A format for more empowered storytelling
Rooting out where we might lean on the past for permission to speak now
Today, take up an idea for an essay that’s been rolling around in your mind lately but that you haven’t started writing.
I want you to write it in two columns.
Column 1: “What I Believed Then”
Column 2: “What I Know Now”
You can structure this chronologically, thematically, or emotionally. But, stick to a few core ideas as the constraint is the breakthrough.
The idea here introduces a constraint or structural framework that has the potential to make your writing sharper, tighter, or more surprising. It also helps you get unstuck by forcing the idea through a form.
Then, try writing a short piece that only uses column 2 material, or, if needed, that uses column 1 material only sparingly. What emerges when you remove the past? What happens when you aren’t using the past as permission for saying what you most want to say from the wisdom of experience now?
