It’s All About Others

A story, really any good story, is about someone.  I suppose that Someone could just as easily be a robot, a talking Mantis, a zombie, or anything else my more richly imaginative writer colleagues might conjure up.  At the end of the day, it is always about a person behind whatever costume is put on.

When writing hard-as-reality non-fiction, we are always writing about Someone. Even if the story is about a proposed dump site in your community, it comes down to a person (or persons) who are making it happen and/or being affected by it.

I’ve found this is also so in job searching (or at least that’s my theory, pre-landing). It’s about people.  Strictly speaking I’d say, whether it’s a job, an association or group, a small business or corporation, a piece of information, a resource you are seeking . . .  at the end of the line you will need to speak a person. One-on-one, person-to-person, leads to another, that leads to another.  And one can hope, to whatever you need.

And so it goes with a story.  You sketch together the stories of each person. The more people you include, (or the more deeply you draw them), the more well-rounded your story and fuller your outcome.  The story itself unfolds from what each Someone says and does, how this person relates to the people and situations around him or her.

In “Conversations with God, Book 1,” we are told that relationship is our greatest gift from God. It might well be our greatest asset, not only for personal and spiritual growth, but also as writers.

Relationship allows us insight into how we are operating, learning more about our own and others’ motivations.  These things that make us all tick are the stuff  writers use in Character building.  After all, how we choose to relate to each other and everything around us, defines our character – who we are and what we believe. This kind of understanding can lead us to a deeper feeling of unity with all beings.

So whether the person is fictional or real, whether we are developing a character in our minds, or dealing with one on this plane, we can cull amazing insight through our relationship to others.

The Unifying Lessons of Fiction

I feel blessed that I can do a variety of writing styles.  For a living, I write for business.  Marketing, technical, and content.  Which is, if I may say so myself, a nice range.

But I also really love writing from my heart for this Blog and some of my other projects like the book I’m working on called “Love Letters From Your Soul.”  I hope someday to publish a commercial personal/spiritual growth book.

Fiction probably brings me the most joy and delight.  I love to write rock fiction, or what I like to refer to as romance and passion in the exciting (and now relatively extinct) music business.  With, I always hope, a bit of growth mixed in.

I have to admit, more often than not, I am reading a spiritual/personal growth book.  I do get  into fiction now and again, though. I count myself as a Harry Potter devotee.  And I can gobble up books on Arthurian legend.  Not averse to a good cozy mystery either.  I have seen more than my share of movies and amazing films.  Soap operas have been my secret pleasure for years.  And am proud to count many fine story tellers among my close friends.  So I do know a thing or two about story.

For many years I held the notion that nonfiction expands and fiction is merely an escape.  But I am changing my mind about that.  I’m coming to see that fiction plays an important role in our growth as human beings.

Fiction, when done right, gives an intimate views into the minds and hearts of others.  We feel a connection with well crafted characters.  We see parts of ourselves acting through the story. And parts of others we know.  We may not like them all, but we can come to understand a little more about why they do the things they do. Good fiction makes clear the character’s motivation.  If you don’t buy that you’re unlikely to enjoy the story.  It’s like Science Fiction:  If they give you a good basis for belief, you will follow a good writer just about anywhere out there.

It is a study in understanding.  In the best cases, it can open us up to the experience of being the same. Seeing how we all share the same DNA and our motivated by many of the same things.  Even someone who appears to lead a live very different from ours.  It creates bridges into other worlds.  And has done so long before the Internet.

Story is a very powerful tool for learning, history, growth and motivation.  At the heart of all stories is a person, an entity, a living, breathing creature.  Relationship and struggle are the playthings of story, reflecting life as we know it.

At its best good fiction gives us a view of oneness. It talks of unity and how we are all the same.  The more we can feel that the better for all of us (for the one of us.)

I’d Love to Change the World

With all the new seasons beginning like “No Reservations”, “Burn Notice” and “Flight of the Conchords”, I thought it best to take pause to reflect on our new President.

“The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart——not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.” 

There is a shift in consciousness going on, this talk of common good. The fact that we have a black man as President is only the beginning. Barack Obama has a way of bringing people together. He is a man who can speak to each heart. He understands the power of unity and the principles of invisibility. What an amazing change that is! President Obama can listen to many opinions and process them through his brilliant mind and compassionate, principled heart. He is a man who knows the value of the American Spirit and how to harness it. Truly, the only way to solve all our problems is if we do it together. His every word is an inspiring call to action.

“. . . what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.” Amen.