What Narrative Is
And What It Isn’t
Basic Formula
In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell identified common patterns in narratives across cultures and ages, summarizing the essential hero’s story formulaically:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
Based on this, a simple formula is available to us:
narrative = characters + predicaments + attempted extrications
In Simon Sinek’s parlance, we can reformulate this to be:
narrative = who + why + how
Which packages the following:
narrative = someone to empathize with + the relevance to do so + a model to follow
What is notably missing from this equation is anything to do with the what, i.e. the institutional “what we believe” or “who we are” statement. Done well, the narrative should engender enough curiosity in the audience to lead them to ask “Why?” In other words, they’re looking for this:
- Why do you believe what you do?
- Why are you who you think you are?
All the better if this is in the voice of someone other than your own.
Narrative taps into the systems of the brain through which all humans learn. An organization or company employing narrative appropriately can create opportunities to help their site visitors and potential leads motivate themselves to dig deeper. An appropriately timed link or call-to-action can then lead them down a relevant path to additional content that helps them to answer that question for themselves.
What It’s Not
Narrative is not a recitation of facts.
Narrative is not an overt attempt to sell.
Narrative is not a justification of your methods or traditions.
Narrative is not a rationalization of beliefs.
Narrative is not a sermon.
Narrative is not your internal organizational structure.
Narrative is not an explanation of how you are unique.
So What?
“Ok! Enough!” you might be saying, “How do I put any of this to work for me?”
Telling the right story means thinking like a storyteller. That starts with keeping the end in mind. To summarize Simon Sinek, it requires defining your Why. Here is a set of questions to get you started:
- What’s being offered? Strive not for profit or to fulfill your own objectives, but to bring true value. Be explicit about what benefits you provide. Getting what you want will result naturally. One way to get at the root of this is to ask yourself this: other than making money, why does your organization do what it does?
- Who’s listening? It’s impossible to speak to everyone. Focus instead on audiences that are most likely to be receptive.
- Who’s talking? Potential leads do not immediately afford you credibility. Inspire trust by doing your research to understand how your audience uses language and modulate yours to match it.
- How is content organized? Whether they can explain it or not, people will know they’ve found what they’re looking for when they’ve found it. Improve your chances by leveraging the natural psychological connections between topics to create content recommendations, search results, and personalization tactics.
- Why are your visitors here? Don’t rely on creatives and writers to create your content strategy. This is akin to hiring a builder to architect your house — just because they’ve built lots of them doesn’t mean they understand the How and Why to design them. You may come in on time and under budget, but you’ll do so for a different set of costs. A content strategist is a user experience professional with experience in asking the right questions to bridge the chasm between business goals and user needs.
Now What?
Understanding the ins and outs of the human mind, consumer behavior, and the power and mechanics of narrative can — will! — help you connect with your audience better.
The question is: What are you missing out on when it comes to narrative, empathy, or the way the brain works? If you missed it, you may want to read my piece on why narrative matters in the first place, “Power of Narrative: Why POV Stories Work (and Why You Should Care).”
If you’re interested in knowing how all this ends up working in the brain of your audience, take a look at “How the brain works: neuropsychology for dummies.”
