Drawing Your Communcations Arc

Kivi Leroux Miller Marketing Moment

I subscribe to marketing expert Kivi Leroux Miller's newsletter and she sends out a weekly email filled with marketing tips.These newsletters are chock-full of great words of wisdom from the marketing field and I've decided to create a little "moment" just for her.


In this article, Kivi talks about how you can create a story arc over a series of weeks, or even months, that will keep your supporters hooked. She references a 3-act structure of a play:

• Act I: We meet the character and learn his situation and aspirations.
• Act II: The character hits obstacles, and eventually rock bottom.
• Act II: The character overcomes, and (usually) succeeds.

As well as an 8-part story arc found in Nigel Watts' book, Writing A Novel and Getting Published:

1. Stasis
2. Trigger
3. The quest
4. Surprise
5. Critical choice
6. Climax
7. Reversal
8. Resolution

From a writer's point of view, I totally understand the second reference. The full article can be found HERE. She also referred to a post that she wrote yesterday regarding this same topic about showing the progress of a communications arc that you've created:

1. Pick some aspect of your work that includes several interesting people and stories.

2. Map out several potential touch points.

3. Think of different ways to tell stories along that arc, hitting on the major touch points.

4. Schedule when you can tell these stories into your various communications channels on your editorial calendar.

5. Deliver the content.

I think this is such a great idea and TWZ could so go to town on something like this, being that we're all about writing. I'm looking forward to trying this out.