5 elements that will help you be an enchanting storyteller
Its not enough to just write something down, words are just words if they do not lure a reader into getting lost and reading to the end. So how do you become a wizard of storytelling?
These are five elements I believe make a good story, getting one of them right is hard but a great start, getting all five of them into one piece of content whilst remaining true to the audience you are trying to reach is the stuff of legend. Whilst I am still learning and trying to get all these elements into my content I still try to remind myself what they are and work towards hitting them in every piece I produce.
Empathy. This one is a tough one, to strike a chord with your reader you want to try and provoke an emotional response that causes them to relate to what you are talking about. If you know your audience then you should talk around a pain point or draw from an experience you had. If you get this right and appeal to someone’s empathetic side you will almost certainly keep them engaged and the outcome of this will hopefully be engagement or driving them to an action. People often associate empathy with sad situations but you can apply empathy to many situations, it all comes down to how you tell the story. Be transparent and open up about the specifics, this doesn’t make you vulnerable just truthful, get this right and provoke empathy in your reader and you will win.
Value. The bottom line of all content production is value, or at least it should be. Sure, brands creating content want to turn their audience, readers, viewers, fans, subscribers etc into customers but the brands that win the long game give this value up front in the form of useful content. Don’t hide behind the perception that you should save your best stuff for paying customers give away your knowledge and expertise, create content that delivers value this will create affinity and pay of in the long term. A great example of one brand creating valuable content that springs to mind is Flymo, they make lawn mowers amongst other garden maintenance products.
Flymo have gone all in on content creating guides such as “How to stripe your lawn” and the handy “Lawn care calendar” which gives you a blow by blow of what to do in every month of the year to care for your lawn. This dedication to providing value without asking for anything in return is exactly why value is one of my key elements.
Suspense. Using suspense can be super powerful, look at Game Of Thrones, they take up to two years in between seasons to film but everyone that watched the last season shows up for the new one! Suspense doesn’t always come front of mind when creating content and its not always applicable but, if you can weave it in by subtly dropping in detail about a point then moving the story along and picking that point back up later on, it will keep your audience interested.
Conflict (in the right circumstance). In the right circumstance, conflict can create suspense and grip a reader. A great advantage to utilise if you can deploy it in the right way. Conflict can be subtle or can be the protagonist of your story, the key to utilising conflict is not to engineer it but instead if it naturally occurs as part of your story emphasise and embellish it. If you can find the ability to deploy conflict in your story in the right way it can be a very powerful thing.
Authenticity. A super important element, if not the most important. Without authenticity you are not relatable, nor are you trustworthy. The shift over the last 5–10 years in online culture with the growth of social networks has forced content creators to be more transparent and authentic. Authenticity makes you relatable. The success of video platforms like YouTube has removed the barrier of entry for creating content to everyone, unleashing a boat load of vloggers some of which are more successful and “famous” than some film stars. That is because they are authentic, they may have their own style and tell stories in different way’s but they get in front of a camera and its just them, raw and authentic. Be authentic.
Those are the 5 elements I believe make up great storytellers, do you agree?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this post, I am trying to write more so any feedback is much appreciated : )
