setting intentions: preparing for the story work writing challenge

“Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.” — Michelle Obama

If you’re new here, I send out story work exercises every Monday afternoon at 12 pm et. Story Work: Field Notes on Self-Discovery and Reclaiming Your Narrative is the name of my new book (which is currently available for preorder!) The term describes my signature process of reflecting, 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. This week’s post and all of the challenge posts will be available to all subscribers.

Before we get into today’s post, here are some opportunities I have coming up for us to connect and write together:

📖 workshops

September 23. Return and Rewrite: Practice Session #24 w/ GG // 6 - 7:30 pm et (open to paid subscribers)

October 3. Free Writing the Layers Monthly Workshop // 7 - 8 pm et

you can preorder Story Work here

This writing challenge is meant to be a gentle entry point into the kind of self-exploration that my new book, Story Work, encourages and facilitates.

Writing about your life has so many benefits:

It can improve your mental and physical health, help you connect the threads between past, present, and future, bring awareness to the relationship between your thoughts, beliefs, and actions, and give language to your emotions. Over time, the kind of reflection that writing facilitates deepens your relationship with yourself and others, and it builds the resilience we need to cope with the challenges and uncertainties that we face every day.

Exploring your life with a creative lens can help you find purpose and possibility where you once only saw restrictions and limitations.

I will never tire of exploring life through writing or creating tools that help others experience it too. I’m deeply grateful to have found an agent and publisher who believed in this book and the way I wanted to write it. Now, less than two months away from publication, I’m so excited to share it with you.

Here’s what The Library Review had to say about it:

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live”; Joan Didion’s famous line takes on new meaning in Hill’s latest self-help book (Story Work: Field Notes on Self-Discovery and Reclaiming Your Narrative). We also tell stories about how we live, and though those stories feel inevitable, Hill proposes that they can be rewritten. In this series of contemplative essays, the author guides readers in using narrative techniques in service of self-discovery. For example, uncovering one’s own self-deceptions is paired with the concept of the unreliable narrator. One exercise has readers arrange events of their lives, experimenting with plot structures to reexamine self-perception. How can a person reinterpret a tragic arc so that it becomes instead a story of rebirth or a quest? Each exercise emerges from the author’s own transformative life story; Hill came from a loving home, but her mother’s schizophrenia had profound effects on the adult she would become. Through story work, Hill has built a life that centers self-care, creativity, and empowerment.

VERDICT A self-help tome that could benefit anyone seeking a path to self-healing.

…for anyone seeking a path to self-healing.

Whether you see yourself as a writer or not, the reflections and practices in the book are for you. I kept this in mind while shaping this challenge as well.

Each week through the challenge, I’ll offer prompts and suggestions that invite you to engage in your own story work in different ways.

You don’t have to write pages and pages or even full paragraphs. Maybe one week you’ll make a list. Another, you’ll record a voice note. Have a conversation with someone you trust. Take a walk and let the question live in your body as you move. Clip words and images from a magazine. Snap a photo that captures the essence of what’s surfacing. There are so many ways to enter into this practice, and all of them are valid.

This week’s reflection prompts (at the bottom of this post) are about setting intentions and letting go of any all-or-nothing thinking that the word challenge might bring up for you.

Speaking of that. A quick story:

Years ago, I used to do these writing challenges called #30Layers30days. (Who remembers?!) That’s where the idea for the monthly prompt lists that I do now first came from. I didn’t share the lists every single month, just occasionally. When I did, the idea was: there’s one prompt for each day of the month, meant to spark a daily piece of writing or reflection.

One time, I decided I would post my response to every prompt every day for all 30 days and I told my followers + subscribers that this is what I was going to do. In reality, I ended up posting maybe 10 times. I remember someone messaged me and asked how it felt to “fail publicly at my own challenge.” 😲 They admitted that this was one of their biggest fears: that they’d start a creative project, not follow through, and feel like a failure.

First, I was like well, damn. Haha. But I didn’t see it that way. I was probably a little embarrassed at the time, but I learned some things about myself.

I learned that I didn’t need to promise I’d share something every single day in order for the challenge to be a meaningful experience.

Creating the prompts was a creative act in itself. Engaging with others who were responding to them was deeply rewarding. And for my own writing, I realized that I enjoy using the prompts in a way that feels supportive and not forced, and I could choose to share when it felt right.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you know I often talk about process over results.

Challenges and projects aren’t just about what you ‘finish.’ They’re experiments. Opportunities to notice yourself—to observe your motivations, your distractions, your blocks, and your breakthroughs. Over the years, I’ve learned that when we only focus on results, it might feel satisfying in the short term, but eventually it leads to burnout, disillusionment, and a lack of fulfillment.

It leads to us performing instead of being present with our own needs and rhythms and what the work wants to teach us.

That’s why I invite you to approach this challenge with intention, but not rigidity. Release the all-or-nothing mindset. Find the rhythm and approach that feels nourishing for you.

I tell my clients and workshop participants all the time: a long-term, restorative writing practice doesn’t come from following what you think you should do, or from chasing outcomes. It comes from aligning with what lights you up, from writing in a way that feels like it belongs to you.

That’s what this challenge is here to help you explore.

We will get started with Week One: Origin Stories next Monday.

Below you’ll find the details about the challenge and how you can win a copy of the book through the giveaway.

📖 the story work writing challenge and giveaway

In preparation for the book’s release on November 4, I’ve created a writing challenge as a pre-reading experience. Think of it as a warm-up: a way to gently attune to yourself and where you are in your journey before diving into the deeper work of the book.

📚Here’s how it works:

For this challenge, the daily prompt lists and weekly reflection prompts will work together.

• The October and November daily prompt lists will feature found phrases directly from Story Work, giving you a taste of the language and themes in the book.

• Each week (starting Monday, September 29), you’ll receive reflection prompts designed to guide you in remembering, reimagining, and reclaiming your stories.

• You can use the found phrases offered in the daily prompt lists to give you ideas for the weekly reflection prompts. I will share examples in my weekly posts.

• Write as much or as little as you like as often as you can: one sentence, one paragraph, or one page. Daily, every other day, weekly, whatever. No pressure to share, though you’re warmly invited to do so.

🎁Win a signed copy of Story Work.

Use the hashtag #StoryWorkChallenge and/or tag me @ggreneewrites on Instagram or Substack. Each time you share your words or post about the challenge, your name/handle will be entered into a drawing to receive a signed copy of Story Work. At the end of the challenge, I’ll select 3–5 winners. The more you share, the more chances you have to win.

📝Don’t let the word ‘challenge’ scare you. You can’t fail at this.

I designed this challenge to be accessible. Something you can do in small pockets of your week and still gain meaningful insights and a sense of community. Along the way, I’ll share tips for making writing and reflection a natural part of your life, rather than a task to avoid or procrastinate on.

This isn’t about writing every day or hitting a word count. The challenge is about being honest, curious, and compassionate with yourself as you find a rhythm that works for you—while connecting with a community that is doing the same work.

Reflections:

• How are you arriving to this challenge? What’s on your heart, and what do you hope to explore in this process?

• What would make me feel satisfied or nourished at the end of this challenge, regardless of how much I write?

• How can I show up for myself in a way that feels sustainable and joyful rather than forced or perfect?

• If I could approach this challenge in my own way, without judgment, what would that look like? What habits, rituals, or small actions might support me in staying connected to this practice without pressure?

• Is there anyone I could invite into this process to help me stay inspired, whether through sharing, reflection, or accountability?

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