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I have recently stumbled upon an interesting blog: The Indian Lake Project. The author of the blog, John S., is a very astute and inventive fellow. He has invented a fantastic plot and managed to turn it into a believable historical event, without ever offering any concrete evidence. What follows is a great piece of marketing.

Captivating your audience’s attention

Here are excerpts from the first post of the Indian Lake Project blog:

On July 9, 1997 my uncle was hiking in a wooded area around Indian Lake, New York. He tripped on what he thought was a tree root sticking slightly above ground. When he looked back he noticed the corner of this box above ground. The fact that he was far from any marked path or road, and was in an area that few if any usually hike, sparked his curiosity…

…Inside the box my uncle found 21 water-damaged photos, 3 8mm home movie reels, and various documents. Most of the photos are of children which led my uncle to fear the worst… that he had stumbled upon evidence of a crime involving children. He mentioned that his blood ran cold when the began reading the documents also found in the box. He indeed had stumbled upon a crime involving children, but instead of some child molester, it seemed that these children were all part of some United States Government experimentation. Those experiments where known as the I.L.P or the Indian Lake Project.

In 2002, my uncle died. This box was given to me shortly before he passed away. He was afraid of the contents in the box, and wished he had never found it. I feel it is my obligation to share it’s contents, and the truth behind what had been burried for 50 years.

This is an excellent beginning of a mystery. Pay attention to the following details:

• The fact that he was far from any marked path or road, and was in an area that few if any usually hike, sparked his curiosity…
• …his blood ran cold when the began reading the documents…
• …it seemed that these children were all part of some United States Government experimentation.

Now this is bound to capture the attention of anyone who likes to read

• Mystery novels
• Conspiracy theories
• Horror stories
• Creepy stories “based on true events”

Note that this is a specific audience. You don’t want to enthrall some skeptic, someone who likes romance novels, etc. When writing stuff like this, you have to have in mind these kinds of individuals, much like creating a blog for a specific niche, be it marketing, web design, cooking, movies, etc.

Just a few well chosen elements will do the trick

John S. effectively managed to capture his audience’s attention by creating a vivid scene of a man hiking in the woods alone, far from any marked paths, stumbling upon a metal box!

The element of “hidden treasure” is always exciting! It doesn’t matter if it’s a metal box with photos and documents or a treasure chest. It works.

His blood ran cold when he saw documents about experiments involving children, carried out by the US government! Imagine that!

Here you have assorted creepiness: experiments involving children sounds horrific, but stating that the US government was running the show sounds horrible because it makes one feel insecure. If my government was involved in these horrific events, who knows what else they are capable of and what lies beneath it all? The train of thought makes the reader want to know more, to uncover everything behind this.

Mixing real and fake evidence

photo credit: hive

As the posts start to pile up, the author is presenting his audience with “evidence”. There are several interesting photos, which purportedly show the children upon whom the “experiments” were carried on.

It is clear that these photos were photoshopped — but not so to the untrained eye and especially to someone who got sucked up in the story and is likely to believe in such material to be true.

Nevertheless, it works. The “evidence” from the box is there. And it looks creepy and plausible enough. There is also the photo of the metal box. So, the story is being reinforced.

An image is worth a thousand words

Adding images to a story is powerful stuff. Today, with enough patience and even moderate photo retouching experience, anyone can make a fake photo. And it doesn’t really matter if the photo is real or fake. It will help sell your story.

Images stick to our memory. By presenting your readers with images, you are creating a powerful link in their minds. Suddenly the text has visual backup. A myriad of new questions emerge: Who is that on the photo? Look at those poor kids, where are they now? Are they alive? Sane?

Be wary of half-truths

Remember this well: Half-truths are way more dangerous than lies.

A lie can be verified. A half-truth puts doubts in one’s mind. When mingled with truthful, verifiable facts, it becomes very difficult to discern it from a lie. Half-truths may be questionable, but they are not as easily dismissed as outright lies are.

And here is where John S. started inserting true facts which can easily be verified:

Project ARTICHOKE was a CIA project that researched interrogation methods and arose from project BLUEBIRD in 1951. The project studied hypnosis, among other methods, to produce amnesia in subjects…

The projects mentioned above really existed and came to the public’s attention through US Congress investigations and the Freedom of Information Act. This is all information that can be easily verified.

And then, the author starts mingling the truth with his made-up story, so that it becomes a half-truth (ILP stands for Indian Lake Project, his invented story):

…When Project ARTICHOKE became MKULTRA, the ILP’s roll was reduced, and then eliminated. There are many declassified documents from the congressional hearings (see link). None however, mentions very young children (12 or younger) being used in MKULTRA experiments. I think by then, the ILP was buried – both literally and figuratively.

Lastly, the author invites you to verify this (what?) by yourself:

Please explore the new links to find out more.

This is very clever. He states that:

1. There are many declassified documents from congressional hearings (true)
2. None however, mentions very young children (possibly also true, I don’t have the time to sift through all this — do you or does any average reader have the time and willingness to do this — do you see now how easily you can manipulate your audience?)
3. I think by then, the ILP was buried (he thinks, so he does not state this as a matter of fact. But the average reader will believe this to be so after having seen the real declassified documents.)

Even more lies evidence: Readers’ feedback

At one point, John S. offers an e-mail address to which inquiries and questions can be sent. This is a smart thing to do, because you are offering your readers a chance to communicate with you. This reinforces the supposed truth behind the story.

But the comments on the blog are locked. You cannot post any comments at all. This is a wise move on John’s side, because he would have to deal with too many of them probably, whether filtered or not. And if he doesn’t allow comments from suspicious readers to appear on his blog, he will lose credibility.

Not everyone will take the time to write an e-mail, comments are much easier to post. Again, this is the use of your reader’s laziness, as was the case with the verification of the declassified documents mentioned above.

I’m sure that he invented most of his Q&A e-mail sessions. Have a look:

Q: You said that you also have documents - when will you share those?
A: I go back and forth on this. Some of these documents have names and dates of people and places that could prove damaging to those involved. My growing fear is that this was a cover-up, and those that cover things like this up don’t want to have their names posted on the internet. They probably don’t want pictures either, but it is too late for that. However, to name names is the next big step, and I’m not sure I’m ready to take it yet.

Q: Could you give me the GPS location of the structures you found?
A: I could, but I won’t.

Heheeeheeee! This guy is great! He is smart enough not to get entangled in lengthy explanations. He just says he won’t do it.

He also took the patience to span his blog over more than 2 years! With very rare postings.

Why does this kind of storytelling work?

The main reason this works is because people want to believe. You can sell dreams anytime. The extremely successful series X-Files said this right in your face with their slogan “I want to believe”.

Do you remember the movie The Blair Witch Project? The Internet was used to spread the story and rumours that the events portrayed in the film were actual, real events. It was made for less than $22,000 and grossed over $248 million worldwide! The guys who had the idea to make such a story and spread it via Internet are pure geniuses.

People want to lose themselves in imaginary worlds, identify themselves with heroic characters, romantic plots… Why do you think Danielle Steel’s and Stephen King’s books sell? Because they know how to captivate their readers.

Really evil individuals use these facts to manipulate the masses. Be they marketers or politicians.

Summary

The author of the blog may have had the following reasons to create such a story:

1. To market an upcoming movie or a book.
2. To turn the attention of his readership to the real experiments with mind-control that actually took place within the US.
3. To earn some money (he sells “ILP” T-shirts on his website).
4. As an exercice in writing.
5. For fun.

If you want to sell a good story, you don’t have to make it entirely fictional. In fact, mingling truth with ideas that you made up will make it even more exciting.

I also hope that I’ve given you the guidelines to see when something smells fishy, if you are ever being skeptical of a story, or better yet, to see why something works — why a story sounds good and why it has you glued to the pages.

Whether true or not (it’s fake IMHO), the Indian Lake Project blog was a great read. Hats off to John S., the author, who received a couple of awards and a nomination for his blog.

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