Remember Messaging Maxim #4: Feed the Narrative? Well, before you feed the narrative in your political communications, you have to have a narrative. And sometimes you have to remind your listeners — and yourself — that you have a narrative. In this video, award-winning journalist Tom Junod (Esquire, GQ, etc.) gives a simple, one-sentence trick for journalists that is perfectly adaptable to political communicators of all kinds:
The sentence Tom Junod recommends using is: “This is a story of ….” Tom concedes that using this phrase is “the oldest trick in the book,” but, as Junod says, this is “where you simplify it, really to the most basic kind of essence and you build it out of there.” According to Junod, “‘This is a story of …,’ is absolutely what you need to have in your head, … you at least have to master that fact before you can write a decent story.”
Tom’s suggestion will assist when you make any political argument. Take, for example, the Affordable Care Act. We know that the Republicans are doling out attacks on “glitches” and other issues with the implementation of the ACA, to the point where the mainstream media keep running stories of doom and gloom regarding the new law, and even President Obama‘s presidency, based on these somewhat minor mechanical factors. It would be good for folks to counter these talking points and stories with something like:
“This is the story of Republicans who don’t even want Americans to have affordable health care” or
“This is the story of Congressional Republicans who have government-funded health care not wanting the rest of America to be able to afford their own health care.”
See how fast the conversation shifts when you grab the narrative to tell a story? Trial lawyers have used this technique for ages. So have the writers of “The Brady Bunch” theme song. We can use it to our advantage too.
