Hi darling! Welcome to the my journal, my journey about my real life, my heart and my travels photographing beautiful souls! Sit back, have cup of tea and stay for a while and be sure to say hello!
I know you are DYING to get more of your tribe to be on the edge of their seats when it comes to instagram captions and emails. I mean who doesn’t love the little heart pop on our phones with our friends saying “OMG, this caption. LOL.” or “I love your feed so much.” Seriously, don’t you love the love from our tribes? I know I do. But let’s be honest, a lot of people are lulling them to sleep with the brand stories they are telling.
Literally, babes across the world are ruining perfectly good makeup because they face plant into their avocado toast asleep from shear caption boredom. #savetheslay
Today, I want to show you how you can take a boring story and make it actually interesting AND add brand love all while doing it.
Sound reading worthy? Thought so…
I’m so confident in this, I’m actually going to tell you a story at the end about something extraordinarily boring. I picked the most ho-hum thing I could think of – brushing your teeth. So be sure and check out these tips in action at the end.
Get your bun ready, the techniques I’m about to share will make your story edge of the seat worthy. Get my 9 step by step tips so you can start making changes TODAY.
1.) What’s the story?
First, choose the story you want to tell. Simple right? Eh, not so much especially when you’ve been scrolling through other people lives and finally grab a random photo to post. (Yeah, I see you.)
Writer’s block is real when there is no direction to the post. Once you have a photo, you are nailed down to simply making one comment about it. Sure, you’ve got a sunny selfie and most people plop a “Weekend Vibes” something or other in there. (FOR THE LOVE TELL US SOMETHING INTERESTING.) Let’s take a sidebar here and remember a quote by Gary V. He says “In order for you to sell me something you first need my attention.” This is why storytelling across your brand is super important because a good story grabs attention.
I too have had the dreaded “OMG I’ve got to post and have no direction feels.” (THE STRUGGLE IS REAL even when you are a pro writer. Newsflash, I don’t always have it together and I’ve got my cray cray hair stories to prove it.)
2.) Identify the feeling you want the reader to have by the end.
It is helpful to know the end result you want the story to have.
Is it shock?
Awe?
Wonder?
LOLS?
Pick the vibe based on your tribe who will be reading it!
I know what you are thinking, “I don’t know the feeling I want them to have.”
GIRL, yes you do. Think about the last dramatic story you told your bestie. What reaction did she have? Did she laugh? Did she gasp? Did she smile? Why did you tell her THAT story in that way?
PRO tip: Think of your readers face after they read what you are writing. What does it look like? That reaction is a feeling they have. Run with it.
3.) Keep the visual of the story in your mind and begin to identify the details you generally would overlook.
Pretend for a second your reader has no image of the story except for the words you are using.
What’s the location?
Who are the characters?
Replay the story in your mind over and over and see what keeps standing out.
3.) Birdseye view.
Generally, most people begin to describe a scene from their perspective in the story, but just like a videographer shoots different angles to get the shot, try telling the story from an alternate perspective than the obvious.
PRO TIP: This is my go-to tip because it makes the story that much more interesting because it’s surprising
The beginnings of a great story start in the imagination. Once you have the idea and the imagination of the concepts you can begin writing. For me, this process is so second nature. As soon as I begin writing an image shows up in my mind and I begin to describe it taking parts of the story and personifying it to add dimension.
4.) Start with a cliffhanger.
“It all fell apart.”
“I woke up suddenly.”
“It didn’t go as planned.”
“I was shocked when I saw her.”
These attention-getting lines to draw in the reader and get them engaged to the story. The more surprising the better. They help lead the reader into the middle of the story so they continue into it curious to see the rest.
5.) Let your mind wander to comparisons or analogies.
These little bite-sized nuggets of literary art are like surprise warm chocolate chips hidden in the center of a cookie. They let your reader into your mind and allow them to get to know you based on various examples of like you gravitate towards.
6.) Use words that evoke emotions.
The choice of words has an incredible impact of the interest of the story. Choosing the right words give the reader an image they can see and feel.
7.) Consider using elements from all 5 senses when telling the story.
Engaging the reader’s senses gives them more content into the story and make it more interesting to read.
8.) Make it legendary.
Is there a hero and a villain? Could there be one? Who is the unexpected hero? Who is the surprising villain? Find them in your story. They might be less obvious but the more hidden they are, the more surprising it is when you reveal them to your tribe.
PRO TIP:
Coffee is always the hero. The villain? No coffee creamer
Hero? Children who do their chores.
Villain? Chores.
Hero? The dog.
Villain: The squirrel that taunts her.
Hero? The UPS guy.
Villain: The bill he delivered instead of boxycharm.
9.) Rename the obvious
Think of different names for something totally obvious. Take elements of the story and give them a description that is obvious but interesting. Have you seen the meme about snakes? They call them danger noodles. Racoons? Trash Pandas.
BONUS!
10.) Make fun of yourself.
One of the best ways to connect to your tribe is to allow them to relate to you. We all know no one has a perfect life and the more we share about what really goes on, the more we connect to our audience and build trust stories do that brilliantly.
Here is a back to back comparison of how most people tell stories and then how using some of these secrets gave it a makeover. Which one would you want to show up in your email or in a caption of someone you follow?
The normal avocado face smashing boredom way:
“I am so tired! Got my new Pjs from Target. Gotta get ready for bed so I can get some sleep! I love my nightly routine. It’s so wonderful to end the day taking care of myself. There is nothing like washing my make up off knowing that tomorrow is a fresh start. Even brushing my teeth makes me feel like myself again. Can’t wait for a great day tomorrow! Night!
Did you even read that? I got bored writing it. Let implement my 10 story secrets, shall we?
“It wasn’t my fault. My eyes fought against me like a pair of too small Spanx in December. I was one matching pajama top away from a Christmas card as I stood in front of the dimly lit mirror. Even with marshmallow eyes, I could clearly see bathroom mirror looked like a someone did a cannonball into the bathtub leaving the Olympic Gold worthy splash pattern. I pulled open the drawer, still in wonder at the mess of a masterpiece. I reached to grab my smile shinner wand and entire hand was suddenly summered. That’s when I looked down and saw it. The toothpaste tube explosion of 2018. Linning my bathroom drawer was the once minty fluoride free contents of my Tom’s liquid toothpaste. So I did what any frugal mom would do but be embarrassed to admit- I dipped my wand into the remnants of the minty goop that covered the bottom of the drawer. I did it. I had no choice. As I slowly brushed my teeth, that’s when it hit me. A small particle of paste leaped from my mouth evaded the logic of the atmosphere, traveled upwards and backward, through time and space and entered my sleep deprived eye. I suddenly turned into the wavey arm character outside of every car dealership. Alfie’s Christmas Story face flashed across to my mind I began to fight to save the life of my right eye from the bb sized toothpaste gob. I was now completely blind and I frantically named my seeing eye dog, counted steps from my room to my closet, learned to read brail, I washed the evil particle from my face. I lifted my face and realized, I had indeed made more of a mess than the contributing cannonball. I got a gold medal that day and went to sleep knowing I’m a really good spur of the moment dog namer.
Nw here is a breakdown of what tips I used where!
“It wasn’t my fault. (Tip 4) My eyes fought against me like a pair of too small Spanx in December. (TIP 5) I was one matching pajama top away from a Christmas card as I stood in front of the dimly lit mirror (TIP 3). Even with marshmallow eyes, I could clearly see bathroom mirror looked like a someone did a cannonball into the bathtub leaving the Olympic Gold worthy splash pattern (TIP 3 and 5). I pulled open the drawer, still in wonder at the mess of a masterpiece. I reached to grab my smile shinner wand (TIP 9) and entire hand was suddenly summered. That’s when I looked down and saw it (TIP 4). The toothpaste tube explosion of 2018. Linning my bathroom drawer was the once minty fluoride free contents of my Tom’s liquid toothpaste. (TIP 6+7) So I did what any frugal mom would do but be embarrassed to admit- I dipped my wand into the remnants of the minty goop that covered the bottom of the drawer. (TIP 6+10) I did it. I had no choice. As I slowly brushed my teeth, that’s when it hit me. A small particle of paste leaped from my mouth evaded the logic of the atmosphere, traveled upwards and backward, through time and space and entered my sleep deprived eye (TIP 10). I suddenly turned into the wavey arm character outside of every car dealership (TIP 10). Alfie’s Christmas Story face flashed across to my mind I began to fight to save the life of my right eye from the bb sized toothpaste gob. I was now completely blind and I frantically named my seeing eye dog, counted steps from my room to my closet, learned to read brail, I washed the evil particle from my face (TIP 8). I lifted my face and realized, I had indeed made more of a mess than the contributing cannonball (TIP 10.) I got a gold medal that day and went to sleep knowing I’m a really good spur of the moment dog namer.
Now go forth and tell great stories! Remember, the more you share your stories, the more you will have your leads attention, and that is what you will need when you are ready to make an ask!
PLEASE COMMENT BELOW