What makes a great story?
If you have a vision for streets, you must help others understand the benefits by inspiring them through stories. In the future, streets could be a place we go to forge connections with our community and travel or roam safely, irrespective of age and ability. However, right now, we have come to associate our streets with cars which limits the other ways we’d like to use streets. The physical environment and our habits now shape the story we tell about what streets are for. We can change that. We can help people see new possibilities for streets. We can do that by understanding what matters to our audience and sharing stories that resonate with them.
Perhaps you don’t consider yourself a storyteller. The truth is, we all are. Storytelling is how we make sense of the world; gain new perspective and form long-term memories.
Perhaps, like me, you have tried to reason the case for healthy streets - streets that are safe, comfortable, community-oriented, backed up by evidence. Unfortunately, evidence does not persuade. At least, not on its own. I first realised this through the teachings of Common Cause Australia in a values-based messaging fundamentals class. Over the past year I’ve taken courses in creative writing, copywriting, business writing and worked with a marketing coach. I noticed patterns. I realised that the very things that drive my love of books are the same things that make me want to buy a product. They are the same things that make for a convincing business case and can galvinise peolpe to take an action even when it is unfamiliar. I discovered persuasion lies not in facts but in emotional connection and narrative.
This article demonstrates how these two ingredients of great stories apply to a diverse array of media - from business writing to copywriting, to help you tell stories that influence.
“Everything we build, literally and metaphorically, from the physical infrastructure of our society to our institutions and all the products of our culture, have their roots in the story and reflect its logic back to us. The story surrounds us on a daily basis, providing near constant conditioning ”
1. Emotional connection
A good story appeals to what people care about. When change is involved, influential storytelling addresses what those affected, and those with the power to change, care about.
In creative writing, readers connect with characters they identify with or become invested in. This is achieved by giving the characters depth so as to demonstrate actions that are consistent with their predicament and outlook. In marketing and communications this means appealing to what the audience cares about. Typically, we appeal to extrinsic motivations. This works well when the goal is to encourage the audience to act in their self-interest. Values-based messaging achieves the same ends - it inspires the audience to act a certain way - but does so by appealing to intrinsic motivations. In doing so, it cultivates a tendency for people to act in the common interest.
Did you consider that business writing can and should do the same?
Underneath key performance measures, processes, guidelines, strategies and ambition, we are all people. Our leaders are people. Our colleagues are people. Your clients are people. In business to customer businesses (‘B2C’), this is known and widely cultivated. It’s called copywriting. In business to business (‘B2B’) land, we think of our clients as … I don’t know, robots? Do you enjoy reading 100-page documents (oh wait, that’s a moot point because you don’t read it. AI does.) You do read social media though.
Good business writing can and should be succinct. Remember that saying “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”? This applies to strategies, reports, whitepapers (even this blog).
So, do yourself and your reader a favour next time you are writing. Start with the audience. Put yourself in their shoes. Define the purpose of the document (even if it is to give a purely technical summary), and take the shortest route possible to get there, in a way that resonates with them. This is critical if you are writing for influence. Instead of pouring your time into quantity, spend your time finding the overlap between your vision and that of your audience (1).
If you are writing for multiple audiences (say, members of the public, subject matter experts and elected officials, that might mean you have to write at different levels for different readers. Think executive summary ‘skimmable headings’. Maybe you need to provide a supplement for one audience that is a graphical summary. Great! Just make sure you start with your audience in mind and communicate in the way that will resonate with them, and considering their humanness
2. Narrative
Whether you’re writing a strategy, business case, advertisement, proposal, social media post, policy, grant, or public notice, the way to get your audience to respond a certain way is to give them agency. You can do this with narrative that shows them their role in achieving a desired vision. Narrative is a product of structure. In creative writing, there are some familiar storylines that show a character overcoming a challenge and prevailing into a different reality (think “rags to riches” or “noble quest”). Did you know that non-fiction often adopts these structures too? It’s called creative non-fiction. There are literary prizes for works of creative non-fiction, that tell true stories, often memoirs, that have a narrative woven through them that takes the reader on a journey, lures them in and conveys information in a way that puts a mirror to their soul.
Guess what? Almost every communication format adopts a narrative structure too.
In marketing or copywriting it’s all about the transformation. What does your audience want (you’ll often hear the term ‘desire’). What stands in their way? Show them the transformation that is possible (always humanising it with examples, preferably from your own life). Then show them how they can take ownership of it and do it for themselves. In business writing, the narrative takes you from problem (always find the right problem to solve first!) to benefits (what do we get if we remove the problem?) to finding the right response or intervention that can help us solve the problem and deliver the benefits. It might be referred to as program logic. A similar concept is adopted in social change, referred to as theory of change. In values-based messaging we are offered a vision, a mutable barrier and an action we can take to contribute to the removal of the barrier.
What is the common thread to all these narratives? Agency. There’s something we can do to remove what stands in the way of us getting something better.
“What would it look like if we put the same energy and inspiration that currently goes into telling ourselves we’re Consumers, into building our agency as Citizens?”
Your readers want to do something. Do them a favour. Show them how. They’ll probably do it and they’ll come back for more of your stories.
How I structured this post
In the spirit of walking the talk, let’s quickly look at the narrative I structure for this post (2).
Value: responsibility
Vision: Streets can be for people
Barrier: We (by which we mean everyone who uses streets) tell ourselves a story about what streets are for which limits what we think is possible.
Action: See every story as an opportunity to connect your vision of streets to what matters for your audience
I also inserted myself into the story, in an attempt to connect human to human. How did I go? Do you feel empowered? Let me know. We need your stories and we need lots of them.
Notes
1 - Katherine Hayhoe’s book Saving Us, along with her newsletter, are dedicated to encouraging people to transcend differences and connect over shared values in pursuit of climate solutions.
2 - The Value-Vision-Barrier-Action framework was created by Common Cause foundation. I learned about it in depth through Common Cause Australia’s masterclass.