It isn’t in the content of the story, but in the craft of storywriting itself. The author does not have to know these to make use of the methods identified by NLP. Rhetoric (as a study in and of itself) and persuasion has long been studied and practiced by humanity.

I do not understand why you'd intentionally close your mind to persuasive arguments.

Sure, let's say the author does use NLP. What of it?

As I understand it, NLP is pseudoscience.

Rhetoric and persuation has long been studied by humanity, but that doesn't make NLP real