Why Nonfiction Authors Need an Origin Story
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One common trope of the superheroic figures that are so popular in contemporary film and television is the origin story. Whether it’s Peter Parker’s radioactive spider bite, or Bruce Wayne donning the cape and cowl to avenge his parents’ demise, there’s often one singular moment in which these otherwise ordinary characters’ lives turn extraordinary.
And though we may not be web slingers or guardians of Gotham City, we as nonfiction authors can improve our books by identifying and including our personal origin story. The origin story is a powerful narrative device that can help you both organize your efforts and clarify your voice for the reader (and potential publishers). It can also help your book stand out in a crowded category by highlighting the unique experiences that inform your message and values. But what exactly is a personal origin story?
Defining the origin story
Let’s start by defining what an origin story is not. Your origin story is almost never the tale of when, where, or how you were born, even if you arrived into this world in dramatic fashion. My father drove the wrong way down a divided highway to avoid rush hour gridlock so he could get my mother to the hospital. He dodged oncoming traffic with horns blaring and the police in pursuit who then quickly became an escort to the maternity ward at St. Vincent’s Hospital. I was born five minutes later.
But my parents’ harrowing race through rush hour in Toledo on a beautiful August morning is not my origin story. That’s because it had zero influence on the person I became, the life I would go on to live, or the people and causes I would care about. My own story would not emerge for another twenty years — when I crossed the Sahara Desert from north to south.
That odyssey became the central narrative of my first bestselling book and fuelled a career spanning three decades of travelling the globe as a professional speaker. I still use my desert story as an analogy for crossing the shifting sands of life. In a recent virtual keynote speech, I even compared getting across the world's largest desert to making it through the global pandemic.
The adventure in North Africa was — and continues to be — a defining chapter of my life. It is my origin story because it crystalized my ethos and interest in individual change. I'm fascinated and inspired by the potential for transformation in all of us. I’m also puzzled and frustrated by how dealing with change can be so difficult, and thus I have spent a lifetime trying to make transitions easier for everyone. My analogy for crossing our personal deserts of change was born not in an Ohio hospital but on the endless dunes of the Algerian Sahara.
The good news for nonfiction authors is that you don’t need an epic journey underpinning your own origin story. By way of example, I’m currently coaching a self-help author who uses the warm and comforting memories from growing up on a farm in South Africa as the foundational narrative for his leadership book. Those early life experiences shaped who the author is and instilled the personal values his work aims to exemplify.
Whether you crossed the world’s largest desert or grew up in a bucolic environment, what matters most is that your story has self-defining qualities. It captures the moment or period of time that had a significant impact on forming the person you are today or the work that inspires you.
Origin stories for nonfiction authors are often a turning point. The moment after which things were never the same again. They are awakenings. The sleeping giant of your awesome potential is first glimpsed in a story of your beginning. This is why birth stories rarely offer the literary grist for the mill of your life’s destiny. Because you really had no choice in the matter of your birth. You could not react. There was no chance for an “aha” or “eureka” realization that pointed your life in a new direction.
What makes for a strong origin story?
Memoirs and autobiographies can reap the immense rewards of an origin story by giving your narrative a clear arc. Everything else in the book either leads up to the origin story or unfolds as a result of it. One of the first things I do when I’m coaching memoirists and autobiographers is to help them situate their writing around their origin story. This disrupts that all-too-common urge to tell the happenings of their lives in a strict chronological order — and it almost always improves their storytelling.
Focusing your writing around your origin story also helps cut through the cluttered multitude of anecdotes, memories, and incidents that populate early drafts of memoirs and autobiographies. Books need to be written for the reader, and that means sharing early in the work who you are and how you became that person. If the reader doesn’t care about the author, they simply won’t take the time to wade through a dozen chapters to find out what you're trying to say.
An origin story can also help nonfiction authors craft more engaging self-help and leadership books. One of the tips I share with my coaching clients is to parse their origin story into excerpts sprinkled throughout their manuscript. The effect is that readers turn the pages more quickly because they want to learn what happens to the author. This works best if you have a compelling storyline with natural breaks to create cliffhangers. But I’ve found that even relatively prosaic tales can still be shaped into a story that contains enough tension to make readers crave resolution.
Another important reason that authors of self-help and leadership books should include their origin story is that it gives them authority. When you describe the experience that you went through to learn the deepest truths about your subject matter, it establishes your authority. Acquiring that hard-won wisdom puts you in the position to tell others what you know. Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but the words “authority” and “author” share the same linguistic roots. In my view, you need to have the former if your goal is to become the latter. Your origin story can help make that happen.
Finally, your origin story makes your leadership or self-help message unique. Let's face it: your book on goal-setting or teamwork will sit on a crowded shelf in the virtual bookstore. Hundreds, even thousands, of books on that same subject are clamouring for the attention of readers who are searching titles in your genre. Your origin story can make your take on the topic feel fresh and different and help you stand out in the crowd.
5 ways to discover your own origin story
Some origin stories are quite obvious. The author knows exactly what it is and may have already been using the narrative as a blogger, speaker, coach, or consultant. But for many aspiring writers, this might be a new concept and the question that looms is this: how do I identify my own origin story?
Here are 5 tips to help you discover this powerful personal narrative.
Look for a leap
Life in hindsight often seems like a slow and incremental progression. But if you look more closely, there will be few pivotal moments where you grew or changed by a leap or a bound. Something you experienced greatly accelerated your growth, learning, or success. It may also serve as the perfect origin story for your book.Pinpoint the plot twist
For many authors, there was a singular occurrence that changed the trajectory of their life or their work forever. Maybe it was a stroke of good or bad luck. It could be an either/or decision that you made, which had irreversible consequences. Plot twists are turning points that create a sharp change of direction and lead to the central premise of your message to readers.Examine anything epic
Whether you suffered a crushing defeat or triumphed against all odds, if the story is big enough, you need to consider it for your origin purposes. Readers relish an epic and expansive tale, regardless of the outcome. What matters most is how the author draws a lesson from the experience or positions it as the central narrative in their book.Notice what nurtures
This type of origin story looks at a period of time more so than a singular event or a series of cascading occurrences. It describes a gradual development that forms the foundation of the author’s life, work, or worldview. My coaching client who grew up on a farm is a good example of this type of origin story. Being mentored or achieving an education, training for years in a competitive sport, or volunteering in the Peace Corps could also exemplify this type of nurturing narrative.Tell the best darn story you can tell
If all else fails, focus on the known impact of your tale. Of all the stories you have ever shared about your life, which one has gotten the best reaction? What story are you asked to recount again and again? Why is it that others respond so positively to that particular narrative? The answer might just be your origin story, staring you right in the face.
The litmus test of the effectiveness of your personal narrative will be the actual writing of your book. By featuring the origin story at the heart of the work, everything else should fit around it. Chapters that you might be struggling with could suddenly snap into focus. Or you’ll realize certain material won't fit in the book at all — necessary to tightening your book’s purpose. Your origin story should crystallize your thinking around your subject matter. By weaving it through your chapters and topics, it gives brightness and clarity to messages or metaphors, which can then better resonate with the reader.
Ultimately, the origin story should still impact you now. Whether you wanted the story or not, it has helped make you who you are. You may not be a superhero, but no one else has your story. It's yours, and it's you. Let it fuel you to write the best book you possibly can.
Steve Donahue is a professional speaker, book coach, and the author of two bestselling nonfiction books. His works have sold over 100,000 copies and have been translated into Korean, Turkish, Russian and Greek. Steve helps new and experienced authors turn their book ideas into well-crafted publications that delight readers and inspire change. To learn more, visit his website at MyBookCoach.ca.
