On love and storytelling

I went through my own small library with examples of love, and now I have a formula: love=trauma+power. Discovering a slight crack in a resourceful character, that lets the light in, seeing inner energy of a lost one — that’s what creates attraction.

And it has a lot to do with the science of storytelling. A good story has an initial trauma, a conflict, and a lot of overcoming.

Power+trauma is the thing that makes the villains so sexy and heroes flat. That’s why we don’t see the shining knights anymore, even in superheroes’ movies, but rather troubled people who choose to fight for what they hold dear. And we come to love them every single time.

When crafting a story for a brand, it can help to think of it as a person, as a hero you could actually come to love. As of somebody honest and independent. Too much perfection, too much pretending won’t to a good job.

Show your armor, show your wounds, show what you are fighting for.