how view changes voice
weekly story work exercise
If you’re new here, Story Work is the name of my current book-in-progress. It describes a process of reflection, reclaiming, and reimagining the stories of our lives. It involves looking at your life experiences as creative material that you have the power to shape. Paid subscribers receive Story Work exercises every Sunday night at 8 pm et.
Read on for an update and a preview of our weekly exercise.
“When you attach yourself to one point of view, you give yourself limitations and boundaries that restrict your creative vision. You suppress your curiosity and the clues it has to offer. You silence parts of yourself that deserve to be heard. In the words of Walt Whitman, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.”
Your creative urges are invitations to expand your point of view.”
Story work is all about reimagining your life experiences with questions like: What else could this mean? What can I create from this? What else is there beyond my point of view? For the past couple of weeks, our exercises have been about experimenting with different points-of-view to discover truths, reveal blind spots and biases, and play with story meaning and impact.
This exploration also allows us to experiment with our voices.
Do you ever find yourself questioning your writing voice? When you think about your writing goals, do they include finding your voice and building confidence in it?
You’re not alone. This is something that all writers go through. The best way to develop your natural voice is to write the way you talk, and then tune the words like they’re your instrument, so you can make them sing the way you want them to.