Everyone loves a great story, whether it's a novel, a movie, a podcast, or a presentation. But how do you create a captivating story that engages your audience and delivers your message? In this article, you'll learn some basic principles and techniques of storytelling that can help you craft your own stories with confidence and impact.
Before you start writing your story, you need to have a clear idea of why you are telling it and what you want to achieve. Your purpose will guide your choice of genre, tone, structure, and style. For example, if you want to persuade your listeners to take action, you might use a story that shows the benefits of doing so or the consequences of not doing so. If you want to entertain your readers, you might use a story that has suspense, humor, or surprise. Whatever your purpose, make sure it is relevant and meaningful to your audience.
I believe great storytelling emerges from identifying the emotion you are looking to evoke in the consumers mind. The story is merely a vehicle for delivering the stimulus for that emotion. The narrative must take people on a journey, complete with context, obstacle, resolution. The arc must be clear. Add to that sensory cues (visuals, audio etc) and you have a winning story.
Telling a brand or a product story is just like the stories we read. The medium can be visual and thus like telling a film story. It can be verbal and like a podcast or a radio show,it can be written and therefore like a book. Similarly you can start your brand story from the middle, or the end. The beginning does not make for very interesting stories.:) You must therefore have a plot, a hero and a script. Most important know your audience and be ready to tell the story according to the audience. Using archetypes is useful in building the narrative, helps to anchor your brands in the Consumer's life.
Your characters are the heart of your story, and they need to be relatable, believable, and interesting. To create memorable characters, you need to give them personality, motivation, and conflict. Personality is the combination of traits, habits, and quirks that make your characters unique and recognizable. Motivation is the reason why your characters do what they do, and what they want to achieve or avoid. Conflict is the obstacle or challenge that your characters face, and how they react or overcome it. By giving your characters these elements, you can make them more human and engaging.
THE ELEMENT OF STORYTELLING IS A FORMIDABLE ADVANTAGE IN CREATIVE CONTENT WRITING. So, how do we ace the storytelling game? - Recount personal stories, anecdotes, and experiences of struggles, adversities, and challenges, and also how you withstood adversities and came out on top. Human tendency dictates that we all love listening to real-life stories of perseverance, which we can all relate to easily. - Use your unique or distinct recurring themes and styles in the narrative. This may seem a bit paradoxical, but it enhances the repeat value. So, inculcate these common themes in your writing. - Master the art of versatility in your writing, yet maintain an unique style of writing, which is distinct and easily identifiable with you.
It's the characters that bring the story alive. The more we feel we understand a character, the more real they feel...the higher their power over us. Just like in stories and movies, understanding what motivates them or what fears lurk behind is what captivates us and makes them so real. Same is true for brands and products. When we really humanize the people behind your products, we know how to tell our brand story in a way that speaks to them. It's so important therefore for product managers, marketers and founders to know the stories of the people they want to reach.
A simple and effective way to structure your story is to use the classic three-act model: setup, confrontation, and resolution. In the setup, you introduce your characters, setting, and situation, and establish the main problem or goal. In the confrontation, you increase the tension and stakes, and show how your characters struggle or succeed in their quest. In the resolution, you wrap up the story, and show how your characters have changed or learned something as a result. By using this structure, you can create a clear and coherent narrative that keeps your audience interested and satisfied.
This is the way best brand or product concepts are written 1. Context of consumption 2. Why your product fits in 3. How it resolves the tension or problem in consumer's life
One of the most important rules of storytelling is to show, don't tell. This means that instead of explaining or describing what happens in your story, you use sensory details, dialogue, action, and emotion to make your story come alive. Showing allows your audience to experience your story as if they were there, and to form their own impressions and opinions. Telling, on the other hand, can make your story dull, boring, or confusing. For example, instead of saying "She was angry", you can show her slamming the door, shouting, or frowning.
Words are the tools of storytelling, and you need to use them wisely and creatively. To use the power of words, you need to consider your audience, your purpose, and your tone. Your audience is the people who will read or listen to your story, and you need to use words that they can understand, relate to, and enjoy. Your purpose is the message or effect that you want to convey or achieve with your story, and you need to use words that support and reinforce it. Your tone is the attitude or mood that you want to create or express with your story, and you need to use words that match and enhance it.
The final step of creating a great story is to revise and polish it until it is ready to share with the world. Revising means checking and improving the content, structure, and logic of your story, and making sure it is clear, consistent, and coherent. Polishing means checking and improving the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style of your story, and making sure it is accurate, fluent, and elegant. By revising and polishing your story, you can eliminate errors, gaps, and weaknesses, and make it more effective and appealing.
To create a great story, try these steps; - research about the topic thoroughly - write 4-5 broader terms under that topic - write a summary of those topics - find out which one interests you more - write more about that one topic - leave that for a few hours - come back, edit that with good structure and formatting to make it visually appealing - Give a bomb hook, an attention grabbing body and a direct CTA.