writing & storytelling
Writing is mystagogy. It is leading oneself, or others, into a great mystery. Their own lives are a mystery. It is a good place to start.
The normal and the everyday is a mystery, too. Yet few people have the eyes to see it that way
The normal and the everyday is a mystery, too. Yet few people have the eyes to see it that way
Luke Burgis • Why I Write
"good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are."
Anne Lamott • Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
It’s hard to see which parts of your experience and opinions are distinctive and resonate without sharing them. In my experience, it’s rarely the big grand vision that people are attracted to but rather something more mundane and grounded - something that has a clarity and weight about it that is distinctive.
tomcritchlow.com • Rejecting Specialization
We don't turn to story to escape reality. We turn to story to navigate reality.
Lisa Cron • Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere)
Some prompts for thinking and writing.
You win $100,000,000 in the lottery. How do you allocate it?
Write out an average day in the life of you in 10 years. What makes it beautiful?
If you had to flee America and start a new life, where would you go and why?
You go back in time to when your great grandparents were your age. How would you explain the
Big stories are hard stories to tell, because the big parts of these stories are often singular in nature. Unusual. Unique. Hardly relatable. This holds true for all my big stories.
Dan Kennedy • Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling
Little moments hidden inside big moments. That’s what we need to find to tell a big story well.
Dan Kennedy • Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling
Every great story ever told is essentially about a five-second moment in the life of a human being, and the purpose of the story is to bring that moment to the greatest clarity possible.