“Why are you the right person to write this story?” the agent’s page asked.
This reminds me of trendy questions people ask in interviews.
As someone who spent years in the hiring world, I can attest to hearing some real doozies.
“If you were a vegetable, what kind would you be?”
“If you could choose one song, what would you choose and why?”
“What kind of superpower would you choose to have?”
I would come across questions like these in HR guides and wonder why, wtf?
The only explanation I could ever come up with is one of two things:
1/ Some corporate consultant plucked the most inane (or insane. You pick) question out of the sky and threw it out at a conference to see if HR specialists would try it. Like throwing mud at the walls and seeing some stick. Maybe it was something other than mud.
2/ Some psych guru wrote a book on hiring, with a theory on the sanity of answers like the infamous Rorschach test, so you can allegedly see what kind of person you are hiring, based on their particular answer; if this, then that.
If you answer cauliflower…
Does that mean you like versatility and are not too colorful or flamboyant?
Or does it mean you are yucky?
If you choose a sad ballad…
Does that mean you will miss a lot of work crying over weekend drama?
Or does it mean you’re a sensitive soul with empathy?
If you choose super strength…
Does that mean you like to bully others?
Or save them?
Of course, these are not only silly interpretations of the answers, but the questions themselves are ridiculous.
They mean nothing. They’re not relevant in any way to the hiring process or the future predictability of an employee.
I spent almost 15 years in HR. That meant I hired a lot of people; I would argue the number is in the hundreds. Of course, hiring hundreds means you interview thousands. During those interviews, you ask a lot of questions.
The interview process is stressful for everyone involved, but more so for those looking for work.
There is a lot of pressure on the interviewee. Enough pressure for many of them to fudge the truth. To exaggerate reality to fit the role.
People always lie in interviews. Even if it’s only in response to the infamous question about salary expectations.
I had a real knack for finding those lies when I interviewed people. At that moment, when the rubber hit the road, the interview would evolve into a real conversation.
I was like a qualified journalist probing to get to the root cause of any answer. To find the truth.
And people would tell me.
Sometimes more than I wanted to know.
Sometimes they would tell me their whole life story.
Let me bring this back to the original question in the query process.
“Why are you the right person to write this story?”
- Because my background lends itself to the characters in the book.
- Because I have lived in communities in the story, and I know the streets and the people.
- Because I am a good writer. Oh no, wait, I can’t say that. That determination is for the experts. Not me, the writer.
- Or maybe, and this is the real answer as a fiction writer: because it’s my fucking idea. I came up with it. I have the characters, their backgrounds, the plot, the ability to pull it together in a damn good story, and pull readers in.
That’s why I’m the right person to write the story.
I DON’T NEED a ghostwriter. I DON’T NEED to bury the story because I didn’t graduate with a journalism degree in university. I DON’T NEED AI to flesh out the narrative. I write fiction.