Miniseries craft. I'm fascinated by very long form storytelling. Not the infinite loop of soap opera and telenovas. But the telling of stories that take 10 to 25 hours. How do you deliver catharsis along the way? How do you sustain forward movement in character and plot? How do you avoid repetition? How do you balance small focus with large scope? How much cinematic variety will viewers tollerate?

Some examples I've seen at least once.

• Alex Haley's Roots and sequels were 28 hours. 
• Steven Spielberg executive produced Taken (imdb) in ten two-hour episodes, arranging them to be shown on consecutive weeknights. The story runs for three generations.
• Frank Herbert's Dune and Frank Herbert's Children of Dune come to 12 hours.
• 24 and 24: Day 2 are 24 hours each.
• Hitler - ein Film aus Deutschland (1977) is eight hours of surrealism.
• Homer's Illiad and Odyssey were meant to be told, not read.

Reign: The Conqueror, in 13 half-hour episodes, is long for anime. Running on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim of late night fare.

In the ancient world of Macedonia, science and magic are one. One man controls them both ...

Reign, a 21st century sci-fi spin on the epic exploits of Alexander the Great, is a visual feast of cutting edge animation, with engaging characters, an intricate plotline and majestic battle sequences.

From the minds of Peter Chung (Aeon Flux), Rintaro (Astro Boy, Metropolis), and Masao Murayama (Trigun, Cardcaptor Sakura). Animation by Madhouse (Trigun, Vampire Hunter D).

What an amazing team! Rintaro's cinematic remake of Metropolis made a fan of me. Chung's Aeon Flux blended action, philosophy, stylized drawing, and story lines that took the whole series to complete.  

And what a challenging subject. Alexander's accomplishments inspired the ambitions of every world-beating general for the last 1600 years. And they're going to tell it in five and a half hours. I'm just starting to watch. I'll let you know if I agree with Charles Solomon's review.

So what does this have to do with project management?

Your job.

Create project focus, vision, interest, and enthusiasm.

Then keep it going every day for months or years.

Dramatic and comedic structures underly our ability to do this. So storytelling should be part of a PM's people skills. Finding the interesting story lines, the plot complications, the moments that define the character of your team. And how you tell that story, in ways that engage, keep attention, suggest meaning, propel forward momentum, and leave memes that linger usefully.

It's a lifetime skill. Soft stuff. But worthy of study and practice.