012 An intro to narrative design 5. Have a clear start, middle, and end It’s not rocket science, but with so many other elements to worry about it’s a practice that’s easily forgotten. Stories have three core components: 1. The start: what life’s like right now without your product by their side. 2. The middle: light at the end of the tunnel; a solution that solves their problems. 3. The end: a better life without the problem they faced at the start. Your story needs to take your audience through this journey to help them truly understand the bene昀椀t. They need to see the stark contrast between where they are today and where they could be tomorrow. Tip: to drive action, make the ending as inspirational as can be, without making outlandish promises. 6. Speak like a human People can sniff out a disingenuous story from a mile away so make sure yours is 100% authentic - and that means speaking like a human to a human. If you’ve not got the luxury of a copywriter to help you with this bit here are a few nuggets to keep in mind: • Write as you talk. Read what you’ve written aloud and if doesn’t sound like something you’d say in a conversation, tweak it until it does. • Contractions are friendly. ‘You’re’ sounds more approachable than ‘you are’, ‘it’s’ is more natural than ‘it is’, ‘they’ve’ is more suitable than ‘they have’, etc. • Grammar rules can be broken. And sometimes your writing sounds better for it.