I keep writing tweets and then deleting them. Struggling to think of what to say, aware that I don't need to say anything, mostly trying to just elevate people saying what I'm feeling instead. I'm just so tired.

But here's one thing I need to say. Societies run on stories. The media should be handling that role, but oops, our media has been co-opted at its upper levels and is untrustworthy these days. It's incumbent upon all of us to become storytellers instead. So: storytelling tips!

A good story needs a hook. The hook is where you catch your audience's attention by zooming in on the thing that is out of place, the problem that must be solved. You can hook people at any point in a story, but the best hooks are on line 1, IMO.

Examples: Our country, built on racism and always weakened by it, is now being destroyed by it. These have been peaceful marches, many infiltrated by those bent on tainting the message. Police are making it increasingly clear that they serve themselves, not the public.

Build your story arc with suspense: question the money or politics. Ask who ordered cops in X area to aim at protestors' heads, frex. If politicians are saying this violence is good, wonder aloud who they're speaking for. Where did the instigators come from?

The power of the Civil Rights Movement lay not only in what organizers did, but in the optics and their narrative interpretation. Right now, state-sponsored disinformation networks -- including from our own country -- are busy trying to redefine this moment. Don't let them.

(You've already started hearing their Floyd Protest Greatest Hits: the white people inciting violence are all antifa, black people "loot" and never "protest," everyone who got hurt somehow deserved it, those poor cops, forced to drive over pedestrians, boo hoo. Etc.)

Don't engage the disinfos; half of 'em aren't real. Their stories appeal to anger. Counter with empathy. Right now there are whole industries invested in making the public mourn inanimate objects! Your focus should be *people.* Black lives, which matter more than some building.

Your story won't have an ending because America, but you can bring closure to a few character arcs in the form of killer cops convicted, instigators arrested, or protestors unjustly jailed being set free. Amplify the protest message: no justice, no peace, no more racist police.

No peaceful stories, either. No mollifying nonsense about how we all just need to get along. No both-sides-ism. No shutting up on the demand for justice. No mealymouthing the truth.

Good luck, y'all.