Lessons in content from the world of fiction

Over the last few years, a lot has been written about the value of hiring journalists to run content offerings and treating the operation as a conventional newsroom. And with good reason.

We know that the ability to quickly turn around articles, the talent of sniffing out a good hook, and solid interviewing and research techniques are all key skills for a content team.

But, as I’ve written before, teams work best when they comprise lots of different skillsets. That means journalists alongside designers alongside account managers alongside subject experts alongside traditional copywriters alongside interns alongside creative directors. You get the idea.

So, on World Book Day, let’s consider what novelists and other fiction writers could bring to content.

1. The art of extending a narrative

We talk a lot about evergreen content – that’s content that works extra hard, that lives beyond its original iteration and can be repurposed again and again. Novelists hit this on the head centuries ago – think about Austen or Tolstoy or Hemingway, who we still talk about and study in schools as ‘classics’ today.

Or think about the lifespan of the Harry Potter or Game of Thrones series – not just across their sequels, but across media as they were made into films and plays. A truly compelling story transcends channel and continues to grow over time. That’s something we should bear in mind, no matter what we’re creating.

2. Balancing timelessness with timeliness

We live in the age of stories in swipes and commerce of the moment – we may have aspirations for content to be evergreen, but it also needs to speak to a moment in time if it’s to have any impact. Every author does this as a matter of course – even sci-fi or dystopian stories have a noticeable basis in our own world and that’s why they’re so arresting.

1984, The Handmaid’s Tale or The Hunger Games are great examples of alternate worlds, where the recognisable is prioritised to make the story relatable and emotive. By thinking about content in the same way, we can create the stories – regardless of format – that an audience want to engage in. That means getting out into the real world and speaking to real people. It means research and planning. It means genuine engagement on our part to understand the world and the people in it.

3. Keeping track of the story

Only half of what makes content great is the actual content itself. The other half is the larger ecosystem in which the content sits. Who better to teach us something about that than people who create 100,000 word stories, with multiple narrative arcs, and consistent characters and themes? Think about the complexities of narratives like Catch 22 or the invention of hundreds of characters in an imaginary world like Narnia.

Creating the universe in which a novel can exist requires an immense level of planning and organisation. Our lesson is prioritising content governance. Knowing who is creating what, what that piece of content is, when and where it’s going to be deployed and of course why.

4. The importance of a standout voice

Some of the best novels ever written have a voice we’d never heard before, something distinctive and recognisable. Something that sticks with you. Think of the insular narrator in The Collector or the jolting second person narration in Bright Lights, Big City.

Imagine if your brand had a voice so standout that everyone knew exactly when you were talking. A tone of voice so strong that everyone knew what you stood for. That everyone remembered you. That’s something we should always aim for in our content.

5. Ruthlessness

Authors are some of the most ruthless writers out there. Subject to heavy redrafts and plot changes from agents, editors, publishing houses and even themselves, they have to write, re-write and then write again. Most novelists draft their novels 10 times before they get to where they’re going. All without losing the essence of the story or their own enthusiasm. One to remember the next time a strategist comes back with comments...

The success of content will ultimately come down to one thing – how good our stories are. Which is why lessons from the world’s best storytellers will continue to be so important.

Hopefully this week, a whole generation will be immersing themselves in the new worlds they buy with their book vouchers. And getting so lost in a book that you can’t put it down is a pretty special thing. Just imagine if we could bring that into our branded content.

So far as I’m aware, it’s rarely done. Partly because content is still relatively new and I don’t believe we’ve seen a tenth of what we can do with it just yet. But also partly because we haven’t hired the right kind of storytellers or listened to the right kind of lessons… Maybe that’s the thing we should be taking from this year’s World Book Day.

Alexa Turnpenney is a content editor at Partners Andrews Aldridge