.png)
I remember exactly when I first heard of Jean Little.
It was during a fifth grade science class. We were learning about cerebral palsy, and there was a panel in the textbook describing the book "Mine for Keeps", all about a little girl with cerebral palsy.
Ever the bookworm, on my weekly Friday afternoon trip to the Brooklyn Public Library, I asked my librarian Mr. Newman for that book. My branch didn't carry it, but he reserved it for me.
I picked it up the next Friday and was hooked after one chapter - subsumed into the inner world of this little girl whose life was so different than mine.
Of course, I immediately looked for other books by Jean Little and discovered "From Anna".
A masterpiece, a work of art, a literary triumph that astounds me to this day.
The way she pulls you into the emotional world of a nine-year-old, sentence after sentence deepening your knowledge of Anna's mind and soul - the voice completely unique, completely Anna's, impossible to confuse with anyone else.
Contrast this with another author I admire - Patricia Beatty - whose books I love, though many are out of print these days: "Bonanza Girl," "Charley Skedaddle," "The Queen's Own Grove," "Eight Mules from Monterey," "The Nickel Plated Beauty."
Her stories offer fabulous plots and detailed looks into places and time periods rarely covered in fiction, but the voice? With the notable exception of Lupita in "Lupita Manana" (and maybe Jonathan in "Jonathan Down Under"), it's hard to distinguish one character from another.
Most of her main characters are spunky female teens.
Bold confidence.
Lively dialogue.
None of the rich inner landscape and nuanced voice that make characters truly memorable.
Yet her books still leave an impression because of their unique plots, vivid settings, heavy helpings of humor and eccentric side characters. All of which linger in the mind long after reading.
The same elements that make a novel memorable, make a brand memorable. It comes down to voice or plot, each with its own power to connect.
If you have a generic ChatGPT-ish type voice, or even if you take that popular "friendly, human" approach, you simply won't be remembered.
And if you also have no interesting backstory, nothing that makes the customers root for you or want to follow your journey?
You've stuck yourself in the quagmire of blandness, where you'll churn and struggle to stay afloat in a sea of competitors.
If you want to get under their skin, into their thoughts, deeply remembered? You need a STRONG and unmistakable voice that sounds like you and only you OR an exciting plot - an amazing backstory (launched in your garage with a leaky roof and only hundred dollars in your bank account) - which you share with the world, the ups and downs and ins and outs.
Combine the two - plot PLUS voice? You have a winning brand that's impossible to ignore or forget, one that draws customers back again and again.
As Kathryn Shah of Spring & Mulberry recently said, a brand is the memory consumers have when they think of you.
If you're looking to create that kind of memory by crafting a voice and plot that leave an impact:
Chavyhelfgott.com/BookACall
Writing your brand's next plot twist,
Chavy