Though we’ve been encouraged to think about Pink’s ABCs of selling in the context of business, they apply equally well to other things that involve moving people. One great example is in fiction writing. One of the most important elements in writing is creating characters that move people. Whether the characters move the reader to cheer for or revile them is mostly irrelevant to this application; we are trying to sell a character to the reader so that the reader feels about the character the way we want them to. Let’s look at how the ABCs can be applied to character writing.
Attunement: In writing as a whole, we are trying to attune the readers to our story. In doing this, we have to first attune ourselves to the way a reader will experience what we write; this creates a strange kenotic balance shift. During the writing process, the writer is trying to step away from themselves to understand the readers’ perspectives, and once the work is in the hands of readers, the readers are emptying themselves and bringing in the work. Attuning ourselves to the readers educates us on how we can best shape their experience.
Buoyancy: Again, buoyancy applies to both writer and reader, with the writer bearing the responsibility for both. The writer must remain buoyant through the creation and editing process, even when he has to make sweeping changes to his story. He must also be aware of the readers’ buoyancy. Move too slowly, reveal too little, and the reader will lose interest, but move too quickly, and the reader will be disappointed that the story ends so quickly and feel a lack of adequate preparation in the story.
Clarity: If a story is unclear, the reader will have great difficulty maintaining interest. At the same time, including too much information and too many details will generate an entirely different kind of obfuscation, with irrelevant information clouding up the important story beats. Maintaining a story that is simple but clear will help keep the readers’ enjoyment at maximum.
Applying the ABCs to our writing helps us to understand the readers’ perspectives, and craft a story that shows we understand how the reader experiences it, and demonstrates our attunement to their needs, buoyancy in meeting them, and clarity in showing it.
BoweryJE22
This is a really interesting post! I think the more we go through this class, the more we find that the principles of sales apply to so many other areas of life. I think all of these ABCs are definitely applicable to writing, and I’ve especially seen the problem with Clarity. If I’m reading a book and the story line or many scenes are too confusing, I’ll probably put it down. Readers shouldn’t have to study it to understand what’s going on. Great article!