3 frameworks to help you write your story
Storytelling is a big deal in marketing. We know stories are humans’ way of passing knowledge along from cave & campfire days. We know stories are ‘stickier’ than facts. And there are loads of business gurus telling you how important stories are to marketing, management, fundraising, recruitment, sales, etc.
But there’s less information online about how, exactly, to do that. I mean, it’s a pretty big leap from the sharp edges of a potato peeler to a full Hero’s Journey. As we all know from the last backyard barbecue we were at (or any meandering phone call you’ve ever had with your mum), there’s an art to telling a great story, and not everybody is born with the skill.
How to rewrite your company information, your About page, or your software product features in a ‘storytelling’ way isn’t obvious, even when you know that you ‘should’.
So I want to give you a few specific examples of story structures to show you how easy it is to go from “list” to “legend” once you’re aware of the framework.
Challenge, Choice, Change
Katherine Kennedy is a Storytelling Coach extraordinaire … she helps her clients with Ted talks, job interviews, wedding toasts, About pages, you name it. When it comes to connecting authentically with a person and/or an audience, Katherine guides you to go deep, be honest and leave an impression. She helped me realize that the home I grew up in was like another member of our family with its crazy origin, choir balcony, and secret stairways. Leaving it was a deep loss, and snaking through other people’s sentences brings me the same glee as creeping through passages and popping out in surprise.
Katherine is super clear that every great story needs the elements of Challenge, Choice and Change: “Stories are about transformation. They describe an experience: where you found yourself, how you felt, what you found challenging, how you chose to address that challenge, and (the most fascinating part!) how that experience changed you.” Read more in Katherine’s post.
I prefer this idea to what I learned in school, that every story needs ‘conflict’.
Conflict sounds so dramatic, and painful! A lot of corporate stories aren’t that theatrical. I wouldn’t typically think of my struggle to make faster mashed potatoes as ‘conflict’ but it is a weekly challenge. Choosing to finally ditch that legacy veggie peeler and invest in a Sharpo (not a real brand) may not be ground-breaking, but it demands a conscious decision that has to overcome time and money barriers not to mention plain old inertia. Of course now you’re wondering, was it worth it? Was there a change worth talking about? And what, Kate Bonnycastle, can I learn from your Sharpo experience?!?
StoryBrand
With more direction and detail, Donald Miller’s StoryBrand is a well-established approach to teasing out the elements of a good corporate story. You can get help pulling out those elements and weaving them into a story from a certified StoryBrand Guide, like the talented Krista Smith.
This is the StoryBrand 7-part framework:
A character (your customer)
Has a problem
And meets a guide (your business, your service, your product)
Who gives them a plan (the main steps or milestones they’ll go through)
And calls them to action
That ends in success
And helps them avoid failure
There are loads of examples online showing how StoryBrand works equally well for both epic and corporate tales. For example, here’s what it looks like for Star Wars (A New Hope) and for our aforementioned vegetable peeler (which could, after all, be considered the Jedi of kitchen utensils):
A character: Luke Skywalker…. Home cook…
Has a problem: Suffering under Empire rule… “What’s for dinner mom?”…
And meets a guide: Obi Wan… Sharpo vegetable peeler…
Who gives them a plan: Learn & Use the Force… Peel veggies in record time, cook, then serve…
And calls them to action: Defeat the Empire… Get yours for a sale price today…
That ends in success: Aligns the rebels, blows up Death Star… Dinner’s on the table before anyone gets hangry…
And helps them avoid failure: Rebels squashed by Empire Army… Surly kids at the dinner table who don’t eat what you made because they filled up on snacks…
What I love about the StoryBrand approach is that it always makes your customer/ client the Hero.
This is something many of us, neck-deep in building the business, forget. We’re trying so hard to increase our visibility, credibility and notability that we forget we’re only bit players in our client’s movie. This shift alone makes all the difference to your copywriting. Imagining your clients’ struggles, dreams and desires puts you on the right path to tell a story about how your products/services help propel their hero’s journey.
The Story Spine by Kenn Adams (via Pixar)
If you hang out in writer circles, you’ll see Pixar hailed as the master of storytelling. Toy Story, Up, Finding Nemo, Turning Red… all so good! Some writers (including yours truly) are always looking for ‘how things work’, so we poke and prod for rules and formulas. formulae. whatever. Copywriters aren’t any different, and writing about writing usually includes a mention of Pixar’s fail-proof 22 Rules. Rule #4 is a go-to story structure that actually originated with Kenn Adams.
Like challenges and change, problems and plan, the Story Spine demands an essential ‘spin’ that keeps a story interesting:
Once upon a time…
Every day...
But one day...
Because of that...
Because of that...
Because of that...
Until finally...
And ever since then…
Once again, you don’t need rags-to-riches, David vs Goliath, or death’s door drama to make something interesting. You DO need to disrupt the ‘everyday’ with one thing that sets off a ripple of consequences.
Once upon a time… There was a fish named Marlin who loved his son Nemo more than anything…There was a mum who dreaded making dinner…
Every day... Marlin tried to protect Nemo from the dangers of the ocean…She underestimated how long it would take to make a meal, and race to finish while hangry kids harassed her…
But one day… Nemo was caught by a scuba diver and carried away… She decided to splurge on a Sharpo vegetable peeler…
Because of that… Marlin leaves the safety of his home to get Nemo back… It took half the time to peel veggies…
Because of that… Marlin has to overcome his fear to face a series of obstacles (sharks, jellyfish, fast ocean currents)… She got dinner on the table before the kids began to complain…
Because of that… Marlin finds Nemo, then has to face repeating the journey to get him home… Everyone was in a good mood at the family dinner table…
Until finally… Marlin learns to trust that he and Nemo both have what it takes to survive… The family dinner table became a place of delightful conversation, even on weekdays…
And ever since then… Marlin allows Nemo the space he needs to learn & grow… She’s enjoyed a positive, #familygoals relationship with her kids…
The Story Spine is a straightforward storytelling formula that challenges us to think beyond features (the always-sharp edges and comfortable grip of a veggie peeler) to benefits (fast prep time) and, even better, the ripple of benefits of the benefits (delightful conversation, trusting relationships).
Right?
Now when you have to update your About page, don’t know what to add to an event description beyond “time, date, location,” or need to write a testimonial for someone, you’ve got some compelling frameworks to start from. Nobody can tell you that you, your department, or your product doesn’t have a story worth telling.
Come, gather around the campfire, and let me tell you further tales of the legendary Sharpo and his band of goodly gadgets.