Title - Influence comes from personal narrative; not credentials Tags - influentialwritingfascination
All influential writer’s are essentially in the business of telling people how they should behave.
When you tell them how to behave or live their life, people immediately ask “what gives him the right to say this to me?”
Answering with your resume won’t cut it. The only thing that does is a personal story, which can engineer the response, “Oh, that’s what gives him that right!”
Ultimately, it’s your personal story line - your personal narrative - that gives you the authority to tell people how they should live.
Therefore, a foundation for influencing people through writing is to create a fascinating ficitonal character - as an extension of you and your experiences - that resonates with the people you seek to influence.
This is how fictional characters - and real people - create influence.
In ficiton, Harry Potter is a good example. Fans of the books and movies couldn’t wait for the next instalment. A big part of the reason why is that they were fascinated with Harry’s character and his story.
In the real world, Donald Trump, Hugh Hefner, Suze Orman and John Gray are a few examples of people who successfully influenced with personal narrative.
Hugh Hefner, for example, created a personal narrative of a character who is larger than life, quirky, odd, heroic, and controversial. His influence has lasted for decades and he serves as an object of fascination to generations of men.
[#kennedyIWW]: Dan S. Kennedy: Influential Writing Workshop.
[#salerno2005sham]: Steve Salerno (2005): Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, New York: Three Rivers Press.