13278: Open Loops Are Everywhere

Raw transcript:

Apparently,
the universe is talking to me because
the concept of open loops
has come up in the last few weeks, not
once, not twice, literally dozens of
times. So, it’s time to revisit what an
open loop is and how you can use it in
your creative pursuit as a performer.
And we’ll do that in this episode of the
VO Heroes podcast.
Quick reminder what an open loop is. I
I’ll use the phrase every so often and
it’s kind of like my speak or performer
speak and other people will go what’s an
open loop? Uh and it and it happened
just earlier this afternoon. So I wanted
to kind of grab this now while I can and
and do a podcast episode on it. So an
open loop for all intents and purposes
is
uh the statement of something that
leaves things left out. leave things
unknown. Cliffhers, perfect example of
an open loop. You get to the end of an
episode of a television show, something
shocking happens, something that you
don’t understand, something that needs
more explanation. That’s an open loop.
And next week on the show, we’ll see
what the deal was. uh also that promo
that you see at the bit previously on LA
law or whatever uh they’ll show you what
they led up to and then now they’re
going to you know satisfy that open loop
and likely do another open loop. So so
an open loop
is a concept in writing mostly but also
in storytelling
that is good to know about and good to
use in a lot of different ways. Uh, as I
record this, we just got finished with
the latest version uh, teaching the ACX
master class. And in the ACX master
class, we talk about choosing your
retail sample on ACX. When you narrate,
uh, an audio book, you want to choose a
piece of that audio book that used to be
the sample that people would hear when
they would press the sample button or
the listen button. uh it would play a
piece of it that was picked specifically
by the rights holder, the author, the
the narrator to show off what they would
get if they bought the book. Of course,
Audible now plays just the first five
minutes of it, so we have a strategy for
that. But we were talking about how to
find those things, how to find the most
effective things, the things that would
wet the appetite of a potential
purchaser of your audio book. And we
aimed right at open loops, the end of a
chapter, most likely the first chapter,
because it’s a pretty common writing uh
strategy to make that first chapter very
provocative. Make it uh end with the
murder or the execution or uh the
treasure, finding the treasure or losing
the treasure or some defeat that you
don’t know why this happened. what you
want to know more. That’s the core of an
open loop. You want to know more. And
this can be used a lot of different
ways, not just with that with finding uh
a good retail sample to use, but also
in writing your profiles.
One of the things that Dan talks about
and that I talk about when we teach
people how to write their ACX profile
and that I teach people how to do on any
casting site or with their bios
is not to beat the reader or the
listener over the head with every single
detail, including the fact that you
played Elgo in uh you know in in uh in a
in a high school play. Uh you know, you
don’t have to tell everybody everything.
Leave a little bit to the imagination.
In fact, that’s what an open loop is so
good at is making sure that people don’t
have all the facts, don’t have the full
explanation. That irritates us in a
really good way as human beings. We
don’t want to know that we don’t know
everything. We don’t want to be
presented with things that are left
unspoken or that we don’t have the
complete explanation on things. It makes
us seek it out, right?
That’s part of why a cliffhanger works.
That’s part of why an open loop works.
And in particular, earlier today, I was
working with a client who I’m I’m
coaching on public speaking. And we’re
helping her construct uh one of her
talks for for groups and a story that
she was going to tell that illustrates
what she’s trying to get across in her
speech. And one of the boss moves is to
create a story where you begin the story
with an open loop and then you later
satisfy the people that are you’re
talking to with the details. You fill
them in. You start the story with
something that just makes everybody go,
“What? I want to know more about this.
Tell me more about this.” So, I wanted
to remind you of this because open loops
can be used in so many great ways. Once
you get your massive bio put together,
figure out what to do to shorten it.
Figure out what to do to leave some
things out to make people curious
instead of in your uh signature as an
example.
instead of putting uh a link that says,
you know, uh commercial demo, narration
demo,
uh animation demo, uh IVR demo. How
about a link that says click here for
the demos that have been listened to
most in my portfolio?
Or click here for
something that doesn’t tell the whole
story. Click here for the demo that got
me my most
uh my most uh money or my the my biggest
job or click here for the demo that
changed my professional career.
People don’t know everything about it,
but they want to know about it. They
don’t like being left out. What’s the
story? So, think about open loops. Go
Google open loops and see what other
people have to say about it. But know
that open loops can be really powerful
in getting people to engage with you,
getting people to understand what’s
going on. If if uh if you have something
that you want to share with them, leave
a little to the imagination. Use an open
loop.
Uh you can join my mailing list and get
some of the coolest stuff ever. I’m not
going to tell you what, but slide down
to the bottom of this page if you’re on
vioherooes.com and join the list.
You can click the like button and
something really cool will happen. You
can uh subscribe to the channel. You can
click the notification bell and you’ll
get notified when the next episode comes
out. You can even share this with an
actor or a voice talent or a writer who
needs to understand the concept of open
loops and how they can help. Uh I’d love
it if you’d do that. I’m David H.
Lawrence the 17th. I thank you so much
for watching and for listening and I
will see you in the next episode of the
VO Heroes podcast.

(from YouTube)