Hey You,
Trying to be consistent here. Sat down late last night to make sure this edition goes out. Keeping this one crisp and super relevant. If you guys have interesting topics in design or content that you want me to write about, hit the reply button and let me know.
Before we jump in, I’ve released another episode on my podcast, this one with the man himself and my dear friend, Arjun Vaidya. Arjun’s been investing in startups over the last 5 years; first as an angel investor and now as the co-founder of a consumer fund, Verlinvest (India). His core belief in investment in Indian startups is bullish, but this investing philosophy has changed over the last 3 years. He's looking to eye the mid-price or mass premium segment in every category and believes that the opportunity lies in there. He's also now a father and life has changed considerably since then. He spills the beans on fatherhood, investment and the future of Indian startups over the next 5 years.
So if you’re a consumer or tech founder or an investor, this one’s for you.
Now, if you’ve been added by a well-wisher or you’ve signed up yourself, it’s going to be a fun journey from here on. You are part of avid readers of experiential (read: tactical) content on product, design & content. If you’re interested to read more about me, here’s my LinkedIn. No ads here I assure.
Ok, let's go.
So what's the key to storytelling?
This isn't something that I came up with myself; it’s something that I've borrowed from a tonne of people who are great at storytelling. Out of a dozen things that could be told about storytelling, I’m talking about 3, that I use in my writing.
A) So every story, needs to have 2 things: intention & obstacle
Intention and obstacle is just, at any given moment, the hero of the story, whether it's you or
someone you're talking about, has to have a very clear intention.
Intention:
What do they want? And under that is like why do they want it? How bad do they want it? What happens if they don't get it? That's what goes into intention.
Obstacle:
Who's in the way? The boy has fallen in love with the girl. And who’s in the way? The girl’s father. And he’s trying his level best to make sure that this guy doesn't get close to this girl. Now you’re hooked.
Intention and obstacle.
And basically if you read any story or you watch any movie, you should be able to pause at any moment and just point at the screen and just say, what do they want right now? And what's in their way? And if you ever go five minutes without that being clear, people will lose, their attention will drift away.
It is the fundamental building block of storytelling.And the more interesting thing which we could talk about is, it doesn't have to be life or death. So most people think of it, like the example I even gave was the girl & guy fallen in love and the father in between trying to stop them. Okay, cool. But you can shrink that down and actually you get bonus points when you can do intention and obstacle on a lower stakes moment.
So I wanted a coffee and all the places were closed, but I needed my coffee. You need your coffee, but the audience has to believe that you truly needed it and you got to tell it and be like, you got to make them believe that you really wanted it, ideally, because you actually did. You don't have to fabricate the story. It should be real.
B) Another thing in impressive storytelling is: write like you talk
Most people have this false thing we do, which everyone’s learnt from school. School teaches you to read Shakespeare, write these essays. That is a minimum of six pages double-spaced, all this stuff, use big vocabulary.
All the things that don't work in the real world, you learn in school. I think what school teaches you is basically “just pretend”. Be something you're totally not. That's what good writing is. Whereas In the real world I don't think that's true. I think good writing is simple. Good writing is easy to read. Good writing is entertaining to read. Good writing has a voice. It's not just like this archaic sounding thing. So anyways, one of the principles is write like you talk.
Most pieces of content that I write usually follow these principles. Performance ads follow these principles. Which is why the best ads are relatable. They’re closer to home and they’re simple.
C) Hooks vs Frames
One of the things I've noticed with comedians and really studied is how fast they're able to build context. They can do it in six to eight words where some people just go on and on and on and on and on.
So what is a hook?
So a hook is basically, it's the first thing you're going to say, it's trying to hook their attention. But I actually think that hook's somewhat overrated.
Underrated is frames. So what's a frame?
So a frame is, you take an idea, an idea can be this big or it can be this big depending on the frame.
Lets see this from the pov of an example. I’m writing this newsletter on Storytelling.
An ideal hook would be” The only 3 things about storytelling you need to know”
And the frame would be “Here’s what you could learn about storytelling from some of the greatest storytellers in the world”
Hooks are about the words you're going to write, frames are about the idea and how you're going to make that idea relevant and how you're going to connect to ideas that seem unrelated to be related. The real great writers, I believe, are great at framing their ideas more so than just coming up with that perfect one line hook thing that's going to, just trick the person into clicking.
That’s it for now. Share this with someone who you think can benefit from this.
Until then,
Gratitude,
Sak