Part 1: Overcoming the Monster

7 Simple Storylines for Content Marketing Index

Using Story Archetypes in Content Marketing
​Overcoming The Monster

Riddle me this: What does a hurricane have in common with the legend of Saint George or Luke Skywalker?

I know, getting deep right off the bat, but if I've done my job right, it'll change how you watch the weather channel.

But let's get on to the good stuff!

Overcoming the Monster is the story of an underdog

It's an egocentric type of story. It makes us feel like we, too, can slay the dragon.

It's broken into 5 basic parts:

1. Anticipation: our hero learns about the monster, its reign of terror and accepts the call to action.
2. Dream Stage: our hero prepares to fight and the monster is still far away... *queue the training montage.*
3. Frustration Stage: our hero meets the monster and it's even scarier and more terrible than ever imagined!
4. Nightmare Stage: our hero is having a really hard time slaying the monster, death nears...
5. Escape & Triumph: our hero narrowly escapes death and somehow also manages to slay the monster!

This storyline is so powerful because it creates a strong sense of identity between the audience and the hero. The audience sees themselves as the hero triumphing over the monster (usually evil).

Some examples from pop culture:

• Dracula
• Star Wars: A New Hope
• Seven Samurai (or the Magnificent Seven)

Now lets make it a little more "real life"

I hope you're still wondering about natural disasters and how that relates to defeating monsters.

When journalists are trying to make something appealing to their audience, they put it in a story. Journalism 101.

Take the United States' coverage of hurricanes for example.

Who is the bad guy? The big scary monster? MOTHER NATURE.

And who is our hero saving poor innocents from the reign of terror and wind and rain? FIRST RESPONDERS (also the everyday-person risking their lives to rescue poor animals, keeping thousands of dollars of lab equipment safe or passing out water bottles at a shelter).

When using this plotline in your marketing, you're not trying to fabricate an actual monster, you're framing your services or products around a metaphorical monster.

Words like conquer, overcome, triumph prime your audience to this sort of framing.

Overcoming The Monster is perfect when you help equip your client or audience with something to slay their metaphorical monster (weight loss, dept/financial insecurity, fear/mindset). You become their weapon or their faithful sidekick.

"Help me Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."