For some, it is a burning tale. For others, a memory suddenly returns to consciousness. And yet for others still, it is an “ordinary” moment in time—seen, captured, storied, made to live on the page—now, made extraordinary, and never to be lost to the churning wheel of time.
These are just a few of the kinds of stories that we tell as the “authors” of the stories of our lives.
Each of them is precious in its own way.
A burning tale that you’ve long been carrying — or, perhaps, that has long been carrying you — wants to make itself spoken, known, and finally realized.
A faint memory from long ago that, all of a sudden, says far more about who you know yourself to be, what you believe, and why, than you had ever realized.
A captured moment — a simple interaction, a routine experience, an altogether normal or boring or expected snapshot from your everyday life! — that, when truly witnessed by you, you discover to be something far more precious.
(Like a testimonial to love. Like a commitment to survive, and a will to thrive. Like an ounce of synergy and harmony among the discord.)
What story, dear reader, do you feel called to tell?
🐾
It is with great pleasure, honor, and excitement that I announce that Writing the Personal, a truly cherished writing class, returns this February! And you, dear storyteller, are invited.
Writing the Personal is a four-week, live-guided creative experience that ushers you into a communal, connective, safe space to deeply inquire about the forces that move you to want to tell your stories:
Stories sourced from your real life, shaped into digestible essays, made ready for the sharing.
Wait. What was that?
If a little voice in you just happened to say, “But what stories do I have to tell?”, consider how the stories that you have lived, and are living, and will live, are, within themselves, so very deserving of voice, attention, care, and being told!
Your stories deserve telling, for yourself.
Your stories deserve telling, if only for a few loved ones. Your parent. Your partner. Your children (right now, or someday!).
Your stories deserve telling, if only for a few visitors on the Internet; “strangers” who, by chance or fate or luck, have stumbled upon your tale, your voice, your real and lived experience, and who, in reading it, may feel a little less alone in the world.
What a beautiful gift that is!
The stories that deserve telling from our lives are not just “extraordinary” moments. Social media virality, likes and follows, are not the metric of a story’s true worth.
As storied creatures, as social beings, as complex vessels of vibrant and dynamic energies, the measure of worth for our stories is found in our choice, our determination, and our curiosity to tell them.
Telling a story is an assignment of meaning and significance.
What does that mean for us as storytellers?
It means that the deed of telling a story, at all, is enough for it to be worthwhile.
Everything of worth and significance in our lives originates from, and returns to, the stories we tell.
🐾
Over just four weeks in Writing the Personal, your heart and your mind will be opened to the beauty, grace, and power of the experience of being our stories’ tellers.
You will be ushered through an intimate examination of why story matters to you — even if you aren’t quite certain yet why.
You’ll take an invigorating and inspiring crash course through one of the most popular and in-demand forms of nonfiction writing today — a genre called “personal narrative essay,” which I write in — to discover how accessible, rewarding, and cross-culturally-honoring it can be for telling stories of your own.
Writing the Personal is perfect for lifelong learners, self-starter personalities, teachers and creatives, small biz owners and freelancers, side hustlers and change-makers, professional helpers and aspiring authors…
For you, reading this, who says, “Yes, my stories are worth telling.”
The question is, what story will you tell with us?
In writing class, every student will have the creative opportunity to draft one personal narrative essay — a true story from your life — in rough draft form and receive helpful feedback, detailed guidance, and more from me!
It could be a story you’ve been wanting to tell, finally, for ages — or, that has required a lot more time, patience, and processing than you at first realized.
It could be a story that emerges from the distant past in the form of a resurrected memory and, just because it is “here” and “now,” feels like a good story to put on paper.
It could be a moment that you capture from your life, today, which may, you fear, feel so inglorious or so ordinary or so undeserving of attention, but that, you discover, offers you as many beautiful opportunities for heartfelt “holding” than even the wildest, most dramatic, most Kerouac-esque of adventures.
What story might you tell?
Hit reply and share with me what story is the one that you would so love to tell.
And, please join us for the newest installment of Writing the Personal, which begins on Thursday, February 23.
That’s just three and a half weeks away!
This promises to be the most special experience yet.
A message from beyond…
A song that must be sung…
A fleeting moment, forever captured…
A monument to what you’ve overcome…
An ode to those who came before you…
What story will you tell with us, dear friend?
Learn more about Writing the Personal now »
