Confronting My Confusion
Telling a story has always been an out-of-breath ordeal for me..until now.
Growing up in the south, I was used to just rambling on when telling a story. Not having a structure or even a point to what I was saying. It’s not that Southern people are dumb or lazy, it’s that we have a high value for hospitality and storytelling. It’s the perfect storm of a culture based on agriculture and Christianity that creates this way of communicating. Factor in my more abstract, poetic tone and you have a knot worse than when your wired headphones get tangled up (yes, people still use those).
When I joined Write of Passage, I quickly realized I needed something to straighten out my jumbled mess. At first, there needs to be a time of just getting it on the page, which, for someone like me with 100 notes, is ironic but I didn’t know what to do next. I’d have an idea, formulate it in my head then… crickets.
Learning how to think through the story arc of how I want readers to read my essay changed everything. I started thinking from the perspective of hearing instead of saying. I see it like the 5 love languages in there being a difference in how you receive love and how you give it.
From a writing perspective, how the author writes should be as the reader reads. We all want certainty and stability. Creating a trustworthy roadmap by using a proven structure and human-centric language helps the reader engage and trust the words they’re reading.
This practice of starting slow, being thoughtful, creating and following a process will ultimately lead to a more clear, engaging story. I follow the CrossFit for writing method (see bottom of the essay) to do this within a google doc. Then, I visualize a reader going on a journey through the article. What, when, and how do they see and feel which parts of the story? I then get feedback and continue to re-work it until the smoke clears and I can share the story.
A story that people don’t look down at their clocks or start looking at everything but your face. Or, in the internet world, read 3 lines and move on to something else. One that draws people into your experience as though they experienced it. Not one that needs further explanation or context but one that gives value and justice to the worthiness of telling the story to begin with.
The biggest proven results that I have seen from this practice have been: being able to say more with less, creating smoother transitions and connections, engaging readers through my storytelling, and allowing the story to fully come to life in a way that envelops the reader instead of persuading people to be interested and interpret what I’m trying to say.
There were numerous takeaways from the course, but to me, this one sets all the rest in motion. It’s like the wedding planner for my wedding: keeping everything in order and on time so I can be present to the story.
The process of creating a story arc (aka Crossfit for writing)
Think about one idea
Parse it out to have five ideas that stem from that initial idea
Expand on each of those ideas
Write a short, pixelated summary of your article
Create an article outline with 5-8 steps of how and when you are going to tell your story (add divergence/convergence)
Expand on that summary to create your first rough draft
Get feedback, make edits and continue to work it out
