Your Unique Perspective Will Make Your Story Viral

It isn’t about the topic you choose, but the emotion you invoke

The biggest tool in a writer’s toolkit is really the ability to touch on a variety of different emotional wavelengths of the reader. The stronger and sooner you invoke the emotional connection with the reader, the higher chance they’re going to want to read what you have to say.

While there is a tremendous emphasis laid on choosing the right topic for a successful piece of writing, I believe the real trick is the perspective that the writer brings to the topic. We’ve all read multiple pieces on the same topic, and some hit that sweet spot while others fail miserably. If the topic was so important, that shouldn’t be the case.

While non-fiction revenue has surpassed fiction revenue for publishers, there is not a single non-fiction book in the top bestsellers of all time, aside from the Bible, which is the highest-selling book of all time but excluded from this study for a fair comparison. Fiction is never about the topic — none of us knew who Harry Potter was until J.K. Rowling introduced us to him and took us to a whole new world. Fiction is all about the writer’s ability to transport us into a whole other world of their own imagination.

Helping the Reader Transcend Into Your World

Quite akin to that, but in a different context, non-fiction or in general, all writing, is about the writer’s ability to transport the reader into their own little world. The writer is aiming to have the world see a topic or an issue from their unique perspective.

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” — Robert Frost

The ultimate goal is for each reader to feel the right emotion and the same extent of it as the writer feels when they create a piece of content. And the unique thing about the human mind is that when a reader’s mind and perspective combine together with the writer’s, a unique combination is formed each time, with each reader.

And this multiplication of emotion through the prism of the mind forms a rainbow of reactions.

Experiences Are Infinite, Yet Only So Many

The world has over seven billion people, who each have had or will have countless experiences over their lifetimes. Yet, most experiences can be qualified into a certain type — a commonality that binds them all together.

And so when you write about your own unique experience, as micro and specific as it may be, there are thousands and more out there that will relate with it in a variety of different forms.

One of my first pieces on here was about bullying, and the overwhelming comments and response I received reminded me how we’re all so different, yet still quite the same.

Conveying your feelings and emotions from an honest unfiltered lens gives you a good chance many will relate to it in unique ways you couldn’t have foreseen.

Personal Touch Legitimizes Your Message

Why do we seek “experts” on various topics for the best advice? Why is investing advice from Warren Buffet, or technical advice from Bill Gates probably far well-received vs. you and I providing our thoughts, even if more insightful, on the same topics?

We relate to a message better if we know it comes from a vantage point of someone who has been there, done that. So when Malala Yousafzai talks about her story and fights for girl education, the world stands up and takes notice. That isn’t because activists before and after her didn’t care enough, it is because she’s been at the receiving end of that discrimination, which makes the message all the more powerful.

If you’re going to tell a story, tap into your own experiences and see if you can tie the message in with an experience that gives it real-world meaning and makes it more tangible.

When People Connect, They Often Want to Share

Not just readership, but reader engagement and dialogue is the ultimate goal for any writer. People tend to share and express more when they feel a strong connection with something.

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

So when you make that first emotional connection with your audience, you inadvertently start a domino effect that will go as far as the strength of the emotion you invoke. And the rest will invariably take care of itself.

Not everything you write may reach as vast an audience as you may have hoped to reach, but keep writing, and serendipity will eventually strike!