Just like the protagonist of your story, you, too, have a story behind the story of your life.
We explain things that happen to us, justify our feelings and relive the past through stories rich with emotion that we tell ourselves. We bring our stories into every relationship and fit them around every experience.
Memories about the past and fantasies about the future run in our minds behind the living we’re actively engaged in the present moment and emerge in conversation as we interact with others. Stories that originate in our past grow as we repeat them over and over again until they become the truth we live by.
The lucky ones have wondrous memories to savor and hopeful futures to imagine. For some of us, the stories we've locked ourselves in limit and hurt and keep us small and wounded.
In reality, stories are merely a collection of words we string together and weave with emotion to make sense of our lives and life around us. Our stories now influence every choice and belief about ourselves and life itself. While following tradition and society’s expectations into one dead-end moment after another, blundering into detours and wandering aimlessly, a map comes in handy.
The Universal Story is that map.
Let the Universal Story guide you into unraveling the crippling words that haunt you and form them into a full understanding of the true power that resides in you. Transform the stories you tell yourself from limiting to expansive. Break free from all the stories, relationships and beliefs holding you back. Transform your everyday life.
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By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 5/16/2014
Blog: Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: backstory wound, how we wound ourselves. Secrets of Personal Transformation, the stories we tell ourselves, the universal story, Add a tag
By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 7/3/2010
Blog: Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Martha Alderson, Blockbuster Plots, screenplay or memoir, how to keep at the task of writing a novel, creating a compelling novel, the stories we tell ourselves, writing the middle of a story, Add a tag
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By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 5/16/2014
Blog: Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: backstory wound, how we wound ourselves. Secrets of Personal Transformation, the stories we tell ourselves, the universal story, Add a tag
0 Comments on Same Old Story as of 5/16/2014 1:52:00 PM
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By: Martha Alderson, M.A.,
on 7/3/2010
Blog: Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Martha Alderson, Blockbuster Plots, screenplay or memoir, how to keep at the task of writing a novel, creating a compelling novel, the stories we tell ourselves, writing the middle of a story, Add a tag
We make up stories in our minds about events in our lives. Are the stories real? Only real to us and only as far as our perception is capable of seeing at the time. The stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world around us have a direct impact on how we react to new events in our lives.
That is the only explanation I have for why one writer is slain by the antagonists that pop up in the middle of her writing journey. While, another writer faced with the exact same problems is able to effortlessly make her way forward.
Or, perhaps, the answer lies in the understanding one has of the task itself.
The writer who is slain may have heard rumors about the meddlesome, messy, sagging middle but when confronted with the reality of writing her way through the middle, takes the challenge personally, surrenders all her power and gives up (either for the day or for months or even years).
Another writer has researched not only the setting and authentic details needed for her story but also the craft of writing itself enough to understand that the antagonists that arise in the middle are not to be feared or felled by but part of the process itself.
I'm not explaining myself well here and the reason could be because this more informed writer is an anomaly to me. She has only been writing for two years and is well beyond the halfway point to creating a compelling novel. Though slowed down by the antagonists in the middle, rather than create resistance by judging herself as the problem and throwing herself against the wall or curling up in a ball for years before seeking help, she reaches out almost immediately and is now off and flying again.
Replace the story you tell yourself about writing the middle of your novel, memoir, screenplay from one of threat and opposition to a story of strength and determination. Antagonists are self-created and have power over you only so long as you give away your own personal power first.
2 Comments on Antagonists in Stories and in Life, last added: 7/6/2010
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This post speeks to me! I sat in that saggy middle for a year. I have fought my way out and am close to finishing my first novel. Thank you for this. It is so comforting to know I am not alone in the struggle to write.
Oh, how your words inspire. I'm ready to grab hold of the wings of some dragonflies today. Thank you!