A Tip I Use to Write Better Stories
Let’s talk Storytelling. The word is so overused, right?
If Video was the most overused marketing word of the last few years, I feel like STORYTELLING is a first cousin.
Don’t get me wrong, storytelling really IS EVERYTHING, but when marketers use the word so freely without actually defining what it means in context, it loses its meaning.
As a former TV producer and video journalist who spent a decade telling other people’s stories, I can tell you there is a fine line between telling a brilliant story and a boring one. Most people start their stories with the WHAT rather than the WHY and that’s a snoore fest.
When I would make TV, the goal was never to make someone just watch the story
But to make someone care about the story.
We always used to joke at The TODAY show that if you couldn’t make your boss cry in the edit room then you needed to rework your script before show time.
As small business owners, getting someone to care about your business is EVERYTHING.
When you’re wearing all the hats (including being your 24/7 marketing department)
…mastering the art of telling your story really does mean the difference between putting dollars into your pocket or not.
When there are hundreds? thousands? millions? of other people who are doing the same thing as you, HOW do you stand out?
Well, it’s your story.
You’re a special snowflake dammit and you need to learn how to get that message across.
The good news is that you don’t have to be the next Great Novelist or Oscar-award winning filmmaker to write a compelling story.
You can learn how to do that. Like anything in life, it takes practice, but here is a really cool tip I learned from the creators of “South Park”.
If you’ve been part of my Tribe, you know that in order to tell a powerful video story you NEED. TO. WRITE. IT. DOWN. FIRST.
No whipping out the phone and hitting record because you’re feeling “Wild and Free” today…
Try doing this the next time you’re writing your video script, or really any piece of marketing content for your biz.
If you can put the phrase “and then” in between every single line of your script and it makes sense, that is NOT a story. It’s just a series of occurrences and guess what… that story is going to be BOR to the ING. #BORING.
However, if you can alternate the words “Therefore” and “But” in between each line and it makes sense, you are onto something my friend.
A compelling story…
