I was struggling to find my voice, style and purpose as a writer and a couple of years ago I came up with Inspire, Inform, Entertain as a tagline.

I need to develop this more but since then I’ve been noticing variations on those concepts as one. You make a point that readers have to identify with what we write. Personal stories are powerful when the reader can take away a point — how we built a backyard chicken coop, launched a consulting business, or overcame depression.

Readers have to take away value and that may be tricky to define. Value in a feature film is about the dramatic tension that keeps us glued to the screen and story line; value in a business blog are the tips that show us how to do something specific like reach #1 in the search engines or analyze financial data.

When we write a memoir, readers have to find something of themselves in our personal narrative.

Glad you pointed this out in your article.