Lead with Pain
I want more people to read my blog. I spend all this time writing; I don’t want it to bore people. I want it to be more interesting.
So part of the way I’m trying to accomplish that is to become a better storyteller.
As I learn more about storytelling and I look at what good storytellers do, I notice many of them don’t just lead with “once upon a time”. They lead with pain.
Sometimes they’ll even start a story in the middle. They’ll open with the main character on their knees, grovelling with a gun to their head. And as the hammer of the gun pulls back. Bam.
We’re back to the beginning before this painful event has even occurred yet. But they’ve got us hooked.
This method of storytelling maybe even seems cliché. So many movies and TV shows use it. It works.
But then it surprises me how few of us incorporate this method into our own stories.
Most people start a blog post with...