Defining the story arc

- I'm sure this has happened to you. You hear a story and you're gripped. You rush home to tell your favorite person in the world who you know is going to be so excited or appalled or fired up by this story. You start to tell it and then you realize it's just not the same. Your spouse or your friend or whomever you're telling the story to, they shrug, and that's the end, the story dies, vanished in the subpar delivery. The impact? Gone. The reason this happened is that your story was probably not setup and retold in the right way. All the good parts, probably the best parts were told first, leaving nothing for the end. Every good story follows a predictable pattern and this applies to all stories whether it's fiction or non-fiction, whether it's about your brand or your brand new shoes, this pattern is called a story arc. The story arc begins with a setup. Consider the setup basic background information. To get your audience emotionally invested, they need to know the context. They need to understand the characters, the setting and the mood. Where and when does the story take place? Who's involved? What roles do they play? The character is introduced here, flaws and all, so that the audience can relate. You build the dramatic tension by letting people know what's at stake. Conflict begins here and we wonder what the character's struggling with and what they need to do, the goal of the story. In a story about your brand and product, more often than not, the main character represents your ideal customer. Let's say your company offers part-time bookkeeping for small business. The main character may be an overworked entrepreneur who doesn't have time to do their own books, who owes the IRS money and has trouble collecting payments for their work. This entrepreneur is overwhelmed, stressed and at their wits end. Once the setup takes place, here's where the action starts. Imagine this overworked entrepreneur decides to take action and dedicates a week to get their books in order, but during this week, an important client gets put on the back burner, a key networking event is missed, and this entrepreneur even forgets their kid's birthday. Now our main character has a series of problems to fix. This can lead the story in many different ways and at each crossroad, there's a new goal met with new obstacles. Finally, the actions come to a head at the peak of the story arc, which is called a climax. This climax is followed by resolution, falling actions that involve a change in the main character, and reveal the meaning behind the story. In the end, some universal truth prevails. As a story writer, you have to decide what that is and build toward it, revealing the meaning bit-by-bit. In this example, maybe the entrepreneur stumbles on your company or someone points him toward it and your product is there to guide him to financial success. Every good story follows this predictable pattern, and the moment that your brand or product masters this story arc is the moment you start being a truly powerful force. I want you to succeed, so I have a small gift for you. I've created a downloadable template here so you can start structuring your story in the best possible way.