Story of Your Life

You want to write a story about that time you went fishing. Wonderful! Do you love fishing? Or do you absolutely hate fishing? Doesn’t matter. Well, it matters a little in that whether you loved or hated the experience will affect the story, will affect where it begins and where it ends, if you went from loving to hating, or hating to loving, or if you stayed pretty much the same – but the story isn’t about fishing. The story is never about fishing. The story isn’t even about you.

Of course, some stories are about fishing. These are usually written by people who love fishing, for readers who also love fishing, published in magazines all about fishing. There are lots of magazines like this, magazines not just for people who love to fish, but also for people love to cook, and love to run, and even for people who love to write. It’s fun to read about the thing you love to do, and it’s fun to learn how to do it a little better. Knowing when to fish, where to fish, which bait to use, how to cast, what depth to drop your line – this is all important stuff if you like catching fish.

But you have no idea what your readers think about fishing. You don’t know much about your readers at all. That’s why it’s not about you. They’re not your friends or loved ones. They don’t know you or care about what happens to you. If you were writing a letter to your mom or girlfriend or your old college roommate, that would be a different kind of story. They do care about you. These people want to know what you’ve been up to. Maybe you’ll tell them you went fishing. You’ll try to make your story interesting, but they haven’t come to you for entertainment. They’re just glad to hear from you because they love you.

No, this is a story for people you’ve never met, and who may have never so much as drop a line in a pond. All you know about your readers is that they’re human. That’s enough to tell a great story, a story about patience, or impatience, or luck, or our place in nature, or whatever it is that experience taught you not about fishing but about living. That’s all anyone cares about, no matter what they’re doing, even if what they’re doing is writing.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence.
You can find William at: williamkenower.com