Write Now with Jean Rowe! Each month, come on over to Young Adult Voices and read everything LCSW Jean Rowe has to say!
We all have stories. We all tell stories. Our families have stories. They have stories about us that may be akin to legend or lore at this point. Our friends have stories. They have stories about us based on their experiences and memories of us. We all can make up stories. About ourselves. About others. About rewriting history, defining the present and scribing the future.
Try an experiment with a story you have long held and believe from your past. Maybe one that has you frozen in time about you in some way. Write the story from your point of view. Write it from the point of view of everyone who was there (including the family dog) (if the family dog was indeed there).
Begin with a line like “It was a time when…”
Watch what happens. Are you making anything up? Are there any “hard facts” upon which you rely or is it more gray than that? Are you willing for it to be more gray? You are the audience for this re-telling. And this re-telling. And that one, too. Through the experience of the others who were present at the time.
Play around with it. Use the senses. Think about what the room or rooms/atmosphere looked like, smelled like, what you heard.
Why do this? To let go of what may no longer be needed. To gently nudge at memory taken for granted and wonder is this true? To release. To love yourself.
After you write it, close your journal and let it sit for a little while. Go back later and read it. How’d it go? How did it feel? What did you learn? What is next?
Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear from you!
“The moral of this story is that many amazing, sometimes hidden things happen in a library. What’s the story behind yours? What’s your tale? The world is waiting to hear your Once Upon a Time.”
