Story Power

Stories make us feel. The reality of those feelings equals the reality of our own experience. Our emotional growth is dependent on these shared experiences. We can experience so much more in the safe pages of a book. Sure, movies and shows are great ways to feed the story hunger but these containers are limited. A book mines the internal journey. We experience this journey through the thoughts of our characters. Voice-over exposition doesn't do it for me, and I doubt it does for you.

We don't know how long humans have shared experiences through the medium of story, but the flickering light of endless campfires warms my bones, and the more recent leap to written language fuels the fires within. Story is what brings confidence to sort through the troubles of our day. Story is that collective memory of mankind that assures us that we made it through those other things, we will make it through the waves of trouble that have swamped us today.

This season brings the Jólabókaflóð (The Yule Book Flood), a time to give books and read until morning. It's my treasured reading time, and I love it.  I hope you stop this season to expand your emotional landscape.  Do you want to grow and be more? Pick up a book and allow it transport you on a journey to rise above the odds and find your way.  The experience will help you face the challenges in your "real life" journey. Tap into this superpower, story power.

Spend your time wisely. Today is all we have.

Quote for your pocket.

“Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.” Kate Di Camillo

A doodle for you. 

Close to the Bone: Barbara

Hi, folks, this week I'm going to write my version of The Valley of Dry Bones in the first of a series called Close to the Bone.

When I was in my twenties, I joined a cult. It was a short-lived thing that was all about religious propaganda to control others. This propaganda was wrapped up in a big quilt called the ABSOLUTE TRUTH. Of course, there was a booming preacher (a modern day apostle) called Brother because we would not want to be too familiar. He had a direct line to God; everyone needed to hear his message to be part of the true church. He answered to no one but God.

Under his guidance, we learned important truths. Church had to be attended at least four times a week. Friends outside the Church weren't a good idea. Birth control wasn't a good idea. Sending your children to public school wasn't a good idea. God had big plans, and you needed to be in the Ship of Safety.  Demonic forces were roaming around out there that would take you down...Trying to live up to this holy propaganda was sort of like having all the flesh ripped from your body and leaving you as a pile of dry bones.

So I stuck to this mess for almost eight years. I never did leave; the cult imploded around me. I wish I had left, but I was shredded instead. There is nothing noble or redeeming about my story. Toward the end, my friend Barbara was losing weight. Too much. She was probably under a hundred pounds. I'd found it all. I had gained three children and seventy pounds in three and a half years. Barbara, like me, would give large chunks of her money to the church. We didn't need anything; God was on our side. I'd saved up some extra money from collecting aluminum cans (five dollars) and took the money over to her house to help her meet her rent.  I also wrote a little poem about how on the other side of life we would find peace. Barbara took the money. I hugged her and said goodbye.

A few hours later, I was at church when I was told Barbara drove her car onto a train track and stopped. Beautiful Barbara was crushed by a screaming train on her way to pay the rent. I cannot express the panic that I felt when I learned how she had died.  We were God's chosen people. Weren't we? I was numb and bleeding inside. I kept saying the same old religious propaganda but my belief in the ABSOLUTE TRUTH died with Barbara. I am crying while writing this. It was 25 years ago, but part of me always lives in that moment. My friend took her life and where was I?

I had my part in it. I'd tied myself in knots trying to support an unsupportable vision of God brought to me by an uneducated self-styled apostle who I should have declared as wrong.  Who knew there was so much power in just standing up and saying something is wrong? Everyone but me. Here is my message. If there is something you need to stand up for, please do. Please. Please. Please. Even if it sets the world on fire. I am standing here, handing you the torch.

Thanks for dropping by. I will continue with Close to the Bone.  I hope that my story will inform yours.

Instead of a doodle I'm posting a picture of Barbara.  A light lost.

Paraphrase from the book of Ezekiel 37: 2a-3:

I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. The Lord asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

The Heart and Soul of Story: Joy

Hi, folks, I'm continuing my series on the heart and soul of story.  This week I'm going to chat about how joy fuels the heart and soul of story.  To me, joy is much deeper than a feeling of happiness, though it is that. Over the years, a state of mind has developed within me as I write and draw. It's resistant to the storms of life, like I've been surrounded by a giant levee keeps me from ever being flooded with despair for too long. The drainage is good. Flood waters recede quickly and all the buildings are sturdy and stay put in catastrophe. I might weep for a night about another rejection, but then I wake the next morning ready to work again.

Every time I learn a new skill as a writer, or overcome a plot problem, or unlock a new character trait as I am creating, I feel a surge of joy.  After writing for so long, I feel like I've turned toward the true north of my creative heart.  I've settled on my journey, finding confidence and hope.  Where is all the joy coming from? The saver of souls for me. The world seems so unsettled these days. Fear sends folks skittering one way and then another. We are inundated by floods of information in this age of information. And yet we can find shelter in this flood. We can connect with joy and write stories that make a difference.

Here is my little recipe into that joy. Work even when you are hoping against hope. Work even if there are voices real and imagined  telling you writing is a waste of time. Resist the desire to write about the "hot topics" and write about what is bright and beautiful to you.  Write about what is great and strong to you. Be fearless. Open yourself up to learn from all the people in your in life, especially the people who rub you the wrong way.  When you do these things, you will be surprised by joy. Truth: that joy that comes to you, that joy is your strength. Let it permeate everything you do.

I hope you come back next week as a start a new series. I am so glad you have dropped by.

Here is a doodle for you.

I love to tell the story, because I know ’tis true;
It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do. Arabella Katherine Hankey

Heart and Soul of Story: Grateful

Hi, folks. I'm continuing my Heart and Soul series.  I'm so busy right now that this will be a short post. I find being grateful helps me tap into the depth of stories. It's especially helpful to be grateful when I am not feeling it. Sometime I forget to grateful and my friends help. I'm deeply grateful for those who give me perspective. Recognizing that failure contributes to my success is one of the best things of all to be grateful for.

Is it taking you a long time to complete your novel, art, etc?  Writing a story is not a race.  Be grateful for the time it is taking you. So be grateful for the gift of creating art.  Be grateful for mistakes. Be grateful for the long and winding road to a complete work. Be grateful that you can share your story even if your work will touch one heart and that heart is yours. One heart can be a very big deal.

Gratefulness in you will infuse your story with strength and power.  You will take the risks your need to. You will dig into things that you must. Gratefulness will give you the fortitude to complete your journey.  I hope that you are grateful this week and let those good thoughts guide you on your way.
I will be back next week with more of this story.

Here is a doodle.

A quote for your pocket.

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next ten thousand years...Emerson

Heart and Soul of Story: Monomyth

Hi, folks, this summer I am coaching TEENS Publish at Ringer Library in College Station, Texas. And in conjunction with that class, I'm going to write about the heart and soul of story over here at the blog. This week I will focus on my understanding of the monomyth, which is part of depths of story.

The monomyth also know as the hero's journey is all about a hero who goes on an adventure, and in an-end-all-the-battle crisis defeats a malevolent power. The hero returns home but as a new person, forever changed by the journey, Old things have passed away for the hero and all things have become new.

Why is mankind chasing down this hero? Why do we focus so much of ourselves on the this journey in books, films, TV shows, campfires--wherever stories are told? Life is tough and full of vast contradictions. Every generation wants to make its mark, and it also wants to make sense of their world in way no previous generation has. But a few see a troubling a pattern.

A few folks have noticed that mankind tends to make the same mistakes over and over. There is a heart's cry in these few for the madness to stop. Hence the obsession with the hero's journey. Perhaps following  the ancient path of story will make us recognize our present state and try to be more. Perhaps a story will offer each person what he or she needs to change the direction of a 1000 generations of their family for better. 

The choices we make are important. Learn of the choices that lead us all to higher more spiritual plane. This is work of the monomyth. This is what I understand so far on my journey. I will be back next week with more Heart and Soul.

I am glad you came by!  Thanks!  

Here is a doodle for you: Pug.  

I hope you place this excellent quote in your back pocket.

“Not all who hesitate are lost. The psyche has many secrets in reserve. And these are not disclosed unless required.”
― Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces

Gifts: Prophesy to these dry bones

Hi folks, ah, the holidays, and of course, I'm running a little behind. This month I'm offering a little series I called Gifts. This will be short and sweet. There is a story in the Bible in the book of Ezekiel. This my retelling. Here how it starts. The Lord takes Ezekiel to valley of dry bones and asks him if the bones can live.

Ezekiel answers, "Lord only knows."

The Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones.

(We don't prophesy in these days, and I sure do feel left out. The idea of a prophesy is to let someone know what is coming in the future. If you are a writer, you might understand this more than most.)

Back to the story. Ezekiel shouted to those bones."You dead bones, this is the Lord talking and not me -- I'm sending breath in you. And you will come alive. I'll put tendons, and flesh, and skin on you. I'll say it again, I'm putting breath in you, and will be alive. And the whole world will know I am the Lord!"

After that there was a noise. Bones rattled! They snapped together. Then came the tendons, and flesh and the skin. But instead of folks, there was a pile of dead bodies.

The Lord told Ezekiel to prophesy again. "Wind from the four corner of the Earth come into these dead bodies and make them live." And the wind came and a mighty army sprung up, rearing for a fight.

Then the Lord told Ezekiel what it all meant. "Those bones are my people.They have lost hope. They think they are dead.  I'm going to make them alive and I'm going to give them the little corner they are hankering for. Let them know I'm doing this because that's the way I am."

To wrap this up, if you feel like an old pile of dead bones, and you are wondering if you will ever get a chance to snap together and march out there and take your corner.  Remember this story. Wait for the wind.

I will be back next week with another of the Gifts series.

Here is a doodle.  "The sun, Moon, and the stars"

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. Marie Curie

April Showers: Storytellers

Hi, folks, today is the last in a series of April Showers. Today I'm going to talk about what brings showers to my soul and this is the multitude of voices. I love to write and shape stories, but I also love to hear the stories of others. I had the great privilege of being born into a family of storytellers. My mother's family comes out of Louisville, Mississippi. They spun yarns like nobody's business.

A great lesson of the storytellers is to practice listening. Make time in your life to hear the stories of others. Think about the questions to ask. Ask the right questions and who knows what you will unlock. I like to ask, "What do you know that no one else knows?" I especially like to ask children this question. These questions always lead to great stories too: "What was the most important moment in your life?" "Have you ever seen anyone die?" "What's the greatest injustice that you've ever seen?" So ask some juicy questions and listen. Take notes or record the conversation. Writers keep the records of who we are and what we want, so listen up.

Another great storyteller lesson is to revise to get your audience interested. I have seen master storytellers in action, and if their audience begins to yawn or heads begin to bob, master storytellers up their game. They bring in more action, more drama, more pathos, more comedy, more. They let this stuff flood in. A great storyteller knows folks need to lean on the edge of their seat, they need to cry, they need belly laughs. Stories need to feel alive. If you don't feel that excitment in your work you might need to up your game this week.

Glad you dropped by. I hope you listen to a story or up your game. Water your work.

This week's doodle: "A Place of Dreams".



A quote about stories:

These stories were the libraries of our people. In each story, there was recorded some event of interest or importance...A people enrich their minds who keep their history on the leaves of memory. Luther Standing Bear, Lakota.

What is story?

I've got an idea rolling around in my head.

What is story? Yes, I have pat answers that just leap out of my head when I ask the question, but I think there is more to story than my pat answers. Story is certainly about what we want. It's about who we are. Stories also offer information about how to thrive where we dwell. Yes, stories have profound things to tell us about how we are going to get out bed tomorrow when a tsunami of grief has washed over us in the night. Stories help us through the valley of the shadow of death.

Stories have ancient rhythms, and they thrum within me. Who knows how many campfires men sat around before someone came up the with technology of writing to store stories on paper instead of in flawed earthen vessels? It's really true that stories don't need words. Meaningful stories can be told in the silences. Story is also a way to share our journeys of survival, our struggles with faith, our dances with hope.

I, for one, am hungry for stories. I love the rhythms in stories. I love the sense of joy and tragedy in stories. I love to meet interesting characters that somehow teach me something about myself. I love a satisfying ending. My inspiring advice for today is to step away from the words and just let a story play out in your heart. Feel the beginning, middle, and end. Let it all wash over you, through you. Then and only then try to capture the thing with your words.

Were you surprised?

Here is my doodle for the day. It's called "Shepherd".



There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Maya Angelou

Day 21 of the Golden Coffee Cup: Myth Teller Janet Lee Carey

Today we get a relaxed high-five from the inventive myth teller Janet Lee Carey. (BTW, she's a Golden Coffee Cupper. Oh, yay for the company we keep!)

LitArt Photography/Heidi Pettit

Here is an ethereal high five from Janet's book, Wenny Has Wings.



And here is a provoctive high five from Janet's book, Dragon's Keep.




I don't call Janet a story teller, author, or even writer, for me she is the great myth teller of our times. Myth is a pesky concept for scholars, and few can agree about the exact meaning. For me, myths are stories that aren't so connected to the facts but are exploring the inexplicable and the unknowable. These stories dip beyond facts and theories and into that space where facts fail us, and we are left floundering in depths of the metaphysical. Oh, Janet dives fearlessly into these waters. Her characters are ordinary people, but she's always peeling back the veil revealing them as supernatural beings. This sense that we are all simply more. This is the heart of the myth teller.

I return to Janet's books again and again. She seeks the connections between the beginning, the now and the end. There is something deeply functional about her myth telling, challenging our beliefs and core values about individuals, always widening that to the families, friendships and beyond to communities. She totally gets Koinonia - the intimate participation that we have with one another, the fellowship of humanity. I feel her stories cut through the water of mystery and unknown and in the deepest way reveal what is sacred to us all. Yes, she is reconciling the good and the bad, light and dark, meaning and meaningless. Her exploration of what it means to be, diving effortlessly into the mythic questions, “Why are we here?” “Who are we?” “What is our purpose?” etc., for me is deeply comforting. Her stories call her readers to become the best version of who they can be.

I could really go on for pages, but I'm going to stop now because, hey, I've got to sleep sometime.

I hope that you read one of her books, watch for her upcoming titles, expect to be moved out of your current orbit to one closer to the fiery energy of the sun. I hope that you will consider how myth might inform your work today. I pray you may find the sacred in you writing today.

And for Janet, 'cause I know she's reading this. Stay on course.

Most of us have trouble sticking to our writing when it's not going well. This isn't usually due to a lack of creativity, but an unwillingness to hang in there with the ugly stuff, the unpolished prose, the awkward scene with stumbling dialogue; but hanging in there is key. Accepting good and bad material from the subconscious mind keeps the story flowing. Janet Lee Carey

One more thing... on the 30th of this month there is going to be a real life party, Golden Coffee Cuppers. Holly Cupala has a plan:

"Another idea that has captured my imagination and fueled the fire of my goal-reaching is an upcoming party to celebrate the Golden Coffee Cup, NANOWRIMO, and any other writing or illustration goals made and/or accomplished during the month of November, kind of like kidlit drink night except more like NANO-Cup-O-Cake-A-Drink-Lit Night on November 30th. "

So if you want to come together with some wonderful creative folks, mark the date. More info is coming soon. Post if you want to come. Thanks.

Post you successes too, folks, so I can SNAP!