I love reading Jerry’s insightful ezine, Media Minute, every Monday morning and thought his advice March 15 has something important – and somwhat contrary – to say to nonfiction writers. Leave your comments.
Don’t Let Facts Get in the Way of Good Story
By Jerry Brown, APR (used with permission)
One of the first lessons I learned many years ago as a young newspaper reporter was never to let the facts get in the way of a good story.Jerry Brown is a Denver-based PR professional who helps business communicate with the media. His website is www.pr-impact.com
It’s a lesson you should keep in mind when telling your story, too.
It’s not about playing fast and loose with the truth. Far from it. Being honest with your audience is important. It’s about knowing what to include when you tell your story – and, equally important, what to leave out.
A good story is interesting and memorable. It has a message. And it has a narrative – a beginning, middle and end designed to get your audience to pay attention long enough to hear what you have to say and understand and remember your message once they’ve heard it.
What should go into your story? You need to answer several other questions to answer that one: Why are you telling your story? What do you want to happen as a result of telling it? That’s your objective. Who’s your audience? What will they want to know? What do you want them to know? If you want them to do something, how do you motivate them to do it?
Once you know the answers to those questions, craft a message – make it short enough to remember – that will tell your audience what you want them to know or persuade them to do what you want them to do. Then build the rest of your story around that.
Humans have been telling stories to communicate with one another since prehistoric times. We all know a good story when we hear one. So, why do so many of us have trouble telling our story? The two main reasons are too much information and being too self-serving in what we say.
A good story has enough information to be credible and tell us what we want to know without being so bogged down in facts that we miss your message and forget what you said.
People often pile so many facts into their stories that they forget to tell the story. They let the facts get in the way of the story. Include enough facts to make your story credible and to give your audience they information they really need. But don’t get so bogged down in facts that your story feels like nothing more than a compilation of facts.
Leave out the self-serving sales pitch, too. Make your story interesting or, better yet, useful to the rest of us. But skip the purely self-serving stuff. You’re the only one who cares about that.
That’s Jerry’s two cents . . . what’s yours? Want to contact Jerry directly? He’s at jerry@pr-impact.com or www.pr-impact.com
