storyteller types: the gamechanger
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 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.
The weekly story work topics cover universal life themes with references from literature, philosophy, science, and spirituality; offering perspectives that spark ideas for personal growth and creative expression.
Paid subscribers receive Story Work exercises every Sunday night at 8 pm et.
This week’s story work exercise is the third in the Storyteller Types series.
Hi friends,
Disappointed, disgusted, heartbroken, but not surprised. I’ve been sitting with my feelings since the election last week, and I know this burden is not going anywhere anytime soon. It doesn’t feel real, but this is where we are.
My birthday was the day after election day and I leaned into rest and gratitude that day, allowing myself to just be in the comfort of my family. There are some moments when you need to zoom in and root down into the present moment, sink into your body, and remind yourself that in this instant you are safe and held and to just be where you are.
If you are dealing with election grief right now, ask yourself what your heart needs and take care of yourself. There is such an overwhelming need for individual and collective healing, and even when we feel powerless, we are contributing to the collective by doing our inner work. It is more important than ever for us to align with our creative callings and embody the values we want to see in the world.
This is why we write. This is why we practice. This is why we dig deep.
Our current storyteller types series explores “knowing your why” as part of finding the courage and conviction to share your story. I started writing years ago with Self-Healing in mind, and then as a Survivor wanting to connect with others. I got stuck for a while in the Survivor role, overidentifying with my pain to the point that I didn’t know how to write without it. I thought that all of my creative material needed to come from pain.
That mentality turned writing into a dark place for a while until I realized that I had more to offer than pain. I wanted to pass on the hope and wisdom that was born through that pain. I wanted to be a voice for healing. I wanted to change the narratives that had silenced my mother’s story, so I could liberate my own. I wanted to break the cycle and reveal the taboos. I wanted to create a space where my children would feel safe to talk about their mental health and be empowered to actively nurture it. I wanted to make sure that there would be no silencing and shaming on my watch. And I had to start with myself.
In my forthcoming book, Story Work, I talk about how in my twenties and thirties I was unconsciously repeating many of the same patterns of silence and avoidance that my parents had modeled for me—hiding my anxiety and depression because of shame, guilt, and fear. Even when I did start coming out of the shadows and talking about my struggles, I would take five steps forward, then three steps back, letting myself be influenced by family members who were against therapy and mental health treatment. Worrying about losing credibility and being seen as flaky and unstable. Convincing myself that I was fine.
Somebody said pain travels through families until someone is ready to feel it. That someone is called to be a cycle-breaker. Cycle breakers are feelers, thinkers, and seekers who are unable to live on the surface and pretend everything is okay when it’s not. They refuse to pretend and perform to keep up the status quo. Cycle-breaking looks different for each person, but it comes down to being in integrity with yourself and willing to go against your background and conditioning to live from your own truths and values.
A cycle-breaker is a type of Gamechanger, this week’s storyteller type. A writer who is driven to change patterns from the past through their writing. The Gamechanger wants to break a cycle, raise awareness, or normalize a way of being that has been historically taboo. They are innovators who present a new idea or way of doing things that goes against the grain. They may be seen as rebels, outcasts, or trouble-makers by those who want them to stay the same, be quiet, fit in.
If you resonate with this type, you may want to break generational cycles of silence and trauma, secrets and lies. Becoming the truth-teller that you were once too afraid or too conflicted to be. You may live an unconventional lifestyle that makes you feel ostracized and unsupported in environments that you are emotionally attached to. Causing you to create boundaries and separations that are painful but necessary.
Being a gamechanger became a major motivation for me when I saw how the cycles I was perpetuating were affecting my kids. In my upbringing, the silence about my mother’s illness caused ripple effects and disconnections that fractured my family of origin and distorted my sense of self. Writing became a way to open conversations, end those silences, and begin to heal.
The reason these motivations matter is because they reflect how we connect to the stories we are called to tell. Understanding where your motivation comes from unlocks the freedom to surrender and let the expression come out naturally and with purpose.
Writing is an ideal tool for the Gamechanger. As you share your stories, you are able to connect the dots and document the why and the how of change. As you do that you are creating expansion for those you share with, showing them what it looks like to break free from the rules and systems that stifle them.
For this week’s exercise, reflect on how this storyteller type resonates with you. In what parts of your life do you feel a calling to be a voice for awareness and change? In what ways do you want to embody a different way of being in the world? How can your writing be in service of this change?
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Exercise
Choose any or all of the following writing prompts to explore your connection with the Gamechanger archetype.
Self-Discovery
Reflect on the familial, cultural, generational, and societal beliefs, rules, and systems that you are breaking away from. What beliefs or convictions do you have that go against the status quo?
Was there an inciting incident that made you realize that you want to take your life in a different direction or was it a gradual realization? What were the series of events?
What are the biggest factors that are empowering or inhibiting you from embodying the changes you want to see?
Storytelling
Write a letter to a family member or other person or entity whose beliefs, influence, or rules drove you to rebel to find a new path or way of being. Tell them about the impact they had on you and how you broke free.
Write about a story, essay, or poem about a moment of change when you broke conformity and embodied the essence of a Gamechanger. What led up to it? Who was involved? What was at stake? What drove your decisions? What happened after?