It was bad enough that the chorus of successful writers at the conference cheered in unison for the archetypal story formula, heroic character arc, invisible hand of the selfless author, catering to the modern reader’s insatiable taste for action, drama, tension, climax and resolution, no frills allowed.
It was bad enough that when I come home and go to a music jam the impresario says, offhand, maybe we can follow a story arc, in the next piece.
But I thought it was improvisation…?
Now even the marketers are grabbing the arc meme and running with it. “3 Must-Have Elements for a Compelling Marketing Story,” by Sonia Simone, CMO and co-founder of Copyblogger Media, starts off with rule #1: “Your story needs a hero.”
Who’s the hero? The customer, of course. The marketer/writer then serves as the (#2) helpful guide, offering to reduce for our customer/hero that tension-rich “gap — the space between what the hero wants and where she is now.”
This use of the writing model for marketing purposes mirrors the phenomenon driving the publishing world today: using marketing formulae (demographic surveys, social media, bestseller algorhythms) to write and sell popular books. Marketing and writing truly have merged, at least in the mass consumer mind.
The rest of us busk and paint on the street, set up organic produce booths, do spoken word and follow the music where it wants to go.
