Creating an Interesting World & Exciting Story Arc
Lesson 9 from: Write Copy that Compels and SellsMelissa Cassera
Creating an Interesting World & Exciting Story Arc
Lesson 9 from: Write Copy that Compels and SellsMelissa Cassera
Lesson Info
9. Creating an Interesting World & Exciting Story Arc
Lessons
Class Introduction
08:13 2How to Move Your Audience to Buy
03:56 35 Storytelling Guidelines
20:38 410 Stories That Get People to Practically Throw Cash Money at You
21:44 5Understanding Your Client’s Motivation
03:49 6Turning Customers into Fascinating Protagonists
05:20 7How to Write a Logline
03:18 8Turning Customer “Pain Points” into a Compelling Crisis
05:15Lesson Info
Creating an Interesting World & Exciting Story Arc
So create a world in your copy that your clients are dying to be a part of. So you want to paint a clear picture of where your clients will be after they work with you. So, we talking about this a little bit earlier. Hot tip, flip your compelling crisis, which we just did with Nikki, into a dreamy promise. So we could easily take that example and say that they're gonna be able to wear all those sexy designer shoes. That they're gonna be able to not only whip out that pop but make super complicated Food Network recipes and be on their feet and be dreaming and wishing and floating around their kitchen, like, I don't know, a fairy tale. So, you can easily just take whatever your compelling crisis is and flip it into your world, rather than having to come up with basically everything from scratch. Crisis, I never have time to write. Dreamy world, you'll be able to bend time and make space for lots of writing, even if I don't have the time is practically tattooed on your forehead. (laughing...
) so easy, all I did was flip that. I flipped my clients crisis right into that dreamy world. They got tons of time for writing, even if they're always saying I don't have time. I really want to write a book but I keep putting it off. You'll kick procrastination in the tushy and melt away the excuses that are blocking you from creating sensational content, or from writing a book. So super simple, all I'm doing is flipping it so that they can imagine this dreamy world where procrastination doesn't exist and they can melt away all of their excuses. Every time I think of something to write it seems like 10,000 people already use that topic. You'll leverage your personal stories to sound totally original, even if 10,000 other people are riffing on the same topic. So all I did was flip it. I even used the same freaking language, so how lazy am I? But it still sounds, (laughing) it still sounds better, right, it sounds good still. Even though I didn't do all that much work to change this one. Alright, so now lets talk about story arcs that guarantee we get to the end. The length of your copy does not matter. It's how well you can engage people so they get all the way to the end. Big question I get constantly, should I be short, long, this, do I have to word count? Nope, nope, it can be any length. If it's a good story it can be any length. If it's a terrible story it can be two sentences and everybody's done, right? So length does not matter. Lets talk a little bit about the 3 Act Structure. This is a narrative we use in Hollywood. We use it for all of our scripts. And it will be a fun one that you can just start to incorporate a bit of this into your own writing. So, Act ONE is where you introduce the conflict. Which as we've been talking about are your customer pain points, the struggle. The struggle is real. Lay out the situation that's going to grab their attention so they're like whoa you got me, okay I'm listening. So you're really just beginning with immediate drama and remember like we said earlier, the higher the stakes the better, the more they desire something the better this is gonna be. So, it's the drama. All you're doing is you're reflecting back their struggle to them. What' their compelling crisis? So that's gonna go in your first act of your piece of copy. Your second act is where you can dig deeper. So in a fictional story, or a movie, this is where things get really exciting. So stakes are raised, tension builds, plot thickens. And you can really use you character sketch to dig deeper into this. So ACT ONE, you're basically echoing back your customers thoughts and ACT TWO is where you let them know you know all their secrets and their contradictions. So that's why it's so important to know those things because if all you're doing is jut reflecting back their language there's not that deeper piece. We don't have this ACT TWO where the stakes are raised. So now, they're reading the copy and they're like uh oh you got my number. Like they really know me. And that's exciting for people. And then ACT THREE is joyful conclusion, happy ending, yay. So this is where you get to talk about your world. So just like we showed that dreamy world. All you're doing is flipping that compelling crisis and showing them the dreamy world. And that's ACT THREE. Every movie, TV show, unless it's serialized and there's a cliff hanger, this is what happens. There's always an ending. Usually a joyful ending, unless it's a really dark movie and that's not what we're trying to write.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Brooke
I thought this course was pretty great. Melissa packed a lot of value into a short class. I took notes and brainstormed on a lot of the exercises and strategies she recommends while watching (pausing as needed) and finished the class with a document full of good ideas and first-draft copy. It is a short class, so if you're looking for something that really gets into the nitty gritty of how to write, this probably won't be enough for you. But if you're just a bit stuck on how to tell your story in a compelling way, or need to inject some excitement into your copy, I'd recommend it.
Simone
This was a great course for giving starting points and methods to make your copy more engaging. It doesn't tell you what to write or is not overly specific, but then what course could cover that for everyone. It does set you up with ways to write and include storytelling techniques that will help make customers read your copy, and hopefully, take the action you want.
Mariya Haberberger
This was super helpful!