World Views

Click on mouth to play/pause

We all want the same things, right?

We all want to be safe, healthy, successful, loved, respected, happy, and fit. We all want to have enough money to buy whatever we want. We all want friends and fun and a clean world to enjoy them in. But if we all want the same things, why do we take so many opposite tacks to get there?

Frames

The Power of Frames

Frames are the words and images and interactions that reinforce a bias someone is already feeling. The media uses frames all the time when telling us stories. When the newspaper calls someone a "UFO" buff" or a "conspiracy theorist," they're making it easy for the rest of us to believe that this group is marginal.

Speaking respectfully to a person's world view is the price of entry to get their attention. A frame is the first step in telling a persuasive story.

What worldviews are called up in this ad/story? What is the frame?

Don't try to change someone's worldview

Worldviews are the reason that two people can look at the same data and walk away with completely different conclusions. It's not that they didn't have access to the information, or that they have poor reasoning skills, it's simply that they had already put themselves in to a particular worldview before you even got their attention.

Compiling Events

Keep a running list of ideas for occasions that can lead to scene events. Don't worry about the whole story yet. The idea is to practice conceiving of a unit of narrative that has enough action and meaning to suggest a strong scene. You are looking for moments when things are off-kilter in some way. Look for situations when a character is under stress. What might happen next? For example, a young teenager creeps into her dark house and finds her parents wating for her.

Reflection Moment

Reflect on the information you garner from the "Ads via social media tools" links: "Using social media to generate sales," and "How social media strategy created a new pet food."
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Vonnegut Advice: Short Stories

Tips on character, plot, emotion, structure

Legend vs. Fool ad

Notice how classic archetypes are used in this story