Christopher Nolan doesn’t write detailed outlines. Instead, he “draws shapes and diagrams and other structural things” to keep the story on track. Like this, the plot map Nolan used for Inception. Let me explain... In storytelling, the idea of structure is everywhere: • 3 Act • StoryGrid • Hero’s Journey But Nolan claims those restrict his creativity. He prefers to think in ‘shapes’ rather than in hard rules. It reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut, who taught about the “shapes of stories” at Harvard. Kurt broke down all stories into 8 unique shapes. The engineer in me loves this view of stories. Instead of vague, hard-to-explain ideas, narrative arcs become data points you can plot. Nolan’s plot map resembles Vonnegut’s “Man In Hole” story shape. The main character gets into trouble then gets out of it again and ends up better off for the experience. But Nolan’s a genius — so he layers on even more. *** As Cobb moves closer to Limbo, he travels “down” the plot map, closer and closer to disaster. Then he fights his way back “up” to reality. Nolan’s plot map isn’t just the shape of his story, It’s also how he designed the world — dreams within dreams. *** Inception is one of the most complex mainstream movies ever, runs 2.5 hours, and made ~$835M at the box office. Yet Christopher Nolan fits the entire arc on a one page map. That’s brilliant. So, next time you tell a story, give the "shape" idea a try. It may come more naturally than you expect.

Over the coming days our Strategy & Design team will be advertising some new roles. If you'd like to have a chat about them, meet the team and find our more about what's like to work @CamdenCouncil join one of our Open House events (online) lnkd.in/eXa473ta

People of South London, roll up! roll up! 📣 find out more about this project tomorrow at the Nunhead Cemetery open day in support of @WHYCNunhead, we will be amongst renowned historical South London societies and the Morris dancers

This is the leading edge of city innovation--along with insights on how #Bogota made it happen. Keys to success? The internal innovation & data teams @ClaudiaLopez strengthened to deliver breakthrough action. Check it out 👇👇👇 bloombergcities.jhu.edu/news…

The CDDO has released a data maturity model for gov gov.uk/government/publicatio…

Time to check out the schedule for next week’s #ServicesWeek cddo.blog.gov.uk/2023/03/13/…

This is ***exactly*** the sort of #digital platform and public services #innovation we hoped mayors offices would develop with @BloombergDotOrg innovation teams, or iteams. Bravo #Bogota Mayor @ClaudiaLopez, @agatadata and the entire team! 🥇💪 latin-american.news/bogota-l…

Epic job alert ⁦@CamdenCouncil⁩ - Martin leaves behind a great legacy, great services and people. starfishsearch.com/jobs/exec…

This made me smile! 🤗 Spotted at my local bookshop @TomCrewe1 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 @Rye_Books

This reminds me of @VHoughtonP talk at #SDinGov and how we should ask ourselves whether we need a map in the first place. Great reminder to create the right assets and make them accessible 👏🏼

"Imagination is not a splashy poster of a sci-fi movie but a daily act of resistance we must engage in despite how tired we might be." - @albanvillamil on the power that designers do and don't have fastcompany.com/90846822/ux-…

What a fantastic day we had! I loved all the new and old connections we built today. We still have a lot to do but excited for what's to come! 🐟🐠🐡