Begin With The Ending

My old friend, the late Jay Trachman, helped air talent learn how to create powerful content in this age of extreme brevity.

It began with a question: What do you want me (the listener) to feel?

Then he had them write the final words of the bit and work backwards from there to find the most direct and impactful route to that ending.

It's exactly the way Pixar makes its award-winning, super popular animated films.

One writer shares her experience writing two Pixar movies that you may have seen: Inside Out, a story about emotion and loss, and The Good Dinosaur. You can read the article HERE.

Pixar's a good example for you because they're so skilled at making their stories powerfully emotional, and not just for kids, but also for the adults who watch with their kids.

There is a process for creating content that elicits an emotional response.

It can be taught. It can be learned.

As with anything that involves writing and creating, some will naturally be more skilled than others, but that's no reason not to try.

Start with what you want your listener to feel.

Create a story that reveals vulnerabilities we all share.

Now, clean it up, leaving only the parts that move us toward the ending, toward that feeling that is your goal.

Test it on your spouse, or a co-worker. Does it hold their attention? Does it make them feel what you want them to feel?

Edit. There is power in brevity.

Oh, you think not? You think you need 3 or 5 or 7 minutes to tell your story if you hope to achieve the feeling you’re after.

Consider this story, which may be an urban legend but is instructive regardless.

Ernest Hemingway reportedly won a big bet with friends by claiming he could write a novel using only 6 words.

What that produced has been touted as the saddest sentence ever written: “For sale, Baby shoes, Never worn.”

There is power in brevity. Now, what do you want me to feel when I listen tomorrow?