When you use your personal life experiences to develop a character’s struggle.
Don’t underestimate the connective power of your own story – your personal testimony. People connect to emotions. This is why teenagers (and certain moody writers) listen to sad music, angry music, heart-breaking music – because they desperately need to feel connection.
It’s no different with readers. If they’re going to pick up your story and thumb through the pages, they’re looking for a spark of connection. When they read the author section in the book aisle and inspect the summary, they’re weighing the odds of whether this will be a story worth their dime.
If you notice, the people who get the most attention and subsequently the most followers are those who exposed themselves to the world. They’re not ashamed of their struggles because they know the hardships make them strong. People gravitate toward honesty and strength.
What you must ask yourself is what do you have to offer the world? A really good story of success? Or a great testimony of survival?
This has been,
Fanny T. Crispin
Written Things 