You search for a personal story that could bring the issue to life, but no single person or animal naturally belongs at the center. Adding one would feel forced. Without one, the draft risks becoming a list of facts.
So, what if the person carrying the story is the reader? What if you could write in a way that your reader is at the center and becomes the main character, the protagonist?
Educator Dr. Jason Ohler offers a useful way to understand nonfiction stories without an obvious central character. He explains that the narrator, subject, audience, or some combination of them can serve as the protagonist by learning and changing as the story develops [1]. They become the hero.
For animal advocates, this expands our storytelling options.
A rescued chicken, a new vegan navigating family tradition, or an advocate finding the courage to speak up can provide a clear emotional center. But advocacy also addresses policies, institutions, cultural norms, and systems. These subjects do not always offer a natural individual protagonist.
In those cases, the narrator or the audience may carry the journey.
When the Narrator Carries the Journey
The narrator-as-protagonist approach is familiar. A filmmaker, writer, or advocate begins with a question, investigates an issue, encounters new information, and reaches a deeper understanding.
The facts remain factual, but the narrator’s discovery gives them direction. Instead of receiving a disconnected collection of claims, the audience follows the development of someone’s perspective. Readers learn alongside the narrator and understand why the information matters.
This works especially well when an advocate has an authentic process of discovery to share. But the narrator does not always need to undergo the central change. Sometimes the most meaningful movement can happen within the audience.
More Than Using the Word “You”
Directly addressing readers does not automatically make them the protagonists. The word “you” may attract attention, but audience-centered storytelling goes further. It organizes the message around what people notice, question, reconsider, and decide.
Imagine a food-service director reviewing a proposal for more animal-free protein options. They are responsible for nutrition, cost, staff capacity, diner satisfaction, and institutional goals. Their existing menu feels familiar and manageable. A new approach may initially seem risky.
A fact-centered article might simply list the ethical, environmental, and financial benefits of changing the menu. The information could be useful, but the director would remain primarily a recipient.
An audience-as-protagonist article would guide them through the decision:
What priorities are they already trying to uphold? Which assumptions about cost, satisfaction, or demand deserve another look? Could familiar goals such as care, responsibility, and good service be expressed through satisfying animal-free meals?
As the evidence unfolds, the reader can mentally weigh the options. The movement might be subtle, from uncertainty to understanding, or from passive concern to a sense of professional agency. No fictional adventure is necessary. The story lives in the reader’s recognition that another choice may be both practical and consistent with values they already hold.
Giving the Audience Meaningful Agency
Making the audience the protagonist can turn an abstract issue into a personally relevant process of reflection. Instead of only watching someone else change, people consider what the issue means within their own values, responsibilities, and circumstances.
This approach can also protect autonomy. Advocates do not need to prescribe exactly what readers must feel or conclude. We can present a meaningful situation, credible information, and a workable possibility, then leave room for an honest decision.
That does not mean every message should use this structure. Sometimes a particular human or animal is clearly the emotional center. Sometimes the narrator’s investigation offers the strongest path. Audience-as-protagonist storytelling is not a replacement for those approaches. It is another way to create movement when a conventional protagonist would feel artificial.
Try it out! Return to a draft that seems accurate but emotionally distant. Instead of forcing a personal story into it, ask: What meaningful realization, choice, or possibility could the audience experience as this message unfolds?
Then structure the information around that journey. Your audience may not simply receive the story. They may begin to carry it forward.
Reference
[1] Ohler, J. B. (2013). Digital storytelling in the classroom: New media pathways to literacy, learning, and creativity (2nd ed.). Corwin. https://eduteka.icesi.edu.co/pdfdir/DigitalStorytellingClassroom-Ohler.pdf
The content above was co-created with VR1 AI.
And now, a brief update on what’s new with Vegan Rise One.
Something New:
Put Your Audience at the Center with VR1 AI
VR1 AI has continued to improve, with more reliable handling of longer and uploaded content, more balanced evaluations, stronger audience analysis, and an internal review that helps strengthen generated content before you see it.
It also now draws on expanded storytelling knowledge related to the idea explored in this newsletter: making the audience an active part of the story.
When a message has no clear individual person or animal at its center, VR1 AI can help structure it so the audience not only sees or understands the message but experiences it as it unfolds. Your reader or viewer becomes the central character, as if they were at the heart of the story. This can affect engagement and what they notice, reconsider, realize, imagine, decide, or feel capable of doing.
Try it with your own writing
If you are already a Beta 2 participant, start with a draft that is accurate but feels emotionally distant, or one where no natural central character seems to fit.
In VR1 AI, select Evaluate and Rewrite, then upload your draft or paste it into the main text box. Whether you upload or paste, you can add a simple instruction at the same time. Be sure to clearly identify the instruction and the content:
Rewrite instruction: Rewrite this so the reader becomes the hero.
Content: Paste your draft here, or state that it is uploaded.
Select your target audience, content type, and any other options you want. Then let VR1 AI evaluate the original and create a recommended rewrite. It will combine your instruction with what it knows about your selected audience and audience-centered storytelling to help build the message around the reader’s perspective, experience, and agency.
Already in Beta 2? Give it a try with something you’ve written.
Not yet using VR1 AI? Request Beta Access and see what happens when your audience becomes more than the recipient of your message – and begins to experience the story.
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