Monday, September 6

stories

"No, no this just doesn't work."  She tapped the pencil against the desk and sighed.  My first draft was not going well.  I squirmed in my seat like a toddler.

"What does this character want?  What makes her get out of bed in the morning?  What is the driving force of her life?"

"I...I don't know."

"You have to find out.  Because until you find what's at the heart of this person, what makes her who she is, she's not going to live a story that anyone wants to read.  Give her something to fight for."

She was right.  The stories people are drawn to stories with action and conflict- this idea that something needs to change.  We like stories with purpose and passion; the character has to do something, or risk something, or take some sort of chance.  Apply for the job, run the marathon, kiss the girl, capture the villain.  My favorite stories involve challenges, courage, hope, and anything that seems impossible.  In literature, you need action to make a story- but so often in life, in our stories, we settle for being half asleep.  My wish is that our lives, our stories, would be filled with challenges and courage and hope, and purpose and passion.  That we would take a risk.  That we would try to do something we don't think we can.  That we would turn and face things instead of running from them.  I want to live a story like that, and I want to write stories like that.  This is my attempt to write more, to find my voice, and to share more of my thoughts with other people.  I want to live like I know what I'm fighting for- passionately, freely, and full of grace.

"No, life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath... We get one story, you and I, and one story alone.  It would be a shame for us not to venture out and truly live."
- Donald Miller

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