Smokin’ Hot Stories

Add fiction techniques to your factual account … it’s like smoking meat for more flavour!

“I don’t know, Jo – I just think that true stories have to be pure fact. You can’t make up stuff or it’s no longer true.”

My new client was struggling with the notion of bringing his content to life. He’d been invited to submit a chapter to a business book and, so far, it was as dead as a dodo. I took a breath and prepared to trot out the usual advice:

“It’s a widely held myth that there’s no room for drama in real life writing. It happens throughout the non-fiction genre in every single medium – tv, radio, theatre, cyberspace, you name it.”

FIND THE DRAMA IN THE FACTS

The fact is that if you don’t make some stuff up you won’t be read. More than 86% of self-help and business books aren’t read beyond the second chapter.

Using fiction techniques to preserve and enhance a real life account has been done for centuries. Storytelling is a skill that became popular when our ancestors lived in caves, as they kept themselves amused and alive with shaggy wolf tales told around a welcoming fire.

It’s like smoking meat to preserve it and make it tastier for longer: the facts are slowly prepared and cooked over a warm imagination for a long time to give it a distinctive, story flavour. They're not lost - they're better.

There’s only a handful of business writers using fiction techniques in their content and books, so it takes a leap of faith to go with the idea at first. When you see how much more lively and powerful their writing is, though, you’ll want to know more.

It’s hard to tell exactly what ingredients have gone into it. The kind of #writing that works best is bound to have some characterisation, realistic dialogue, atmospheric setting, poetic device, flashback, conflict, contrast, inventive language – and perhaps a twist in the tale, too.

Don’t over-analyse it. Just sit back and savour it. When you taste it, you’ll love it.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could make your readers feel like that, too?

AMPlify your writing and discover your Inner #Author with the Authorship Mentor Programme. We have a brand new online tutorial on offer right now – a little toe tester to help you start getting results from making stuff up.

Here’s the link: https://authorshipmentorprogramme.mykajabi.com/pl/2147508539

Keep scribbling -

Jo C