I recently worked with someone who did a delightfully refreshing profile, nothing like most of what you’d find. It was a reminder on how effective that strategy can be, and it made me think of my own very different but equally non-traditional approach that landed me Grant.
So if Up-Goer Five and The Craigslist Wall of Text aren’t your style, then here are a couple other ideas for you!
Quotation Bonanza
If you’re the type of person who knows snappy quotations for every situation, put that knowledge to good use by only answering online dating fields with quotations. I’m so totally NOT a quote person that I couldn’t possibly come up with good examples; but one thing I’m incredibly pleased with is my “Did I adequately answer your condescending question?” quote in the ‘favorite quotations’ field on my Facebook profile. See, because the quote comes from the movie The Social Network, which is about Facebook itself… never mind. See? I’m not good at this one. But maybe you are! 🙂 (And here’s a link to the scene, because it was KILLER.)
Another way to do this would be to list quotes from all your favorite books/media in that section, and invite readers to guess what the title is. For example, “Look at me, GETTING OFF!” would be Arrested Development. (Y’all know I love that show.)
The Pet Peeves List
Obviously, you want to be careful with this one so you don’t sound super-duper negative. But if you’re playful with silly pet peeves, sprinkling in light-hearted stuff along with real stuff, it’s bound to be a refreshing break from the norm. For example:
Here are a few of my pet peeves:
-Improperly kerned logos. C’mon, just move that R closer to the o; you’re not harming anyone!
-Baby On Board stickers beneath a heavily tinted window. Number one, you should really just drive defensively and carefully as your Number One Vehicular Baby-Saving Tactic, and Number two, there’s no point if we have to squint to see it. And Number Three I thought we had moved on to those silly stick figures showing different family members. Is there a listserv for updates on this sort of thing?
-Heavily cheese-sprinkled pasta. What if I wanted to choose my salt-and-cholesterol-overload technique myself? Don’t get me wrong, I’d probably use even more than you did, but it’s my artistic expression dangit. 😉
And so forth; you get the idea. (And you can hire me to help you draw out this sort of writing if it doesn’t come naturally to you.)
Anyway, these are just a couple concepts you can feel free to play with if the standard answer-this-dull-question doesn’t light your fire. Let me know if you run with them and what response you get!