Turning the Broken Bits into Gold
Taking your story to the page isn’t only about holding it in your hands - the process offers the writer a chance for healing.
The Retelling
There are stories important enough to make you stop what you are doing and tell it again.
Reviving the Story
Time to revise, reinterpret, represent the hard work you have done and transform it into something you can call art.
The Winds Will Blow
Welcoming reexamination is a useful skill to cultivate not only in making art but in navigating life. It provides practice in embracing, rather than fearing, change.
The Gift of a Second Look
December is the ideal month to take a second look at where you’ve been.
The Moving Parts of Your Story
Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back.
Mining for Gold
But once you’ve retrieved the pieces of your story, laying them out doesn’t automatically lead to a flow of thoughtfully expressed words. You need to reflect - you are mining for the literary gold in your experience.
Retracing Your Steps
Retracing is review; tracing a thing back to its source. A process that poignantly dovetails with writing personal narrative.
Yearning to Return
Returning is what most often brings people to the page to write a difficult story from their life.
Memory is Fluid
Toni Morrison wrote, “All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.”
What a Story Can Become
A big story from our life - that story that changes everything - aches for exposure.
Time & Space
What a joy to listen to yourself instead of others. You may rediscover, as I did, how much you enjoy your own company .
A Reason to Read
I write a lot about to reasons to write, but I don’t give enough attention to what we get from reading. And since we are reading less and skimming more, I’m concerned.
Sensational Sentences, Part V
I collect sentences and phrases like other people collect shells on the beach.
A Meaningful Life
The elements found in writing powerful personal narratives are also important to living full and meaningful lives.
“If You’re Comfortable, You’re Probably Doin’ it Wrong”
Writing is a craft and honing it takes time and practice. But breaking it down into small bits, and naming the parts, helps makes the process a little less frightening and, perhaps, a little less bitter.