I have a friend who is a bartender. He likes sports, football and soccer. Right now, he talks a lot about football and the playoffs. He has a lot of opinions about who are the best/worst teams, etc. He can simultaneously pour drinks, take orders, and talk for hours about football. But that's not his passion.

His passion is dogs. He is an animal behaviorist. 

The other day, I mentioned an eating quirk of my dog. He stopped what he was doing, turned to me and began a passionate, knowledgeable treatise as to why dogs act in certain ways. He looked straight into my eyes, he leaned forward, I knew he wanted me to understand fully. But not just because he wanted me to know...but because he was passionate about dogs and their behavior.

Perhaps you know someone like that. Someone who lives, eats and breaths the one thing that they are passionate about. It's as if it's in their blood, their DNA. When you talk with them, you know what their passion is.

So here's my tip for this week...know what your passion is.
If you are a storyteller, storytelling does not necessarily need to be your passion. But the subject of the story you tell should be! The first advice of most seasoned tellers is "Tell stories you love." I would go a step further and say, "Tell stories about people or things you are passionate about."

And the second part of the tip is...know what your characters are passionate about.
Do you know what your protagonist loves? Do you know what your antagonist has a passion for? Whether you tell it in the story or not, it's important to know what they are. What drives this person? What turns them on? What turns them off? What runs in their veins?

Being passionate about your story, and knowing your characters' passion(s) will propel you in the story, and make your listeners want to know more. And that's what we always want: our listeners to lean forward, be listening, and want to know...what happens next, and why.