Larry Brooks's book on story engineering, advised me to read a book on self-help or pop psychology to help me find and define character motivation. As a writer, it seemed like a no brainer and who knows? Maybe for the first time, I could participate in a little bit of self-help.
I googled "pop psychology books" and Gladwell's topical titles pertained most to my personal interests. Outliers doesn't ever tell the reader what to do or how to be "better". Instead it highlights the unique, remarkable circumstances attributing to the successes, strengths, and weaknesses of others. It is a study of hugely successful people and how, incidentally, they took full advantage of their own unique circumstances, using their own inherently unique qualities. The outliers in their lives.
So I took a look at my own unique circumstances and felt somewhat empowered. Outliers probably swayed my decision to record some songs of true midwestern emo, under the moniker of Menards.
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