Why "The Story Behind Your Story" is So Important
by Jenny Hansen
I had a great conversation recently with a writer who said something profound: “I understand writing craft…but I don’t know how to connect it to ME for marketing.”
How honest is that? And why don’t more writers talk about this?
The truth is that every time a reader picks up your books, they’re not just deciding whether to read your book. They’re also deciding whether to trust you as a storyteller.
That decision doesn’t come from your plot alone. It comes from what I call “the story behind the story.”
The Shift Many Writers Haven’t Made Yet
We tend to laser-focus in on the goal of writing a great book. That’s a valid goal. No book, no writing career. But once we’ve written a great book (or two or twenty), our long-range goal is to keep readers coming back, book after book
To get this kind of loyalty requires something deeper.
Readers need to feel things like this:
- “This author gets me.”
- “I feel like I know them.”
- “I trust them.”
- “I know what I’m going to feel when I read their books.”
Let’s put this into "NYT Bestseller List perspective":
- In The Hunger Games, readers don’t just follow Katniss. They read the books and watch the movies for stories about survival, sacrifice, and moral courage.
- In Charlotte's Web, we’re tuned in to see how Wilbur gets saved, and what happens to Charlotte. We’re drawn along by friendship, purpose, and what it means to matter.
Different genres. Different themes. But the same kind of reason why we stay: we trust these authors to take us on a journey. We trust their intentions.
Your Core Story: The WHY Behind Everything You Write
Your Core Story answers a not-so-simple question: “WHY do you write these kinds of stories?”
And I’m not talking about the surface “why.” I’m talking about the real why that drives you to write a book or a series.
Maybe you write:
- Stories where justice wins
- Stories that explore identity and belonging
- Stories that find humor in chaos
- Stories that eradicate shame
Your Core Story becomes the emotional throughline across your work. Your books will often change, but your Core Story doesn’t.
It’s why readers follow YOU, not just your books.
Bestselling Author Core Story Examples
(And yes, I browsed the internet for great examples and picked some favorites.)
1. Suzanne Collins
Core Stories: Exploring the emotional cost of survival, and what it means to stay human in inhumane systems.
How this shows up:
- The Hunger Games series is about survival vs compassion
- She also writes about power structures, sacrifice, moral choice
2. Stephen King
King doesn’t just write “horror,” he writes about what happens when people confront fear.
Core Story: Ordinary people are forced to confront extraordinary darkness (in themselves and externally).
How it shows up:
- It → fear, trauma, childhood vs adulthood
- The Shining → isolation, inner demons
3. Colleen Hoover
Hoover doesn’t just write romance. She writes about where love and self-worth collide, and how that struggle plays out.
Core Story: Love is powerful, but it must never come at the cost of self-worth.
Note: Hoover was a social worker before she was an author. Her Core Story reflects her prior career.
How it shows up:
- It Ends with Us → love vs self-respect
- The characters of that story are forced to choose themselves
4. John Grisham
Core Story: Justice is fragile. Grisham’s characters must decide whether they’re willing to fight for it.
He writes about what it costs to stand for what’s right.
How it shows up:
- The Firm → integrity vs corruption
- A Time to Kill → moral justice vs legal system
5. Kristin Hannah
Core Story: Ordinary women are capable of extraordinary strength in impossible circumstances.
She writes about strength, not just survival.
How it shows up:
- The Nightingale → courage in war
- The Four Winds (and The Great Alone) → resilience in hardship
6. Fredrik Backman
Core Story: Broken people are still worthy of love, belonging, and redemption.
He writes about the humanity underneath behavior.
How it shows up:
- A Man Called Ove → grief, connection
- Anxious People → humanity, empathy
All of these authors are very distinct. Readers may come to their books for the plot, but they stay for the pattern.
Quick summary of the above
Let’s zoom out from these authors’ individual books to their Core Stories:
- Suzanne Collins → survival + humanity
- Stephen King → fear and human darkness
- Colleen Hoover → love + self-worth
- John Grisham → justice vs corruption
- Kristin Hannah → resilience + the strength of ordinary women
- Fredrik Backman → broken people + belonging
They have different genres and different audiences, but each author is exploring a very similar emotional truth across their body of work.
How do you identify YOUR Core Story?
Here are a few questions you can ask.
- What emotional truth repeatedly shows up in my writing?
- What do I care deeply about exploring?
“Core Story” is more than “theme.”
Different books have different themes. But the Core Story is typically something that will show up across multiple books, woven in alongside plot and theme and character. (Once you see your Core Story, you can't un-see it.)
One last question: If someone read ALL your work, what do you think they'd see as your Core Story?
Look for Your “Throughline”
There is absolutely a throughline to your work, and you should know what it is. Instead of asking, “What’s this book about?” ask: “What connects everything I write?”
That throughline is:
- Your brand.
- Your voice.
- The topics you care so deeply about that they show up book to book to book.
These are part of your Story DNA at the author level.
Final Thought
I’ve often told my non-writing friends, “I just want to entertain people with my stories.” And I mean that.
But underneath that surface answer, I’m driven by deeper things.
- A need for clarity: of feelings and communication.
- A desire to lift people up and help them feel seen.
- To speak the hard-to-speak-about things.
There is always a deeper reason behind your work. That’s what “the story behind the story” actually is.
When you understand it, everything changes. Not just how you market, but how you write.
Have you defined your Core Story yet? If so, would you share it with us in the comments? If not, feel free to ask me any questions you have!
* * * * * *
About Jenny
By day, Jenny Hansen provides brand storytelling, LinkedIn coaching, and copywriting for accountants and financial services firms. By night, she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction, and short stories. After 20+ years as a corporate trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.
Find Jenny here at Writers In the Storm, or online on Facebook or Instagram.
Top photo purchased from Depositphotos and edited in Canva.
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36 comments on “Why "The Story Behind Your Story" is So Important”
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This is a fantastic post, Jenny. So clear and laser-focused, on an issue that confounds many. I’ve already shared it!
It can be difficult to see emerging themes when mired in the details of your writing, so I’d only add that defining your core story can be a great time to ”phone a friend”—especially a writing partner who’s read your work, although even talking about your stories to someone can help them pick up similarities they can reflect back.
Thanks, Kathryn! And you are right...our writing pals see our stories more clearly than we do. If you come back and read my response to Christina, I cop to my own throughline: shame.
My stories have all kinds of happiness and joy, but the underbelly of a lot of my internal conflicts is shame. I was shocked when I realized that.
Even the worst of bad guys are misunderstood goodguys.
Right?? The best bad guys have that quality.
Sometimes I think I'm writing the same story over and over. And over. Characters discovering who they are inside. Becoming independent. Not being defined by those around them.
You and Colleen Hoover, Terry! And she's doing great at this whole author game. Even La Nora has only 3-4 different types of underlying stories.
Every time we write a book, we are shouting out who we are. The people who love that are the ones that will follow you across all your books.
Appreciate this article, Jenny.
Woke up this morning and was...off. So many stories, so many projects and things are gong well, but I felt groggy?
Like I wasn't sure what direction I was going.
This helped a great deal.
All my stories wrap around near insurmountable odds and the world around you crushing us. There's always a need to be seen, be understood, but also a deeper need/desire to find worth.
'You are MORE than you THINK you are," is what can be found in all the writing I do. The intrinsic worth of individuals around us.
It's how I personally survived life to this point, and what I hang on to, even today as a husband, father, grandfather. I think that's why the comic books caught on when I started. Teens could feel that.
They could relate.
Really enjoyed this today.
Thank you, Jenny.
Look at you, crushing that Core Story, Jaime!
I think this is a great throughline --> "'You are MORE than you THINK you are," is what can be found in all the writing I do. The intrinsic worth of individuals around us."
Wow, Jenny, you went to the core of my greatest flaw, truly recognizing the why.
I know there's a why, yet I struggle to see it, like I have a blind spot, or can see everything around it, but am afraid to see what's at the core. I'll make lists and end up with many words, too many words (fear, identity, acceptance, caring, justice, prejudice, hatred, self-acceptance, belonging, love…). I want to scream. How can I write so many stories and fail to see what I'm certain is obvious?
This is at the heart of why I fail to find my audience, the audience that could provide the feedback I need. It feels like a vicious circle of the obvious.
This wasn't a rant, but frustration with myself. I'm going to keep reviewing this wonderful post until I find my way. Thank you.
Christina, you are not alone. Many many writers have not dug into their core story...the one that shows up in ALL their writing. Often, as Kathryn suggests up top, we have to get a friend involved.
When you look all the way to the underbelly of my stories, my core story is shame. Overcoming it, understanding it, rejecting it. I'll think I'm writing about sisters, and then there it is...shame. Mothers and daughters and matchmaking...the motivation is still shame.
It was everywhere once I really looked. At first, I found it really embarrassing, and then I discovered Brene Brown. After listening to her for a while, I realized I'm just one of a very large crowd of creatives. 🙂
Lots to chew on here, Jenny. I definitely think we should all think about our why - especially love your examples of Hunger Games and Charlotte's Web. Those two really hit home for me!
Awwww...thanks, Angela! I think understanding OUR stories is one of the most important things we can do for our books. And don't you just love that Charlotte? She's one of my favorite characters of all time.
Wow, Jenny, what an amazing article! I never considered my core story and plan to ponder that fully.
For now, I'd give one word. Empathy. That is a theme in everything I write, humorous or dark.
Thanks, Ellen! I love that you've put it into one word. If it were me, I'd ponder WHY empathy is so important to me, then dig underneath that.
Sample questions:
Did a lack of empathy affect your life in a deep way?
Did showing empathy gain you something profound?
Have you seen empathy revolutionize something important to you?
Have you seen enormous problems not be solved because of a lack of empathy?
Somewhere inside questions like that are where your real Core Story probably lies.
Hey Jenny!
This text has appeared in all of my author and speaker bios since my first novel was published in 2015:
His books are about hope, second chances and outcasts overcoming obstacles. But most of all, they’re about how love changes everything.
I suppose it could be more focused because the first sentence is really all about hope. The second is about love.
What do you think?
Hi Chris! I would definitely organize these differently - where the underlying character throughline is in one, and the themes/emotional throughlines are in the other.
Quick examples:
His characters are often outcasts and misfits, overcoming obstacles and discovering who they can be.
His books are about hope, second chances and, most of all, how love changes everything.
You are so clever! Love it...and I'll be switching over to that version ASAP! Thanks.
🙂 🙂
More and more I find myself fighting for representation for a group of humans - about 20% of adults - who are disabled and/or chronically ill.
Is it because I am one? Because society makes it difficult to have fully human goals and aspirations when you are different from the 'standards'? Because standards are set that are impossible to achieve for most people - but at least there are people even less able to achieve them and that somehow makes it better?
I now live in a retirement community where it is common for one partner to end up as caretaker for the other, and for a survivor to live as a single for a long time, and I wonder what it feels like.
And when I write realistic fiction, I mean it - but have come up with many other patterns which might suit better.
It isn't the main theme - but I've had readers tell me they've never seen it done before.
Alicia, your passion on this topic shines through all your stories, and I'm sure it is absolutely something your readers are drawn to and follow. When we have something that is sacred to US, or that we believe deeply, the readers know. The ones who feel that passion or belief resonate are the ones who follow a writer anywhere...across books, genre, years.
Trust and Truth show up in a lot of my work, across age categories and genres. Who can you trust? Can you trust yourself? What truths are universal? Are the truths we tell ourselves trustworthy or are we covering up and saving face through them? And what about God and religion in general and how they are often twisted?
Add to that the concept of imagination and how the mind works.
None of this is in everything I write. Poems especially may not fit, but almost every longer work has some elements of it.
I love that you know this, Debbie. And trust is a great issue, because it's so relatable, and there are so many ways to challenge it.
love + the romantic journey to the hea + character arcs of growth after stumbling
I always love how you boil things down, Denise!
Thank you!
🙂
This was outstanding and got me thinking. Thank you!
Then my work here is done! Thanks for making me smile, Carol. 🙂
I think the core story in my children's books is humour found in chaos. And believing in yourself even if the grownups around you are idiots.
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Annabelle, I'll bet kids LOVE your books if the Core Story is "believing in yourself even if the grownups around you are idiots."
That's an addictive notion for the younger and middle grade set.
I write historical fiction, and I find I look for the stories of women that have not been told, because history usually records only the men's perspectives.
In addition, my novels tend to revolve around the theme of creating a family by choice--who we love and who loves us--rather than purely through circumstances of birth or marriage.
I love those two pieces of "story behind your stories!"
You are especially speaking my language with how much those in power get to record the history. I love seeing all those powerful women get noticed during our modern times.
Jenny,
I enjoyed the post and always glean new ideas from you. When we write from the heart, our "CORE" shines through. Thanks for sharing!
Awwww, thanks Jackie! And you've summarized it EXACTLY right. 🙂
What a great post! I love how you broke every story down to what really matters to us. Thanks Jenny.
Great breakdown of Why "The Story Behind Your Story" is So Important. I found the practical insights particularly helpful for my own projects.