Try a Story Twist in Your Writing. Watch Netflix and Learn…
Can you get better at writing, marketing and branding while watching Netflix? Sure you can, if your mind is open wide enough.
Yesterday, I watched a fantastic movie. It was weird and airy-fairy in many ways, yet remarkable in terms of screenplay writing.
Damsel
It's a classic story we all know. A dragon asks a price paid in princesses for his dinner. As usual with fairy tales, they look scary if you place them in real life. Add perfect digital effects and thrilling tension, resulting in an alien-like horror movie.
Using a storyline and a motif everybody knows and portraying it in a new way is a very effective technique for any writer, copywriters included.
But the inspiration does not end here. (Spoiler alert)
The screenwriter works masterfully with the audience's expectations. When you realise that the dragon is not the story's real villain, you hope the heroine will befriend the beast. You know, after watching movies about training and taming dragons, you'd like that, wouldn't you?
If you want people to be touched by your story, you must fulfil their expectations. You don't want them to leave your website disappointed.
The screenwriter of The Damsel delivers just that, but he makes them wait for it, crave it, beg for it.
The movie's audience would be pleased if the girl made friends with the dragon.
But sometimes, people cannot be served what they want, at least not right away.
So, as the movie's screenwriter makes them wait, feeds their desire and captivates them, you can do the same as a copywriter. You can let your brand image feast on their emotions.
This is what the screenwriter did in this case. He let the heroine and the dragon fight, hate, and nearly kill one another to give the audience a sense of reality. Because, in reality, it is kill or be killed when you encounter a wild, dangerous animal. Thus, the two heroines (yes, the dragon is a girl) engage in mortal combat. And precisely at the moment, when you as a spectator come to terms with reality, accept with disappointment that the heroine would kill the dragon, not befriend it, you get the final plot twist.
And your soul rejoices because the outcome you wished for from the first bite of popcorn is finally here. When you first encountered the dragon, you told yourself:
"Yeah, they'll make friends. She will tame the dragon. That is what they do in films today, and it will be a lovely ending."
But as the beast's brutality and the heroine's desperation drag you deeper and deeper into the dark, humid, stinking cave of reality, you doubt. Your expectations change, and the previously expected outcome comes unexpectedly in the end.
Writers and screenwriters know how to undermine your expectations and make you feel like you know less than you actually know. They exploit the stories your parents have been telling you, the stories you tell yourself daily, and the stories you wish to be true but aren't. They exploit the stories you think you know, only to learn, with a mix of relief and excitement, that you don't know them at all.
Your job as a marketer is to do the same. You can use this structure for a sales page, a social media post, a blog post, or an email.
Offer them a well-known storyline. Something that rings the bell and makes them say, "Oh, I know this one."
Turn it upside down, change the settings, and use the motif differently.
Make them doubt and persuade them that this is not the story they know.
At the very last moment, give them what they initially expected to make them feel happy and content.