Making Sure Your Story Resonates with Your Audience
As you are telling your story, you will want to make sure that it has everything in it that needs to be said. You also need to make sure that the message is strong and resonant and that it engages your target audience members.
Structuring your story for maximum effectiveness
Your story should start to build from the beginning, gain momentum, and eventually reach a climax and then move toward a solution (or resolution). One important concept is that you should be on the same page as your target audience. If that is not the case, you need to do whatever it takes to make sure that you are on the same page. Of course, nothing is carved in stone. If you are not in sync with your audience, you can switch gears and start to go in their direction.
Aside from the physical structure of your story, the actual concepts of your story are important as well. Your concepts need to mean something to your audience and the experiences that you are sharing need to be the experiences that they have also had in the past and that means something to them. A good way to break the ice and get the audience engaged is by asking a question before you do anything else.
Reasons why your story could be stronger
There are several possible reasons why your story is not written as strongly (and compellingly) as it might be. If your story falls into any of these categories, help is on the way. If you work on fixing the flaws, you will see great results.
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Your idea is not as solid as it should be: When it comes to stories, not only do you need to have everything in the writing that engages your target audience members but you also need to write the content in a way that is extraordinarily compelling and really makes them want to hang on to your every word. If you feel that the content that you have written so far is not doing that, you will want to examine your content carefully and come up with the hook that really holds your audience in the palm of your hand.
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Establish a central character: Every story needs a central character, whether the story is touted as fiction or nonfiction. Most likely, in your story (stories), your central character will be you. After all, the experiences that you will be discussing are your experiences so it is natural that you will be the focus. Just don’t forget that your story needs to resonate with the people who are listening to (or reading) what you are sharing.
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The story needs to be compelling: Every great story needs to have contrast and it needs to show the journey from beginning to end. Exactly how you present that journey is where your creativity comes from and only you can choose the best way to present the information.
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Make sure that your writing is clear: Whatever you do, don’t lose sight of what you were trying to say by getting caught up in the writing style. Your writing, although it is in your personal voice, must be clear and your target audience me always get what you are trying to tell them. If you are not able to achieve that, you won’t get anywhere and you won’t succeed.
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Allow your audience members to be invested in your story: The more compelling and intriguing your story is (and the more it resonates with your target audience), the more successful it will be. One of the most important aspects of a story is the emotional/human element. Without it, you will not be able to capture anyone’s attention.
Conclusion
You may be struggling with writing at times. That is natural and every writer goes through that at times. Truly looking at your writing and being able to identify where you can strengthen the content is essential to achieving the goals that you have set for the content. The more you do it, the better you will get at it. Just keep on plugging!
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