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You are here: Home / Writing Tips for Fundraisers / Get Emotional – Tips for Writing a Compelling Story

Writing Tips for Fundraisers

Get Emotional – Tips for Writing a Compelling Story

Over the years, I have developed a number of tricks for writing well. These tricks come in handy especially when I’m dealing with a case of writer’s block. But even if I’m not having a difficult time with a project, I always strive to write compelling copy.

One tip that never fails me is to get emotional before I start writing. Specifically, channeling the emotion that I want to convey through the story.

Before I start writing, I always think through three questions.

#1. What do I want my readers to think?

#2. What do I want my readers to feel?

#3. What do I want my readers to do? (i.e. what action do you want them to take?)

Personally, I think that second question is most important because the strength of the emotion will influence the likelihood of them taking an action. And of course, in fundraising we want as many people as possible to take action.

Once I have thought through the emotion of a story and an appeal, I will do my best to try to feel that emotion myself. For example, let’s say I want to convey anger so that people feel outraged about an injustice. I know there are numerous injustices in the world that without fail, make me angry. So I’ll watch a video or read an article related to that.

That’s today’s writing tip. Try it out as you start working on your next story, and then come back here are leave a comment to share how it goes.

Want more writing tips? Check out these other tips for writing a compelling story.

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About Vanessa Chase Lockshin

My name is Vanessa Chase Lockshin, and I want to empower you to tell your story. In my personal life, finding ways to tell my stories has been a transformational practice. In my fundraising life, I’ve helped hundreds of organizations tell their stories to engage and inspire their donors. To date, my work has helped non-profits raise over $10 million.

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Comments

  1. Sheena says

    September 17, 2015 at 7:11 am

    Vanessa,

    This is golden. It is a great way to really empathize and identify and not sound like a robot.

    Sheena

  2. Ben Pawson says

    September 17, 2015 at 4:02 pm

    To know how we want others to feel, we have to know how we feel ourselves. “Conquer yourself before you conquer the world”. As a boy this was hard before I got married, now credit card commercials make me cry, but I still have trouble figuring out why. Is there such a thing as an emotional logic model? sound counter intuitive, but I hope it might go something like this: I felt angry that the lifts did not work, because the wheelchair user I was helping down the stairs on a ski pad was in distress, I was angry because lack of investment in lifts caused distress to a person who did not deserve it. It was unjust, the emotion I want people to feel is injustice. The triggers are a big dumb lift that won’t work, and a poor sweet innocent wheelchair user crying on a skipad in a dank stairwell. Does that make any sense at all?

  3. bob higgins says

    November 10, 2015 at 9:50 am

    it was a very good piece of information

  4. Sammy Pyne says

    November 4, 2016 at 6:04 pm

    This was really helpful!!!!!!
    Thanks!!!!!!:) 🙂 🙂

Hi there!

My name is Vanessa Chase Lockshin and I've helped non-profits raise over $10 million by telling stories that engage and inspire donors. I'm the author of The Storytelling Non-Profit: A practical guide to telling stories that raise money and awareness, and the creator of immersive online training programs that have trained thousands of non-profit professionals. Read More…

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