The quotes in this entry are from the second segment of an interview series with Ira Glass of This American Life. 

"One of the things  . . . is how hard it is to actually find a decent story . . . Often the amount of time finding the decent story is more than the amount of time to produce the story."   -  Ira Glass

I have actually worked on this blog entry for quite a while. I suddenly realized that I had been doing just that - finding the decent story.  I have been developing and clarifying the story line.  One of the exciting things I have realized is that what has happened here is exactly the point that I have been having difficulty explaining to clients when I first start working with them.

Most of my work is with Lawyers designing and developing presentations for litigation.  It would seem that the story is straightforward: "Here is the case.  Here are our claims.  Here is the evidence."  But that is just the beginning.  The real work is in finding the most powerful and convincing storyline which the design, development and production of the presentation then revolve around. 

It is incredibly challenging when someone has worked on a case for a long while, done a huge amount of research, has a vast wealth of knowledge on the subject to then be able to hone down the story to the strongest, clearest, most powerful points to present at trial.  In addition, the lawyers are usually so familiar with the case that there is an added challenge of presenting the story clearly and logically so that the uninformed can become coherently informed and convinced. 

Finding the story is an iterative process.  It is taking the wealth of information and sifting it, winnowing it, refining it, and honing it till the presentation is tight and solid. It means tossing out the extraneous.  In a trial there are often many points that need to be addressed regardless of their pizazz.  I am not talking about tossing those.  The extraneous; the noise that does not add any true strength to the case is the stuff that needs to go.