One of the break outs that I didn’t have time for was tentatively called “The Art of Blog Narrative.”

There are only a handful of deep and enriching blogging tips that have proven to be effective every time I employ them, either on a old or a new blog, and this is one of them.

Essentially Blog Narrative is the strategic development of “story” in your blog and your blog posts. The natural result is that people will more deeply connect and engage with your content and as a necessary (and good) consequence, they’ll connect deeper with you.

It’s a little nuanced, but I’ve seen it work time and time again.

What does this look like? How does one practically blog in narrative? Let’s take a look at a few definitions of “narrative”:

1. The systematic recitation of an event or series of events; That which is narrated; Telling a story; Being overly talkative; garrulous
2. A message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events.
3. The telling of a plot or story. In a media text, narrative is the coherent sequencing of events across time and space.
4. The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events.
5. The presentation of a series of events in a purposeful sequence, either fictional or factual.
6. Drama that unfolds over time, creates tension, engages us.

I’d probably take it all down and say that Blogging as Narrative is the act of:

“Purposely and systematically blogging with the intent to deeply engage the audience through often-times short associated posts which create a much larger story.”

What happens is that it produces the necessary ingredients for interested readers: Suspense, anticipation, tension, excitement… all good things for returning readers. That’s the goal, right?

Some additional thoughts:

– If you find yourself with a long blog post, cut it up. Make it a series.

– Don’t “vomit” blog all of your thoughts about a specific “event”. Break it up into consumable chunks and develop a theme to connect them all together.

– We are people who’s lives are based on THE Narrative, that is, the Biblical Narrative.  Our blogging should be an extension of that already amazing story.

– Stories about and/or concerning “transformation” either explicitly or implicitly are the most attractive and most widely read. You can probably imagine “why” this is… so I’ll leave you with your own thoughts.

– Beginning, Middle, and End works. Trust me. If your blog posts or blog doesn’t have a “story” associated with it with definitive markers of “time” or significant events… then it’s a random casual discourse without mooring.

Finally, an “excercise”:

Let’s say you just started a new blog. You’re excited. You want to launch soon and tell the world about all the significant things that have gotten you to this point and how you can’t wait to get started, etc…

STOP.

Breathe, and now break it up.  Create a story.  Imagine what kind of brain overload or what you would lose if God told the Creation story in only a few verses without breaking it down into the 7 Day process that he undertook? You would have lost the “story,” the “narrative.”

A possible outline to generate “story”. Each one is a separate and individual post.

1. General announcement that you’re going to start blogging! Period.
2. Blog about your general reasons for blogging, expectations, and what you hope to accomplish.
3. Blog about your fears of blogging, what’s kept you from doing it, etc…
4. Blog about why you choose your theme and why particular things are placed as such. Describe your thoughts about it and how you went about choosing your look. Point out critical areas of engagement that you want your audience to notice.
5. Blog about your plugins and back end management and explain why you’ve diligently and wisely choose them so as to not bog down the experience with page weight but to increase engagement.
6. Blog about why you chose the “name” of the blog and the domain and the thought behind that.
7. Blog about your process of launching your blog, blog about each of these areas.
8. Blog about the friends and influences that lead you to blogging.
9. Blog about the system you’ve created and the expectations that your readers may have, how often you might post, etc.
10. Blog about your launch date and how you’re super excited it’s coming up… (which means you haven’t officially launched yet…!)
11. Blog the launch.
12. Etc…

Wow.  If you’ve followed this you now have over 10 posts and it’s all tied up about your “Blog Launching”. For those that have been following it from day 1, they’ll appreciate the consumable bite-sized posts.  For those that jump in on post 5, they won’t feel totally out of the loop.

See how the “story” develops?  Make it “unfold.” If you want some more goodness, Chris Brogan actually just blogged about this today…!

Have fun!