The Sugar Shack
From Boring to Boiling: Tapping into Interesting Stories
The Sugar Shack at full boil with steam rising out of the roof
“My topic is boring… I don’t have an interesting story to tell.”
I scoff every time I hear that.
In the US, the Discovery Channel has made NINETEEN seasons of The Deadliest Catch. This is a TV show dedicated to profiling crab fisherman on the Bering Sea. They show us the details of a topic that may seem boring. Every season there is drama and tension about where to fish, how much they haul, equipment breaking down, weather, and friction with the crew.
People don’t love stories because of the topic. They love them because of how they connect to the details and people. Any time you think “My topic is boring,” it’s time to start digging.
Every day this past month I’ve been running to my Instagram to check if there is a new update from one of my favorite accounts. It’s a private account run by a woman named Lindsay who is documenting her maple syrup season.
Transfixed over maple syrup?! It’s delicious and fascinating! From the latest happenings on the sugarbush (the forest where maple trees are tapped) to the sugar shack where the sap is boiled into syrup, it’s an involved process. This maple season had all the elements of a great story, and I couldn’t wait to see how it turned out.
Lindsay’s updates felt like a mini-documentary. She walked through each step of the process, sharing the science, technique, and mishaps. I’m not sure if the syrup was the protagonist or the antagonist, but I showed up daily to find out.
Below are a few approaches you can leverage to make your boring topic and story interesting.
Start with the Basics
Each day, Lindsay gave a mini-science lesson about nature and maple syrup. She explained how trees have to be at least 10 inches in diameter to be tapped, making them at least 40 years old. Sap flows when it’s below freezing at night and above freezing during the day. This means you never quite know when the season begins.
Sap is clear and looks like water because it is only 1-2% sugar. This is measured in Brix. It doesn’t become maple syrup until the moisture Is boiled off and it reaches 66% brix. The longer the boil, the darker the color. It takes an average of 40 gallons of sap to create one gallon of maple syrup.
Start by making a list of all the basics around your topic. What are the introductory pieces an audience needs to understand? Within those basics, there are details and insights that your audience doesn’t yet know and will find fascinating.
Share Your Process
Lindsay would show how much sap had come in overnight. A few times there was so much that the reservoir overflowed. She’d then walk through the steps from getting the sap out of the holding tank to the boilers, then strained and finally bottled.
As she shared the process, she described the equipment and the different considerations with each step. For example, she was struggling to get the fire underneath the boilers hot enough. She realized that hardwood burned longer, but also took longer to get up to temperature. Softwood got hotter in a shorter time but required more resources.
People love to learn the processes involved in things. It gives a behind-the-scenes perspective. Outline the major steps involved in your topic. What are the different considerations for each? If you were going to film a timelapse video of the process, what would we see? Share your process as though we are alongside you, watching what you are doing.
Some of the Maple Syrup Lindsay produced this year.
Make Us Feel the Constraints
There is some serious drama in making maple syrup. As a solo boiler, each day was a race to see what Lindsay could accomplish. One day, the sap was flowing in so quickly that she struggled to boil enough to avoid the reservoir overflowing. Another day it was getting the syrup bottled so it didn’t sit too long.
Constraints create wonderful tension in stories. Running out of money, time, resources, or energy turns the dial on the pressure of the situation. What are the constraints you face? What happens if you don’t accomplish something? How does breaking them impact people? Identify the limitations and the impacts.
File that under “Huh!”
Sap collected in the first part of the season is lighter in color because has more sugar in it and requires less boiling time to achieve the 66%. Darker syrups spend more time boiling because they have less sugar and are often from later in the season.
The season ends when the sap begins to smell like buds. It’s no longer good to turn into syrup. You never know when that day will come. Which means you are in a constant race to keep the sap moving. You want to prevent the “bud” sap from mixing in with the “good” sap in the reservoir and ruining the batch.
Interesting, right? As you explain your process and constraints, there are interesting nuggets to note. These are the things that make someone say “Huh, I didn’t know that.” What are the random facts about your topic?
Embrace the Mishaps
Great stories come from “whoopsie!” moments. Lindsay came on camera a few times drenched in sap or syrup. One mishap came as she tried to siphon sap from the reservoir and ended up covered. Another time a piece of equipment leaked, and maple syrup poured on the counter.
Messy moments, mistakes, and mishaps all make great stories. When have you had an unexpected mishap? How did you learn about the mistake? What was the impact of the mishap? What is something that went sideways but you can laugh about now? Capture these moments as potential stories and details.
Swoon With Nostalgia
As Lindsay worked, she’d share how she got into making syrup. Her father started the tradition and even had the sugar shack built. When she was a child, her father asked her to draw a label for the syrup. She did a rough sketch, planning to turn it into a nicer one. Only to find out that her father took the sketch and made 1000 labels with it. They are the same ones she uses today.
When Lindsay boiled at night, friends would stop by the sugar shack for food. They’d have a jam session of life music while plumes of steam rose off the boilers. She brought us into the nostalgia of this ritual with these sentimental moments of how she got there and who was a part of it.
Who came before you? Are there any iconic artifacts that can serve as symbols of nostalgia? Can you share flashbacks of how you got to this point?
The next time you think that your topic is boring, know that you are too close to it.
Make topics and stories memorable by treating them like a kaleidoscope. Look at them from different angles to bring out the people, the details, and the moments that make them relatable to the audience.
Don’t be afraid to be sappy 😉
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