People Are
Stories-in-Progress

As a head’s up, this online version of People Are Stories-in-Progress is more than 44,000 words long. That’s as long as some novels. 

There are some typos and errors in these web pages, which I’ve corrected in the eBook. I will eventually correct those errors here in the online version as well, but since there’s other stuff I’m excited to make, I’m not rushing that process. My goal is to complete this online update by September 2023. This banner will disappear when this page has been revised. 

(Please note: I didn’t make any major changes in the updated eBook—I only refined the wording slightly, so you’re still getting a very similar experience between the two versions.)

Completing a Story

Pattern Recognition and the Next Right Step

Finding the Puzzle Pieces to See the Pattern and Fill out the Rest of the Story

We create a pattern all the time. We often follow a pattern that we’ve seen before, and that’s a part of life.

What I mean here requires more agency. You create a pattern towards the future you want (target) by recognizing what surrounds you (story currents) and jumping off from where you’ve been (touchstone) to move into what else is required in a story (story structure)

Whether in the midst of a story I’m writing or a story I’m living, this is the process I follow:

  1. I look at where I am, and I assess: a) What is the known story structure? B) What are the story currents? c) What do I like? What don’t I like?

  2. I connect to a future I feel excited about, either by reminding myself of my known targets (i.e. somewhere I already know that I want to go) or by imagining a future that fits in with my known targets. (We’ll dive into this deeper in the next section when we dive deep into how I crafted Lena’s story arc.)

  3. I reconsider the past, searching for the touchstones (i.e. what might contain enough charge to help me reach my target).

  4. I examine the target(s) and the touchstone(s) side by side with the known story currents and the known story structure. Looking at them together, I see something new rise up in between the touchstone and the target. It may not be the full path. Sometimes, it’s just the next right step, much like crossing a river, stepping stone by stepping stone, or like completing a puzzle, piece by piece.

  5. I commit to that in-between step, which takes my whole being and/or or my whole manuscript away from the touchstone and towards my target, that longed-for future.

  6. I check in often, and I course-correct as needed by re-examining the targets, touchstones, story currents, and story structure.

  7. I repeat this until I reach my target. Sometimes, there are a lot of in-between steps—and sometimes, only a few.

 

Yes, this process requires some emotional homework, but it also gives me a steering wheel when directing my life and when structuring my stories.  

Enough steps taken becomes a whole path under your feet. It may not lead you to the future exactly as you imagined it—it often takes you someplace better.

To clarify this, let’s take a look at how I used all these elements (story structure, story currents, targets and touchstones) in order to structure Lena’s character arc through The Ever Afters series.