All the world’s a story. Video games have storylines; newspapers report stories; country music lyrics tell a sad tale.
At a quick glance it would appear that fiction writing and copywriting are two mutually exclusive disciplines. But it just isn’t so.
Fiction and copywriting share the same heart: emotion.
What’s the goal for a fiction writer? I mean a slam-bang Harry Potter series type fiction writer? To write best-selling novels.
And what’s the target for a copywriter? To write best-selling controls, of course.
There are three fiction techniques that can pump up the drama in your copy:
Imagery
Tension
Release
Let’s look at them one at a time.
IMAGERY
Imagery is defined as ‘mental images’ or ‘figurative language’. What it does is create pictures in a reader’s head through words.
The best way to get an image across is to find some common ground with the reader. That’s where similes and metaphors help. While some might think that this kind of writing has no business being in direct-mail copy, I’m here to disprove that.
Here’s an example for organic tranquilizer we’ll call Calm-All:
Take Becky: When she learned that Robin had won the award she rightfully deserved, she lost it. Came unglued. Threw Robin’s staplers and boxes of paper clips.
We’ve all, at one time in our lives, probably felt like Becky. And that paragraph gives us a visual image of how she’s feeling. But what about Robin? How about this:
Take Becky: When she learned that Robin had won the award she rightfully deserved, she lost it. Came unglued. Threw Robin’s staplers and boxes of paper clips — the ones that were all lined up — just so — like soldiers on a battlefield.
The addition of 14 words, ‘the ones that were all lined up — just so — like soldiers on a battlefield’, added depth to the scene and gave us a mental picture of Robin without fully describing her. The soldiers on the battlefield simile sets up the tension.
TENSION
Tension can manifest itself in lots of forms. There are tension headaches, tension rods, and tension in fabric. One of the best tools a writer can have is the ability to create tension in a storyline.
Now, this does not have to be the cliffhanger from Dallas — it can and should be more subtle than that.
It could be just a line.
That’s it, right there. The line right above where you are now — a one sentence paragraph — creates tension all by itself simply by disrupting flow. That’s where you want something memorable, disturbing, thoughtful.
How about Becky and Robin? What was the simile about the boxes of paper clips? That they were all lined up — just so — like soldiers on a battlefield.
The tension started in two places in that phrase: ‘just so’ and ‘soldiers on a battlefield’.
‘Just so’ — Sure, I could’ve made it longer, explained about distance between the boxes or described how each box end matched the next one perfectly. But that would’ve been too long.