Ding-dong! Your doorbell rings. “That must be my pizza delivery!” You grab your wallet and run excitedly to the door. A tall, attractive blonde is standing there smiling. She opens the hot bag, your mouth watering in anticipation. Suddenly, you stare wide-eyed at the end of a revolver. The girl smiles. “Give me your wallet.” She speaks calmly. And why not, she’s the one holding the gun. For a moment you can’t move. The shock of having your delivery turn hostile is still seeping into your brain. Slowly you extend her your wallet.
This event is far out of the every day. It is unexpected. Because most delivery drivers don’t go around robbing their customers, you would most likely be shocked if this were to happen to you. You would likely be surprised, shocked, maybe a bit scared. These are all feelings caused by the unexpectedness of the situation.
Just like this incident causes you to be surprised and alert, good writing causes us to be surprised and attentive. Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick, encourage the use of unexpectedness in our writing to help make our message “sticky”.
“Stickiness” is a concept they use as their main theme in Made to Stick. It is the essence of getting our message to reside in people’s thought. It is how we get our reader’s attention and then keep that attention, while hopefully getting them to remember it after they’ve read it. I’ll admit, doing all that is not an easy task, but with the useful ideas in their book, Chip and Dan give us the necessary tools.
