I’m getting ready for my vacation, beginning next week, and that means working around the clock to finish a myriad of projects that are due before or during my time away from my desk.
But today, I’m taking a brief couple of hours to step away from my desk to speak to a local high school class. I’m actually going there to talk about chiastic structure, which is a literary form used in ancient writing (it’s something I encountered during my undergraduate studies and have maintained more than a passing interest in over the years).
Chiastic structure (or a related form called “antimetabole”) isn’t used much in storytelling today but it is used frequently in marketing and politics:
- “Live to Ride, Ride to Live”
- “Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country”
These are two classic examples of chiastic structure/antimetabole in action. I’m covering these and other uses, but I’m also going to cover a broader theme that I feel strongerly about: Mastering storytelling can make you more successful in sales and marketing.