Here is a story written by Dave Simpkins for the Sauk Centre Herald about me, the Whimsical Jimmy McAlister This story is about Jim McAlister and his views, ideas on how six word stories can inspire people to think and write in a more compelling way. “Whimsical Jimmy McAlister gives me wisdom” _ Ernest Hemmingway’s bar buddies asked him to write a sixword story. He came back with, “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn. Now my creative buddy, Jim McAlister challenged me to write my story in six words. Jim didn’t sell us Apple computers in the usual way. I went to him looking to upgrade our hardware, software and printers. He stopped me in my tracks and asked me for my Three Ps of Purpose, Process and Payoff. He forced me to think out of the box when buying computers to see the bigger, creative picture. This may be why we’ve been friends for 30 years. We went to MacWorld in San Francisco in 1997. I planned out every minute visiting every exhibit to learn all I could learn taking reams of notes and bringing home a bag of brochures. Jim walked casually around the exhibit hall for the first couple hours getting “the feel of the place”. I thought he was wasting his time but he was really plugging everything into his Three Ps. Then he left for a few days in the desert to let it soak in and I went back to work. He is now the owner of Tell-A-Vision Productions that helps businesses, non-profits, rock groups, artists and people tell their story in video. Along with the Three Ps he has added a Hemmingway three-word story to his planning process. Jim was in Sauk Centre last week challenging me to tell my story in six words. That’s not as easy as it sounds. Myself, I can tell other people’s story in six words easy but telling my own story is a different matter.
Like my biking friend, Alyce Hintzen, who’s life philosophy is, “never walked a hill, never will”. Our editor Bryan Zollman could say, “once threw pitches, now pitch stories”. Harry Hanson has been so good at digging up feature stories. His six-word story could be, “ten thousand stories, one more coming”. Our Star Publications copublisher and Dairy Star editor Mark Klaphake has a good six-word story, “from living dairy, to telling dairy”. L’il Knute’s rebellious six-word story is, ‘dad’s for it, I’m against it” yet Big Knute’s story would be, “beer, steak and Ma means happiness”. Sauk Centre has a motto, “vision of the past, view of the future” which is nice but something like, “building progressive community, beyond Main Street” might make a best seller. The story of Sauk Lake could be: “long ditch of weeds and fish. Minnesota explorer Joseph Nicolet gave a beautiful explanation of the Sauk River in 1836, “clear and sweet to the taste”. I think my wife Linda’s story could be, “die? never, just too many books”. But she wrote her’s, “from isolation to community in Jesus”. Okay Jim, I’ll get to my three-word story. Thinking about my bout with cancer and being hit by a car I could do a story like, “death was knocking, I wasn’t answering” or “been through hell, bound for glory” but that’s too heavy. Of my newspaper career I could say, “forty years of deadlines, dingbats and duebills” but nobody knows what a dingbat or duebill is anymore. But Jim, I had five words to sum up my life but I couldn’t find that sixth word for newspapering that started with an F. Then out of the blue came, “lived for faith, family, fishwrap and fun”.
Now it is your turn to take up Jim’s challenge to tell your story in six-words. You can e-mail it to me at davesimpkins@saukherald.com. Good Luck!