The first romance novel
I ever wrote
was based on my own experience.
The hero was a venture capitalist
and I knew plenty of those.
The heroine crafted
business plans
for entrepreneurs,
which was one of my side jobs
at the time.
Many of the scenes
were scenes I’d heard about
or witnessed first hand.
I received hundreds of messages
from readers
telling me
no true venture capitalist
or no true business plan prep person
would act like my characters did.
I didn’t have stats
or research studies.
I only had anecdotal evidence
to show them
that my characters WOULD
act like that.
None of the readers
believed me.
And THAT is the worth
of anecdotal evidence.
Seth Godin
shares
“But,
at the same time
that the larger truth
can’t be experienced,
your anecdote can never
represent the larger truth,
because it’s yours.
What happened to you
will never happen
to anyone else,
not in quite the same way.
By relying on well-told stories,
we ignore the real truth,
the universal truth
of how the world actually is.”
Anecdotal evidence
is merely one information point
and it is d*mn difficult to prove.
Remember that
when someone tells you
their personal story
about an event or tactic.