A little late to the Time Warp Tuesday game this week. I don’t know why I thought today was Tuesday… ever since I started working from home, my internal calendar is all sorts of off.
This week’s Time Warp Tuesday theme is “Blogging.” Nice and broad, right? I had a bunch of posts I could reflect on but I decided to choose this one – The Storyteller Within Us – for a couple of reasons. First, the idea of blogging as storytelling is something core to not only who I am, but why I write.
Second, I wrote this post on a day my RSS feed got all screwed up, so it never got the Twitter/Facebook promotion it should have. I don’t think it appeared in other peoples’ RSS Readers, either. Which makes me sad, because I really liked this post :-/
Here’s what I had to say back in August about blogging as storytelling:
If you think about it, blogging is a kind of virtual storytelling. We post the stories of our lives. We embellish, we censor and sometimes we just very candidly lay everything out there with abandon. We choose our words with care for they carry the burden and weight of our hearts in the permanence of the internet. We cushion the way our words land by wrapping them in a blanket we’ve woven: our story.
You can read the rest of the post here, which includes some of my favorite stories.
Not much has changed since that post. I still believe that blogging is a form of storytelling. I think the biggest change is making the commitment to share my story as broadly as possible. As I mentioned Friday, I’m changing my business. My blog – and the shape that it takes – is intrinsically part of this business change.
I almost think of a grinding wheel (and not because we’re playing Skyrim every night in my house, where smithing is a skill one can develop). I’m refining my story and, as cheesy as this sounds – my brand – into a focused, sharp point. I put my story to the grinding wheel and words fly off like sparks. I’m not sharing less – I’m merely honing it to be as effective and compelling as possible.
Quite simply, I started this blog as a story: I’m an infertile woman who’s just trying to figure all this out because boy howdy, infertility sucks. That story has evolved over time: I’m an infertile woman named Keiko Zoll and I’m not afraid to share with the bajillions on the internet that yes, I can’t have children and no, that does not make me less of a person.
And that brings me to today: I still continue to craft my story with every post. I write as authentically as I know how (sometimes to a fault) but I put it out there because I believe in the power of stories and storytelling. Blogging allows me to share my story in a very public way.
Like I said in my post back in August, we all have a story to tell. I pose the same question I did in linked post:
What story are you telling?
This post is part of the Time Warp Tuesday Blog Hop hosted by Kathy at Four of a Kind. Swing by her blog today to see who else is participating and join in the fun for next Tuesday.
“I put my story to the grinding wheel and words fly off like sparks.” What a powerful imagine. I’m so impressed that you’ve found your calling and are so sure now of the story you want to tell. I think that is a rare gift, one that many people never get, the gift of KNOWING what you want to do with your life and being good enough at it as to feel confident that you can be successful. I wish I had that kind of drive and direction and I’m so looking forward to knowing the newly honed persona and story you’re preparing to share with us. I’m sure it’s going to be fantastic.
What is Skyrim?
Aside from that, I am proud of you for following your dreams and telling your story the best way you know how!
I am excited to see where journey takes you next (or where you take yourself).
I am cutting and pasting my answer to your question on your original post, as to “What story are you telling?” What a great question by the way. I really enjoyed the process of thinking through and composing my answer. It was interesting exercise in being able to summarize what I write/blog.
So here is my answer (again), to quote myself:
As for what story I am telling… It’s a story of working hard to achieve your dreams and realizing that sometimes that isn’t enough to get you where you want to be. It’s a story of what happens when your life doesn’t turn out how you plan or imagine it will and how we can cope and make the best of our situations. I am telling about my journey through wanting more children and more out of life in general and how I have learned to be content and relish in what my life has turned out to be, even though it is not what I originally wanted and hoped for.
Thank you for doing the Time Warp again with us this week!