Storytelling

3 Ways writing with a high level of Emotional Intelligence can enrich your life.

by
emotional intelligence with pen and coffee cup

There is something flat and unsatisfying about writing in a formulaic way.

Academic writing. Business writing. Marketing writing.

You do the work. You put the words together. You wait for pay day.

As a copywriter, the least satisfying type of writing for me is when I follow some kind of template or framework. That kind of structure may reflect a “winning and proven” approach to writing an ad, landing page or sales page.

But… I don’t get much pleasure from writing like that. I’m following the rules, but I don’t feel that I’m putting any of myself into the work.

Read the full post…

Forget everything you learned about writing at school.

by
story of princess and dragon

Back as a child, you were probably an amazing writer.

All those wonderful stories swirling around in your head. Maybe you wrote some of them down.

All that imagination… the adventures… the excitement.

And who was the hero of these stories? You, of course!

Your energy, bravery and wisdom were at the center of everything you wrote. You were at the center of your universe!

And then you went to school…

Ouch.

Read the full post…

Use personal, emotional experiences to separate your writing from anything created by AI.

by

There are various ways to insert emotion and emotional intelligence into your work.

But perhaps the easiest way to communicate emotion is to write from a perspective of personal experience.

On other words, weave yourself or someone else into the narrative.

Put human experience into the frame.

Read the full post…

How stories add emotional appeal to your AI-assisted copy and content.

by

I use GPT-4 every day. I use it to brainstorm ideas, research topics, come up with content suggestions, and to outline longer-form content.

Once I’m done researching and outlining with GPT-4, I open up Nick-4 and look for ways to add Emotional Intelligence to whatever I’m writing. (Yup, Nick-4 is me.)

In other words, I’ll never just start writing based on the output of GPT-4 alone.

AI tools are great for improving our productivity, but they’re not good at genuine empathy, cultural sensitivity, or nuanced emotions.

They’re not human.

One of the best ways to add the human touch is to tell a story or two.

Read the full post…

Should you be selling the product, or the story?

by
Sheaffer pen cap

Imagine walking into someone’s home, looking around and seeing a family photo on the wall.

Not a posed family portrait. More of a goofy shot. Not terribly well composed. Maybe even a little bit out of focus.

Seeing you study the picture, your host comes over and says, “Oh my goodness, let me tell you the story behind that photo!”

It isn’t the photo that has the true power… it’s the story behind the photo.

It’s the story that carries the true emotional punch.

Read the full post…

Tell a simple story that engages your readers emotionally.

by
woman wearing mask in store

It doesn’t have to be a big, dramatic story.

It can be something simple.

Like how my wife cried when she walked to the local corner store to buy chips, but realized she didn’t have a mask with her. So she couldn’t go in.

Her tears weren’t about the chips.

We know that.

Her tears were about the relentless grind of living through a pandemic, where something as simple as buying chips is sometimes out of reach.

Read the full post…