I read Sark. Especially when I’m glum, transitioning or uninspired. If I could put her, Seth Godin and Michael Goldhaber in a room together, I think I would come out enlightened. I imagine the dialogue would go something like this:

Sark waves a rainbow scarf around and says something about the seeds of creative potential within each of us(!). Seth peels an orange and says that’s great and all but it’s how we tell our stories that matters–use your creative potential to tell a remarkable story. Then Michael, until now sitting somber near the window, jumps up and tells us that whatever you do, it has to sell in an Attention Economy. Use your creative potential and remarkable story to generate attention.*

And voilà! Enlightenment!

Remarkability. It’s a Currency, Too

A friend of mine recently attended a wedding. The bride hates cake, so she decided to have one hundred pies made for the wedding instead of a massive wedding cake. Her freshly minted husband got a running start and then threw the pie at her mid-lunge.

Nobody’s talking about her dress. Nobody has mentioned the color of the flowers. Did she wear her hair in a chignon? I have no idea. But the pie? Yes, even those of us that missed the wedding remember that moment as though we’d been there. That’s the only reason people are still talking about that wedding.

The Arc

As a lit major, I was not able to leave UNC without learning about a story arc. Lay your foundation, build on it, climax and slowly come down. Like any good sex-capade. Being remarkable is about telling a story in a familiar (beginning, middle, end) way– with chutzpah.

The Characters

Your characters make all the difference to your blog. If you can remember how they smelled, tasted or walked, that’s a good start. If you can remember the angle the pie was when it was thrown, even better. Juicy, sweet details. Delicious!

The Voice

This is where you, the writer, come in (not like you weren’t here before). A lot of people asked about this at the BlogHer conference. What makes a voice stand out above the others?

It’s a tough question to answer. I don’t have an answer. You have the answer.

Sark uplifts. Seth reminds me to stay remarkable, find my purple cow and keep going through the dip. Michael puts it all into context and container. The containerless container.

They all might be enlightened, and Eckhart Tolle’s wiki says he is. My yoga teacher quoted from Stillness Speaks yesterday and I want to pass on this nugget to you:

“Many things in your life matter, but only one thing matters absolutely.

It matters whether you succeed or fail in the eyes of the world. It matters whether you are healthy or not healthy, whether you are educated or not educated. It matter whether you are rich or poor — it certainly makes a difference in your life. Yes, all these things matter, relatively speaking, but they don’t matter absolutely.

There is something that matters more than any of those things and that is finding the essence of who you are beyond that short-lived entity, that short-lived personalized sense of self.”

People often remark about my life story. I think yours is just as incredible and it’s about the how, not the what. Finding your remarkable essence, the essence of each story and every character, is perhaps the most important task you as a writer, and as a human being, must undertake. Sharing is optional.

*This is an entirely fictitious account. Please, Sark, Seth & Michael, don’t sue me. I love your work. I would love for this conversation to take place in real life! Contact me if you want to talk options.