Be the Grey Day: Why Standing Out Means Breaking the Pattern
Your audience will remember what’s real, not what blends in
In the summer of 1980, when I was seven years old, everything felt the same.
The heat wasn’t record-breaking, but it was hot enough and didn't rain at all in July until the end of the month.
Day after day, the sun beat down on Tudor Road, our little primary school in Sudbury, Suffolk.
We shuffled into Mr Evan’s class with sweaty backs and melted minds, longing for something, anything, different.
Then, one day, it came.
A blanket of grey cloud. A chill in the air. And rain.
Big, fat drops smacking the dry black tarmac and the rock hard playing field. That smell - sharp, earthy, electric.
I didn’t have a name for it then. Now I know it’s called petrichor. But to younger me, it was just different.
It's strange what stays with you, but that day stuck with me for decades.
Not because it was dramatic, or long, or complicated. But because it broke the pattern.
We remember contrast.
We remember the break in the noise. The disruption. The unexpected breath of fresh air in a crowded room of recycled heat.
Which brings me to your writing.
If you’re copying what everyone else is doing - same headlines, same structures, same ChatGPT-sounding posts, then you’re just another hot day in a never-ending summer.
Familiarity breeds contempt, but also means you'll become predictable, and ultimately be forgotten.
But if you dare to write something honest, that's shaped by your actual lived experience rather than the latest marketing hack or write-about-writing trend, then it's you who become the grey day.
You who becomes memorable and real.
In a world obsessed with growth hacks and generic writing tips, it turns out the real shortcut is just showing up with your own story.
Not for the sake of being quirky, but because it's the only thing nobody else can replicate.
Because audiences don’t follow sameness, they follow resonance.
And you create resonance by being the writer who rained on the only cold day in summer, when everyone else was still feeling the heat.
So tell your stories and make your point. Connect the dots in ways that feel like they were made just for your reader.
Show them you understand their struggle, because you’ve lived your own version of it.
That’s how you build trust. That’s how you grow. And that’s how you become unforgettable.
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