Would your story be twice as good if it were half as long? Write short-form storytelling.

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“Funny Girl” starts with Barbara Streisand wishing to be a star.

“My Fair Lady” opens with Julie Andrews wishing for a room somewhere. “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” begins with Quasimodo wishing he could belong “Out There.” “Into the Woods” begins with six characters declaring their wishes.

Call it the “I wish” song.

“Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.”

— Kurt Vonnegut, novelist

Every Disney musical — not to mention many other film and stage musicals — starts with an “I wish” song, reports Ira Glass in a recent episode of “This American Life.” It’s the first song the main character sings.

That motivation launches the story’s action. Overcoming the obstacles that get in the way of your character’s wish drives the action of a good story.

Whether you’re writing social media or content marketing or anything in between, great stories start with your protagonist’s wish.

I wish, I wish, I wish.

So what does your protagonist want?

• I wish I were human. In “The Little Mermaid,” Ariel sings, “When’s it my turn? Wouldn’t I love? Love to explore that shore up above, Out of the sea, wish I could be, Part of that world.”
• I wish I had the perfect husband. In “Fiddler on the Roof,” the daughters sing, “Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make me a match, Find me a find, catch me a catch. Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Look through your book, And make me a perfect match.”
• I wish I were somewhere more exciting than Kansas. In “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy sings, “Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly, Birds fly over the rainbow, Why then oh why can’t I?”

I wish, I wish, I wish.

The main character’s motivation drives every story:

• In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby wants Daisy to love him. This dream motivates him to overcome the obstacle of poverty to become fabulously wealthy by distributing illegal alcohol, trading in stolen securities and otherwise participating in organized crime.
• In “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy wants to get home — and to help her friends get a brain, a heart and some courage. This objective moves her to overcome the obstacles of talking trees, flying monkeys and wicked witches to visit the wizard and do away with the witch.
• In The Princess Bride, Westley wants to save Buttercup. Humperdinck wants to kill Westley. Vizzini wants money for kidnapping Buttercup. Inigo wants to kill the six-fingered man.

What do your characters wish?

The best corporate stories start with a wish, too:

• Nike’s story begins with founder Bill Bowerman wishing he could create a shoe sole that would give runners more traction.
• Hallmark Cards started with entrepreneur J.C. Hall wishing to get out of Nebraska and become a postcard salesman.
• Post-it Notes began with 3M scientist Art Fry wishing for a bookmark that would stay put in his church hymnal.

Hear Ira Glass sing his “I wish” song.

What’s your main character’s “I wish” song?

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