When Was the Last Time You Told Your Story?
When was the last time you told your story? Whenever it was, it's time to do it again, as this excerpt from the new, vastly expanded edition of Writer's Block Unblocked urges!
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We're all natural storytellers. Nearly everything we communicate, whether it’s a casual watercooler chat or a deep conversation with a close friend, is some form of story.
Too often, though, our stories are censored...even from ourselves. Too often, we live safe and small, reining in our passions, opening to none but the least risky experiences, sharing only the most superficial aspects of our lives.
We have been conditioned to be afraid of opening our hearts and expressing our depth. We have been taught to be shallow and clever. We have learned to equate vulnerability with unacceptable risk.
And we wonder why our creativity is stifled and our self-expression muted.
Yet the only way to touch others deeply is to allow ourselves to be touched deeply. And the only way to tell the stories that change lives, including our own, is through the kinds of leaps of faith that open us to judgment, mockery and ridicule...those same leaps of faith that open us to profound connection and transformation, to the ever-present magic and miracle that wait only for us to notice them and welcome them into our lives.
My novel The MoonQuest is the story of a world where storytelling has been banned, storytellers have been banished and all vision and creativity have been extinguished.
Not surprisingly, it is also my story.
I don’t remember why, when or how my storytelling was silenced. All I know is that I was dead inside until The MoonQuest began to tell itself through me. As its main characters found their voices, I found mine. As they discovered and shared their darkness, I discovered and shared mine. Only then did I realize that The MoonQuest’s story of creative awakening was also mine, that it was a story I had to free into the world — for me as much as for anyone else. From that story came other stories. From that opening came other openings. From that healing came other healings.
As I write in the epigraph to The Voice of the Muse, writing is “truly a tool of wizards, witches and sorcerers.” It’s through the alchemy of our stories, lived authentically and shared truthfully, that all worlds change, beginning with our own.
When was the last time you told your story — honestly, vulnerably, courageously?
Whether it was last night or last year, it’s time to do it again — to deepen the experience, for yourself and for all those fortunate enough to share in it.
Try This...
What story are you carrying inside you that is yearning to be freed onto the page? What story are you carrying inside you that, once freed onto the page, will also free you? Now is the time to listen to its call and start freeing it onto the page.
You’re not sure how?
Start with one word, any word. Then, surrendering unconditionally to your story, add another and another. Then another. Don’t think about what the story is or where it’s taking you. Don’t struggle for the right word, right character or right plot, right theme or right idea.
Just start, follow that free-flowing river of creativity I call the Muse Stream, and trust in the journey...the journey to worlds beyond your conscious imagination.
Adapted from Writer's Block Unblocked: Seven Surefire Ways to Free Up Your Writing and Creative Flow
© 2013, 2014, 2022 Mark David Gerson
*** The new Writer's Block Unblocked releases July 4 ***
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Paperback
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We're All Storytellers...and Always Have Been!
Computer scientist/theologian Anne Foerst suggests that we call ourselves Homo narrandus (“storytelling man”) instead of Homo sapiens (“wise man”). That’s because storytelling is innate, possibly predating spoken language.
It’s easy to imagine that after our cave-dweller ancestors returned to the communal fire from a day’s hunting and gathering, they gestured, grunted and mimed their adventures to their fellow primitives. One way or another, we have been telling stories ever since.
