Storytelling technique glues readers to their seats

I watched way too much TV as a kid, and as a result, missed out on some of the finer things in life.

So I don’t watch it anymore.

Except when I do…

My girlfriend and I hunkered down one day last week while she was on her moon time and just relaxed around the house, ate good food, and spent quality time together. And some of that time was spent binge watching episodes of this TV show we found on Netflix (which is surprisingly difficult to turn off).

And here’s why:

The story is mesmerizing.

It get’s and holds attention because it’s a proverbial rollercoaster of emotion combined with a unique screenwriting and storytelling technique that literally keeps people glued to their seats.

See if you can figure it out.

Liza Miller is a 40 year old, recently divorced mother who’s having trouble re-entering her career in publishing after a 16 year hiatus raising her daughter. So she deletes her online presence, pretends to be 26, immediately gets a job at a prestigious publishing house, and gets a second chance at her career.

Now she goes about her day juggling the stressors of work, relationships, and living a secret life that no one must find out about.

And as the show goes on, the stakes only get higher.

Just writing about the idea feels kind of exciting.

So maybe you can imagine why it became a cult classic, received multiple nominations, has a 91% audience score on rotten tomatoes, was adapted internationally, and even considered for spin-off series’ centered around other characters on the show.

One of the reasons this concept works so well is due to a writing technique I first heard about in Karl Iglesias’s audiobook, Writing For Emotional Impact.

Karl calls it “Reader Superior Positioning”, where the reader or viewer knows something that the characters they’re reading about do not.

It creates this sort of unnerving feeling throughout the course of the entire show where you’re always thinking, “What’s gong to happen next?”

And you can use that when you write about your business too to get people interested in a story that might not otherwise be interesting. For example, maybe on the outside, you don’t think your story is that impressive compared to other people that you’ve seen making waves and building trends online.

No worries…

Because as long you invite your reader in to where you’re at right now, and where you’re planning to go, people will follow along for the journey just to see whether you fail or not.

And along the way, they might be convinced.

They’ll see you stacking little wins day after day, week after week, month after month.

They’ll see you believing in yourself despite the haters day after day…

And eventually they will become invested in your journey, just like you. They might even start rooting for you, and hoping for you to succeed. Heck, they might even decide to join you one day.

Previously un-impressed, now watching you gather success right before their eyes…

Perhaps they’ll want to see how you’ve done it.

Perhaps they’ll start to ask themselves what they might be able to learn from you so they can see a little bit more success in their own lives too.

So that’s one of the benefits of telling your story online in real time.

And if you want help crafting your message in way that helps it stand out, feel free to check out 15 Legendary Writing Secrets, it’s getting an upgrade next week and people who buy now get a behind-the-scenes over the shoulder look at everything I’m doing to grow my audience, build my email list, and monetize offers and services by writing online.

Here’s the link:

https://kevinhood.me/legendary

Kevin Hood