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If you've ever read a great book or movie, you're aware of the popular Hollywood formula for character development. Remember Star Wars?

Luke Skywalker is an eager young kid from a desert planet who dreams of being an adventurer and saving the galaxy. He feels cooped in by his environment and tries to prove himself at every turn. He's drag racing, he's fighting the sand people, mixing it up at the cantina, and arguing with Han Solo.

When his family is killed by the Empire, he's whisked away by a space wizard who leads him right into the heart of battle, and as soon as he makes his narrow escape from the Death Star - he's off to join the Rebellion!

Everything he does is an attempt to measure his skills against the world around him.

And when the Rebels make that last run at the Death Star, he's ready to do it again. But as the moment of truth grows closer, the voice of his mentor appears in his head and tells him no, not this time.

This time the stakes are too high, and there's nobody here to bail you out.

Doing what you've been doing is going to lead you to failure. Take a new course of action instead.

Trust in the force.

He takes a minute to think about it, he closes his eyes and makes his decision. And there's a moment of triumph when that change pays off and has a drastic impact on his life and the lives of the people around him.

You’ve probably seen that formula in hundreds of movies. We like the main character, but he’s spent the whole movie making one mistake. But at the most important point, he sees the error of his ways, makes a big change, and saves the day.

When we make a sale, we’re telling a story - and our customer is the main character. She’s a good person with a lot of positives, but she has a problem in this one area. And the only way she will solve this problem... is by giving us money. We have the length of the sales letter to convince them that we’re their Obi-Wan, the one powerful, magical person in a scary situation that they can trust no matter what.

But we can’t do that unless we get them reading. That's why a strong headline and opening are so important. But what specifically can we do to deepen our connection with the reader?