Storify Your Blogs: 3 Creative Ideas You Can Use Today

As more and more drab AI content fills the internet, writers will need to find more innovative ways to attract readers.

Even for functional content, using stories to engage the reader could be the answer. Nowadays, you can’t scroll for more than 30 seconds without seeing a post saying ‘Learn storytelling NOW’. Well, I’m not a great fan of the term storytelling. Allow me to tell you why.

Stories vs ‘storytelling’

Stories are built into human history. Ever since Year Dot, we have shared stories together, aurally, pictographically, and through writing. In fact, I would go as far as to say that our entire perception of reality is based on narrative structure.

Think about it: we talk about our football team’s terrible performance as if it is a fact. But, it’s thousands of stories simplified into an expression of annoyance at the 3–0 loss.

Sometimes our conversations run out of steam because we start recounting events that happened to us without any idea of what it means. Stories take time to process and craft. But when we hear them, we experience great emotion, understanding, and empathy.

“After shelter, nourishment and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” Philip Pullman

Stories were not designed for marketing. But in the last ten years, this new word has reared its ugly head — storytelling.

I’d like to stress that cobbling together a quick ‘human-interest angle’ for the purposes of selling your product or service is not a story.

All stories require conflict, character, and resolution. Storytelling often goes something like this: ‘Hi reader. This is Henry. Henry is poor. He hates mowing his lawn, just like you do. This magical $100 lawn-mowing product solved Henry’s problem. Be happy like Henry. Buy the product.’

Does this have conflict, character, and resolution? Kind of, but the key here is that Henry doesn’t change. That’s what great stories require — a moment of epiphany that changes the character forever (and doesn’t just direct them towards a 30% discount on a new lawn mower.)

Bear this in mind when you add stories to your writing.

Three Ways to Use Stories in Your Writing

If you have a well-worn topic and you want to give a personal take on it, you can begin with a story. I recently wrote a newsletter about how to hook the reader and used an old fishing tale as bait.

Using a catchy title is one thing, but elaborating a traumatic event, or sharing a problem with readers will get them to engage in a deeper way. Remember, AI can write skimmable listicles and 'how tos'. But it can’t draw readers in with personality.

Remember, that if you start with an anecdote or story, you have to close the loop. What happened at the end of the day? This is known as ‘bookending’ an article.

Sharing a satisfying end to a story informs the reader why you shared the story. What connection does it have to the content of your piece? And don’t forget to drop a few mentions along the way too. Otherwise, the story from the introduction will be a distant memory by the time the reader reaches the conclusion.

Another way to slip a story into a blog or article is by going on a deliberate tangent. In a YouTube breakdown of some of his best posts, LinkedIn funnyman, Dave Harland , explains that tangents keep the reader present.

Including a weird or funny offshoot to the main focus of your writing makes the reader pay closer attention to the content that follows. It’s like a little reset button or brief musical interlude.

Ensure that your tangent is random or weird, not just an example of the main topic. For instance, in Harland’s post about email subject lines , he uses a brief tangent about a horse named Jeff who nearly qualified for the 1836 showjumping world championships.

This serves several purposes: it keeps the reader guessing, it adds a light touch of humour, and it returns the reader ready to focus on the main message of the post.

The final method for stories is to focus on the character. You can use yourself as an example for each point you make to show the reader the effect of the advice you’re writing.

Alternatively, invent an avatar whose properties and personality can act as the constant to the content changing around them. Remember Henry (the guy who needed a cheap lawnmower)? Show the reader more of his life, his struggles, and his wins and losses. Most importantly, use the character to show an arc or change. How does the overall message of your article link to their life?

Using human-focused stories as examples helps the reader to recognise themselves and say ‘That’s me’.

However you choose to engage your readers, remember that we are human and it is stories that connect us.

Writer of the Month - Olga Melnyk

Olga Melnyk is a Ukrainian author and tech copywriter. In 2022, she published?her debut non-fiction book in English, "Ship Life: Seven Months of Voluntary Slavery " (initially published in Ukrainian in 2018). Through the lens of a diary, Olga shares her firsthand crew experiences, revealing the "ship life" complexities. Her story "Luiba" was one of the 15 texts of the winners of the maritime prose competition published in the book "MATELOT: Sea Collection (2017-2018)".

As a copywriter, Olga cooperates with several agencies and individual clients, writing compelling and SEO-optimized texts for tech companies in English. She joined the Multilingual Writers' Community to connect with her peers, enhance her English writing skills, and get motivated to pursue her next writing projects.??

Round Up of This Month's Posts

• Win $1,000 by submitting a short story to my latest 21 Futures anthology project.
• My latest novella was published. Check out my launch party to find out how I published it and what it's about.
• I moved into my new apartment , and I have absolutely no one to thank but myself.
• Language focus: I delved into ablaut reduplication (the 'tic-tac-toe' rule) and collocation order (fish and chips NOT chips and fish).

Thanks for making it this far.

That's it for this month.

Until next time...

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