Storytelling’s Secret Structure (Warning: this is going to get a little technical and nerdy, but it will be worth it for anyone who writes stories in their copy.) It's no great secret storytelling is a powerful tool for sales and copywriting. But what's not as well known is that effective storytelling has its own unique writing pattern. So I'm going to share that with you right now: Effective storytelling is based on cause and effect. That is, the idea one event is the result of another event. For example: Cause - The temperature plummeted. Effect - Andrew put on his hat and gloves. Putting on the clothes was a result of the cold temperature. And that’s the building block for writing a story. Something happens therefore something else happens. In writing it's known as a Motivation Reaction Unit (MRU). The cause is the motivation, the effect is the reaction, together the pair form the unit. Now let's look at how you write them: You start with a motivation sentence. This something that happens to your character that's important enough for them to respond to. For example: • The dog's growl turns into a bark. Then you have a reaction sentence. This is how your character responds to the motivation. For example: • Sam starts to back away. And putting them together: • The dog's growl turns into a bark. Sam starts to back away. And that's it. The benefits of this technique are it’s: • Simple... • Drives your story forward... • Gives it a logical flow... And it makes sure your reader won't lose track of what's going on. Plus, to turn it into a story all you have to do is rinse and repeat. You follow one MRU with another, and another, and so on. A quick example: The doorbell rings. Dan looks up but decides to ignore it. It rings again, repeatedly. With a frustrated sigh he gets up and goes to see who it could be. "I know you're in there, Daniel. I need to see you right away." Dan recognises his mother's voice and opens the door... Breaking it down: Motivation – Doorbell rings. Reaction – Dan ignores it. Motivation – Doorbell repeatedly rings. Reaction – Dan goes to find out who it is. Motivation – The person speaks to him. Reaction – Dan recognises them and opens the door. Now that's not going to win me any awards. But it does demonstrate it's not difficult to use MRUs to write a professional-sounding story. And that's how you start to become a great storyteller. To sum up: 1) Start with something that happens to your character. 2) Follow-up with the character's response. 3) Repeat as needed. And you don't need to follow the pattern exactly. Sometimes you might want two or three motivation or reaction sentences in a row. Play around with it. Credit for this goes to Jack Swain. He was the first to break down the mechanics of storytelling in his 1965 book, "Techniques of the Selling Writer". And if you found this useful: Repost it to help your fellow persuasion professionals. Make sure you’re following me @AndrewWriteCopy for more quality copywriting and marketing content. And enjoy the rest of your day!