Storytelling advice that isn't utter horseshit

Right. I can’t be fucked with a long intro today.

There’s some woman next to me in the cafe doing what can only be described as some sort of Voodoo ritual over Facetime with her friend. It’s incredibly off-putting while I’m trying to write and, frankly, all I can focus on right now is piledriving her headfirst straight into the nearest table hahaha.

Apologies in advance if I’m a little “short” in this email, lol. It’s not you - it’s her.

Anyways……

You’re about to learn how to pluck story ideas out of thin air (even if you’re currently sat there thinking “I don’t have any interesting stories”).

But first…

Let’s clear up the normie advice about how to find good story ideas:

“Think about the 3 most interesting things that happened to you in the last few days!”

“You need to read more!”

“Go for a walk!” (fuck off, please).

Now…

I have no doubt the people giving this advice are well-intentioned.

And I am NOT hating on reading or walking (I do them both, a lot).

All I’m saying is…

In isolation, they do sweet fuck all to help you come up with stories that convert (into followers, newsletter subs, or sales)

Trust me - been there, tried it.

Does. Not. Work.

All this will do is make you want to headbutt the wall in frustration because you can’t find a way to make a story about eating your morning porridge exciting.

“Oooh you had blueberries on it this morning, did you?!? Well, in that case…. SUBSCRIBED!!!!!”

Lol.

The problem with this approach to storytelling?

It focuses on the EVENTS which occurred.

Why is this a problem?

Because…

The purpose of a story is NOT to describe what happened.

Instead…

The purpose of a story is to trigger an emotional change in your reader (which, in turn, sparks a behaviour change - i.e. buying)

Read those last couple sentences again.

Why?

Because they leave breadcrumbs about how to find story ideas.

Your goal is to…

Identify the EMOTIONAL TRANSITION that will force your reader to ACT.

How do you do this?

Ask yourself:

1. What am I trying to sell?

2. What emotion is my reader currently feeling?

3. What emotion will make them buy?

I’ll give you an example in a second.

But before that, just to be clear…

I’m using “sell” it in its most “liberal” sense here. Persuading someone to follow you is “selling” them on your content. Persuading someone to sub to your newsletter is “selling” them on their emails. You get the picture.

Right. Back to point.

Do you see what we’re doing here?

We’ve stopped thinking of stories as EVENTS.

We’ve started thinking of stories as EMOTIONAL TRANSITIONS.

Why does this help?

Because…

We don’t remember what we think, say or do.
But we remember how we feel.

It is HARD to remember EVENTS which have happened.

But it is EASY to remember EMOTIONS we have felt.

Now…

I know I’m talking in the abstract here.

So… let me scrub this murky glass and make it a little clearer for ya.

An example should do the trick, eh?

Let’s say I’m trying to sell a course on storytelling (meta AF, amirite?)

Side note: I’ll be taking my Ultimate Guide to Storytelling off the shelf in the next few days. 1,000+ people have downloaded it. Might wanna grab it before I nuke it.

Well, then here would be my thought process:

1. What am I selling? Storytelling course

2. What is my reader’s feeling NOW? Confused (about storytelling)

3. What do I want my reader to feel at the END?: Hopeful (about their ability to write high-converting stories)

That’s the emotional transition I want:

Confused → Hopeful.

Then my job is simple:

Think about a time when I felt confused.

I can literally rattle off 10 right now.

Example 1: Watching my first thread on X absolutely BOMB (and having no idea why).

Boom. That’s the intro to my story. Now all I need to do is transition the reader to where I am now - able to rattle off good stories on command. And then I can attribute this transition to something inside my Storytelling Course. Cha Ching.

Example 2: Having no idea what the fuck how to make money when I first came to X.

Ding! Another story intro. Now all I have to do is explain how building brand affinity via storytelling is key to building an audience who WANT to buy from you (which is true, FYI). The result? People buy my storytelling course.

Example 3: Down the pub, telling a story and watching everyone’s eyes glaze over and being confused why people weren’t hooked on my story.

Yeeeehaaaawww! Yet ANOTHER story intro. My transition now? Explain how a little trick in my Storytelling course solved this issue (which it actually did). Result? Sales. (See - storytelling principles don’t just apply to the written word, but spoken stories too. Shocking).

OK. I can’t be assed to list out 10 examples. I think you’ve got the idea.

But can you see how this works?

We focus our “lens” on what we want our story to achieve (a sale, a new follower etc).

This allows us to laser in on the correct EMOTIONS.

And then, once we’re fixated on emotions, it becomes 100x easier to remember things we’ve been through (i.e stories).

But the best part about all this?

It doesn’t just work for stories.

It works for ALL writing “elements”.

Quotes.

Analogies.

Metaphors.

I literally had this EXACT experience while thinking of this email.

Standing in the shower.

Thinking about how to show you the value in my Storytelling Course (my “end goal”).

Remembering how confused I was before I created this “reverse engineered” approach to storytelling.

Boom.

I’m instantly hit with an analogy of how confusing it would be to try and piece together a Lego set without a manual. You’d be fumbling round blind in the dark. Which is EXACTLY what you probably feel like when you’re trying to come up with story ideas now, no? (Clearly I was too lazy to use this analogy to it’s full effect this morning, lol).

But…

I would NEVER have had this epiphany until I focused my “lens” on my desired outcome: your current emotional state (confusion) and what you want (clarity/hope).

I honestly don’t know why this works on a metaphysical level.

I also couldn’t give a fuck.

The simple fact is this:

Reverse engineering your stories works.

Floundering round in the dark and searching for stories doesn’t.

So you have 2 options:

Keep doing what you’re doing and struggling to come up with stories that convert.

Or…

Use this “back-to-front” approach to storytelling. Start digging up gold you didn’t even know existed. And finally write stories that trigger people to BUY.

Up to you.

I know what I’ll be doing.

Talk soon,

Harry

PS. I’m serious about taking my Ultimate Guide to Storytelling off the shelf in a few days.

It’s been downloaded by 1,000+ people. Has only ever had rave reviews. And one of the people who used it told me got 100k+ impressions and 100+ new followers overnight by using one of the storytelling frameworks I outline in there.

Grab your copy here before you lose access.