BOOK WRITING. BOOK COACHING. GHOST WRITING. STORY COACHING. LET’S WRITE what you know.
Every human has a story that can make their life and the world better. The problem is that most people don’t believe this to be true.
Thankfully, some do. But very few of those who’d agree don’t have the time, the experience, or a method for getting their story out of their heads and shaping it. Some might like to share that story in a book. But a story doesn’t need to be shared. When it’s understood, written through a one-to-one coaching experience, and truly lived, as values, as intention, as a guiding narrative and purpose, the story becomes the best kind of leadership: infectious and inspiring action.
THE CREATIVE CONDITION CAN HELP YOU WRITE YOUR BOOK OR CRYSTALISE YOUR STORY IN THE PRIVACY OF YOUR SOUL AS A GUIDING LIGHT IN UNCERTAIN TIMES. Let’s discuss.
The Creative Condition’s book writing and story coaching experiences
The Creative Condition offers two very distinct packages to help you live and tell your story. Consider how writing your story can benefit you. Is this a private journey to regain authorship of your own life, career, and creative fulfilment? Then The Internal is for you. Or do you wish to share your story to inspire, illuminate, and support those around you, those who might succeed you, to elevate creativity and performance to daring new levels? The External awaits.
THE DETAILS Are BELOW
The Internal
A STORY COACHING, SELF-DISCOVERY EXPERIENCE FOR THOSE LOOKING TO REGAIN AUTHORSHIP OF THEIR LIVES
Thicht Nhat Hanh, the Zen Buddhist monk spoke profound words when he said, ‘The way out is in.’ A person’s story can come as a revelation, even to themselves, when it is properly told. The pace of the modern world sets our lives in perpetual motion. Our sense of self and ability to be present, to slow down, to act with intentionality, get swept up in a relentless tornado of external demands.
The Internal is a storytelling self-discovery journey, an intimate process that demands all of you. We’ll step out of the din of everyday life, ease the pace, and embark upon a deep exploration of the good, the bad, and the weird in your life. We’ll turn every stone and join far-reaching dots to sculpt a unique, rich, and layered story.
I’ll question, challenge, and champion you like any good coach should, join you in a private viewing of your highlight reel, and slowly tiptoe down your darkest alleys, by your side, to make sure we shine a brighter light on the shadows we too often seek to outrun. You’ll laugh and probably cry. We’ll do this for you, not for external consumption. The Internal is a safe, but expansive experience designed to hand you a powerful narrative to hand you full authorship of your own life, and moving forward, you’ll write awesome new chapters brimming with the values, beliefs, and ambitions we’ll uncover together.
Say hello at ben@bentallon.com, or fill out the form below, and we can arrange a call to discuss The Internal.
The External
For those ready to write the book the world needs
The External is The Creative Condition’s book coaching, writing, or ghost-writing service for individuals or organisations who wish to share their hard-earned experiences, boldest ideas, and valuable expertise in a physical or digital book format to support and motivate others.
Together, across many intimate sessions, we’ll indulge in a series of conversations designed to get to the very core of who you are, identify your most valuable insights, quantify your knowledge, and shape a powerful, entertaining story to fit your unique personality like a glove, all in service of sculpting a gorgeous and motivational story for others to consume, so they might level up and create magic like never before.
The story we tell can represent you, the individual human, capture the essence of your organisation, or the collective crackle of a group of people – founders, leaders, artists, and more – bound by a shared journey. The External is a highly creative, fluid, bespoke process. This is no glorified resume or portfolio presentation. The shape and style of the final book’s story will be determined organically as we work together.
Why Storytelling?
Humans are walking stories
Human beings are walking stories. Every one of us exists within one, our own protagonist, a key ally in the narratives of some, and, hopefully not, but probably a comedy villain, or a dastardly antagonist – miscast or otherwise – in the mid-season finale, or tragi-comedy climax of others.
Stories and gossip separate humans from the rest of all living species. In her classic work of fiction, Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel’s post-apocalyptic travelling symphony employs the tagline ‘survival is insufficient.’ And, despite many of us feeling that we are no longer in control of our lives, simply surviving from one blur of a day to the next, Emily is right. Our need to wonder, discover, and dream is why we need culture and creativity almost as much as water, in the best and worst of times.
Imaginings of what might be flood us with enriching, meaningful emotions, equip us with a crucial sense of purpose, and the courage needed to wade into the chaotic uncertainty that defines our time.
That’s why we each need to tell the best, purest version of our story.
THE VALUE OF YOUR STORY
The story we tell ourselves is key to how we align with our core purpose, our values, access our bliss, conduct our daily business, create magic, pursue ambitions, and enrich the lives of others. But most of the time, we’re exhausted and in demand, so it’s either a skewed, scrambled, or, at best, shape-shifting version of a narrative that could be serving us so much better.
That’s where I can help. I’m a storyteller with two decades of experience weaving narratives through words, pictures, and coaching, as an author, illustrator, and founder of The Creative Condition.
Fresh from telling the stories of Héctor Ayuso, founder of OFFF Festival and Paradiso, and Pablo Honey, Executive Creative Director of Automattic, I’m ready to capture your classic.
Who is this for? Who’d want to read it?
Whether you opt for The External or The Internal experience, we get the best story by telling it first for you. Like any act of great creativity, if it doesn’t delight its maker, how can we expect it to reach those we wish to share it with? We’ll negotiate the broad strokes, the details, and the meaning of your story until you feel thrilled with the outcome. Then we’ll finalise the work. I can provide advice and suggestions about your story’s onward life, as a physical or digital product, and design is a possible additional, optional extra, but to be clear,this is not a publishing or book production service. I work as the right blend of book coach, author, ghost writer, and interviewer to help you write your story.
THE PROCESS
THE INTERNAL
First, we’ll agree on a deadline sympathetic to both of our schedules. Anywhere from 4 weeks to 12 works well.
We’ll aim to keep the story crisp, with an ideal ceiling of 6k words, though if the creative dictates otherwise, that’s fine too.
The Internal’s structure is a 4-session storytelling coaching experience, with reasonable correspondence in between via an agreed communication method to develop your story.
Then, we’ll find a place, where possible in person (but Zoom works well if you’re comfortable with or prefer online), to spend three hours together and talk as openly as is comfortable for you, to outline your story so far.
I’ll ask many questions, dig deep to uncover your professional and personal ‘why’, seek overlooked or discarded magic in dusty corners, join far-reaching dots, and challenge you on certain perspectives. I’ll also suggest alternative spins on certain story beats if they are not serving you. It will feel like equal parts therapy and a passionate pub conversation.
After the first intensive session, I’ll draft your story, and through our three remaining calls and further correspondence, we’ll refine it. We can have fun with the approach and treatment. Some might feel that a concise, punchy overview is the best fit for their story, while others might benefit more from a short fiction-style energy and arc. If you’ve got extra budget, a graphic novel isn’t off the table. A play? Haiku? Whatever captures your essence and gets you going is possible.
We’ll creatively negotiate, edit, and refine your story until we are thrilled to call it complete. I’ll deliver the story in Word or PDF format, equipping you with a deeper, conscious understanding of your purest self, your drivers, your humour, and the value of your missteps, than you’ve ever had before. Then I’ll vanish in a puff of smoke, and you’ll become the author of your life.
THE External
First, we’ll agree on a deadline for completion of your manuscript.
We’ll discuss your motivations for choosing a book as the medium for your story, your expectations, and the vision/onward life you have for it. This will influence the approach to writing your story and determine my role in its creation.
An agreement on my role in your book-writing process will be made. I can serve as a writer or ghostwriter, interpreting your experiences, knowledge, and expertise through our many conversations and crafting the manuscript with your executive input. Or I’ll be your book coach, leading our conversations, challenging and guiding you every step of the way as you write your story.
Our conversations, which can take place in person or online, will be between 60 and 90 minutes, allowing us enough time to find our rhythm without risking fatigue. As the story unfolds, a theme or angle will emerge, guiding our chats as your story comes to life. The number of meetings is subject to the intended size of the book and the work required.
The duration of The External book writing process will be determined predominantly by the agreed deadline, and the frequency of the calls will be dependent upon our respective schedules. We might go for a sprint, condensing the sessions into a shorter period, or take our time to enjoy a slower process.
When we have a complete draft, we’ll both proofread several times until we are happy to put a bow on the manuscript and process at which point we will either part ways or discuss additional professional editing and design options.
COMMITMENTS
FROM YOU
Full commitment to the process and as much honesty and vulnerability as you feel comfortable giving me.
Adherence (within reason) to the agreed timeline for calls, edits, and feedback to help me hit the deadline, gather the momentum and feedback I need to develop and craft your story to its fullest potential.
Where adherence is not possible, acknowledgement that the agreed deadline may not be possible.
50% payment up front and 50% payment upon completion of the story. For The External, 3-4 instalments can be discussed.
FROM ME
Ongoing support, coaching, and input as we craft your story.
Availability in agreed hours to correspond via preferred method of communication (WhatsApp, email, Zoom, etc) to meet our deadline as a team.
Full commitment to the process until we’re delighted with the final story.
Deliverables of your finished story as a manuscript ready for any desired onward life beyond this offer (professional editing, presentation, keynote, PR content, book design and production, etc).
WHY SHOULD BEN TALLON TELL MY STORY?!
I’m the author of nine books, non-fiction, down and dirty fiction, and Héctor Ayuso’s biography. I’ve interviewed hundreds of leading storytellers across art, design, sport, science, psychology, technology, music, film, and more through The Creative Condition podcast, campaigns, and for my books. Hailing from a town once described as ‘one giant Star Wars bar’, owing to its abundance of rich characters, I spend my days seeking rich narratives and new aspects of the human condition.
My unique blend of skills as a professional storyteller across illustration, art, coaching, writing, broadcasting, and interviewing enables me to think differently. This means your storytelling experience will be deeply personal, memorable, creative, and unique.
I’ll be more excited about your story than you, at least when we sit down to begin. I live for stories, whether I’m writing, guiding, hearing, or telling them, and I’d love to help you tell yours. Say hello at ben@bentallon.com or via the form below, and we can explore working together.
