On Thursday, 17th January, I attended Dr. Nicole Mason’s workshop titled “The Power of Your Story: Claiming Your Narrative and Finding Your Voice.”
In this workshop, I learned that writing about one’s story is much more complicated than I thought it was. Although writing about your own story is exciting, there are many challenges along the enjoyment. It has its own mental warfare. For example, you would think, “What do I want people to think of me?” or “What would people think about this?” These questions give burden to the thought.
I learned three lessons of writing a memoir:
1. Prioritize authenticity.
2. Think about being real and complete at the same time.
3. Always consider the delivery the messages in our story.
First of all, you need to prioritize authenticity. Being genuine and unique is key and a huge point of interest. Writing about your own inspiring story also helps you to practice self-awareness. Don’t feel shy, people would want to hear your story. It would be really satisfying when your story become an inspiration for people, and the impact would be amazing! So, ask yourself: “What’s my story? In particular, what’s the story from my life that I want to share and inspire others from?”
Second, think about being real and complete at the same time. We’re talking about completeness here. Everything in the story is connected and related. For example, small habits, frequently done, in the childhood may lead to an attitude or quality that he/she has as an adult. So, you may raise the question: “What’s more to include?” or, “What should be excluded?”
Third and lastly, we should always consider the delivery the messages in our story. We should always consider to write our story purposely, so that people can clearly understand our message. Often times, people can misunderstand or misinterpret what we write, and that becomes an issue. We can review our story by reading it as a stranger’s perspective, somebody who doesn’t know us at all. So, give some thoughts about these questions: "Who’s the protagonist in this book? "What does this event mean in his/her life? "How do the struggles and challenges in his/her life shape him/her?
We also had a couple of activities in this workshop where we write and share it in a pair. It was a nice exercise where we can explore story ideas and find our own voice. In the first activity, we had to write a paragraph about our vivid childhood memory. The prompted line was, “When I was little, I used to …” Then, we wrote another paragraph about the most important events in our life. The prompted line was, “I will always remember …” These two prompted lines, in my opinion, are so effective to pull back memories. I might brainstorm with these lines again for a writing.
In the end, I understand that art is a form of one's expression. Sometimes, being a writer means being free. I also found that one of our hardest personal conflicts is about being heard by other people, and after hearing other people’s stories and testimonies in the workshop, I feel inspired. I learn many things. So, after the workshop I said to myself, “Put your heart and soul into your writing!”
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