On Saturday, I attended Oprah’s SuperSoul Sessions at Royce Hall at UCLA. (That's Oprah ^ as she looked from my high-on-the-balcony seat.) I jumped at the chance to hear Cheryl Strayed, a writer who has a lot to teach us all about how to connect with readers, and Marie Forleo, an entrepreneur who inspires me to run a great business. There were many other speakers, as well, and a thousand lessons packed into a very full day.
It was, to be honest, a little overwhelming. How can you take in so much inspiration in one sitting??
I took copious notes on Marie and Cheryl and the first few speakers.
Here’s a gem from Cheryl Strayed:
“Writers come to me with a stack of pages, surprised to hear that a stack of pages doesn’t make a book. A book takes a greater sense of concentration.”
AAHHH -- I just love that! It’s so simple and so true, and I also love that makes it seem so do-able -- Concentration! Okay! I can concentrate!
And here’s a gem from Carol Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit, among many other books.
“The instrument to heal is the soul, not the mind.”
I love that, too – it’s a comforting thought for a woman who tried to “think” her way out of chronic migraines. (Hint: it didn’t work…)
As the day went on, however, and the inspiration kept coming, it got harder for the speakers to make an impact. I realized that I was tuning out the ones who didn’t know how to connect well with the audience; instead of paying attention to their message, I paid attention to the flaws in their performance. I began simply analyzing what worked and what didn’t.
You may not be surprised to hear that the exact same thing that works for speaking to a live audience of 2000 also works for writing a book. It comes down to two simple things:
- Tell a story
- Make a point
I’m not here to throw anyone under the bus, and I won’t name names, but if Oprah invites you to give a SuperSoul Session, you better have a good story to tell. Rambling all over the place without a cohesive narrative is a recipe for boring your audience. Hooking them with one narrative problem, making them curious about how it turns out, letting them inside your head where they can feel what you feel, on the other hand, will allow you to have them eating out of the palm of your hand.
A good story is very often not dramatic. Marie Forleo KILLED her presentation, and the story she told was a mix of two extremely basic narratives:
- A tale about how she and Josh, her beloved, almost missed an airplane flight on a trip to Barcelona. (Call that Story Present.)
- A tale about a plastic orange-shaped orange transistor radio her mom used to listen to as the mom went about fixing things around their house when she was a child. (Call that the Flashback Story.)
Neither of these two stories seems that riveting on the surface, but Marie wove them together masterfully – the Marie in Story Present learning a lesson from the Marie in the Flashback Story about how everything is “figure-out-able.”
A good story always operates on two levels -- the surface level and on the deep level, and Marie’s story did both. Ostensibly, it was about making this airplane flight, but really it was about learning how to value her beloved and learning the importance of balancing work and life. When she told us how she broke down in tears, fearing that they wouldn’t make the flight, she is talking about the trip to Barcelona to be sure, but she is really talking about her sense of self – and we, the audience, felt it, on both levels. We got it, on both levels.
The two stories were chosen on purpose to make the Big Point that Marie came to Oprah’s stage make – that everything is figure-out-able. That there is no roadblock you can’t get past, no problem you can’t solve, nothing in life that should stop you from going after what you want.
Marie, in other words, had something to say.
One thing. One point. One Big Idea. She left all the other thousands of other points she could have made at home.
I came away from the day with a renewed sense that this is what each of us – the book writers of the world -- needs to do, as well:
- Concentrate – because a stack of pages doesn’t make a book.
- Know your point. If Oprah invites you to speak to her people, and sits in the fourth row staring up at you as you do it, what are you going to talk about? What’s your one big thing? Your one point? You don’t get to make 12 points – just one. What is it? That’s the idea that should drive your book, as well.
- Tell a story with a deep-level purpose – one that gives the reader what they come for: the chance to feel something they need to feel.
I also came away knowing that what you wear on stage matters -- a lot. It’s not a frivolous thing; your clothes say so much about who you are. So as long as we’re imagining being on Oprah, imagine that you have now won an award for your book. You get to go to the ceremony, and if your book wins, you get to go on stage to accept it. What are you going to wear?? What do you want it to say about yourself as a writer?
This is a real question for my client, Tracey Cleantis, author of The Next Happy and the forthcoming Self Care is Not a Stupid Candle. The Next Happy has been nominated for a Books for a Better Life Award. These are some of the books that were nominated in the past; Barnes and Noble features them on their website:
The award ceremony is this coming Monday, and Tracey graciously invited me to be in New York with her in the ballroom when they announce the winners, along with her agent and editor and some of her pals. I’m flying out this weekend to toast her great success. I'm so excited to join her for her big day!
What is she going to wear?
Here’s the picture she posted on Facebook:
I'll let you know the outcome, as well as the outfit, next Tuesday.