When I was young, story time was one of my favorite moments. One of my best memories from story time was when my fourth-grade teacher read “The Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles” to the class every afternoon. I’ve always loved escaping reality through a good story, and many others feel the same way. To help your readers connect with your content, it’s important to create detailed characters, set the scene for your discussion, and ultimately resolve the main character’s problem. This may seem like a big challenge to achieve in 500 to 1000 words, but once you grasp the ideas, you’ll find it easy to write engaging blog content that builds a dedicated audience.
Know the characters in your story.
“Don’t try to picture the large audience. Each reader is an individual.” This quote from William Zinsser’s book, On Writing Well, gives us valuable insight into connecting with your audience. Creating relatable characters is crucial for a successful blog. Whenever I begin writing creatively, I always focus on developing a character profile. Character profiles (or buyer personas, as we call them in the inbound marketing world) are documents created by taking the time to understand how that fictional persona thinks, acts, and makes choices. Since everyone is influenced by their life experiences, it’s important to include at least a bit of their background to truly grasp how their character has evolved.
Set the Stage.
All great stories start with a memorable beginning that allows the reader to identify where in time the story has occurred and provide a reference to what was happening at that time. As an example, explore some of the most famous introductory quotes from popular canonical novels:
- It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984.
- It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.
- I am an invisible man. —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man.
All of these introductions provide the reader with an immediate frame of reference. Whether you quote someone famous, begin with a story, or jump straight into your topic – you must begin with a powerful statement that gives your reader a sense for what to expect. Orwell positioned his famous novel, 1984, perfectly, as the reader can easily identify that the time they’re referring to is entirely out of the norm. Dickens chooses a more lengthy description, perfectly situating the reader in the midst of a tumultuous time. However you choose to begin, be sure that it helps the reader to better understand a moment that will provide perfect reference for the story to come.
Solve the Protagonist’s Problem.
In all great literary works, the protagonist runs into a bit of an issue. Whether it’s Ishmael taking on a fish far larger than he can handle, an impossible love affair between two completely incompatible characters or just a simple story of a user issue solved by your product or service, make sure that you take the time in your blog, after the story has developed, to solve the problem. The idea of “Happily Ever After” is something that most people have come to know. Your readers seek to read stories and resources that provide their own version of a happy ending. Be sure to address the issue in detail and provide some sort of resolution by the end in order to bring it full circle and give the reader the “warm, fuzzy” feeling they’ll inevitably gain from reading your marketing story.
Wrap it up.
“Your readers hear the laborious sound of cranking. They notice what you are doing and how bored you are by it. They feel the stirrings of resentment. Why didn’t you give more thought to how you were going to wind this thing up? Or are you summarizing because you think they’re too dumb to get the point? Still, you keep cranking. But the readers have another option. They quit.” – Zinsser, on Conclusions.
The ending of a story is as crucial as that first sentence. Mess up the ending and your readers may never return. The wrap up is easy in concept, but much more difficult in execution. You must take your character, your setting, your problem, your resolution and address them all in a compelling and concise manner that ends your story and leaves your reader feeling as though there were a purpose behind your writing (because there always is). The conclusion can’t be boring. The conclusion must offer up your perspective without sounding like a robotic recount of everything you’ve just discussed. In marketing it has to be even more, by offering up a call to action. (After all, why else are you writing this blog than to get your readers to engage further with your brand?) This article from Copyblogger provides great insight on how to “Go out in style”.
The most important thing to remember is to be yourself in your writing. Your readers come to learn from you and hear your story. They know you’re an expert and they trust you to be their resource. By establishing a great story to go along with your useful information, your readers will be enamored by your topics and hanging on your every word. By the time you finish, they’ll be putty in your hands. Use your story to develop a more loyal readership by creating the most compelling blog content you possibly can.
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