the art of conflict

story work exercise

The following post is a Story Work exercise that paid subscribers receive every Sunday night at 8 pm et. If you are interested in receiving this weekly flow of self-reflection ideas for your writing practice, plus access to our monthly group journaling session, The Practice, consider becoming a paid subscriber. 

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Photo by Paola Chaaya on Unsplash

For the past few weeks, our weekly exercises have been based on the theme Beginnings and Endings which included new beginnings, giving birth, the afterlife, and unfinished business. Our next theme is The Art of Conflict which presents many layers for us to explore for healing and storytelling. We’ll be looking at internal and external conflict factors and how we identify them in our own lives, and make meaning from them in the stories we tell. We will look at examples to observe how conflicts on the surface of a story lead to insights about the inner worlds of the characters.

If you’re new here, this is what story work is all about. Story Work is the name of my current book-in-progress and 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. When you see your life as a story full of turning points and transformations, you can use creative thinking to reshape narratives that don’t serve you. By cultivating this ability, you can uncover compelling storylines and new visions for your life. 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.

So, let’s get into it.

as above, so below

In storytelling, it is through conflict that a character gets what they want or realizes what they need. As much as we often try to avoid conflict in real life, there is so much to learn from it. In keeping with the idea that our lives are stories and our experiences are creative material, conflict is information that conveys emotional truth about the human experience.