You Are the Hero of Your Writer’s Life Story. Stories give shape and form to life. Stories lend wholeness to your imperfect vision of your experience. Telling your writer’s life story will do all of that for you. The tale of your emotional writing journey deserves to be told – first to yourself.

Begin Your Writer’s Life Story. Get started now. Open a new document. Title it “My Writer’ s Life Story.” Write the first sentence. The rest will follow. We are each of us butterflies with a single wing until we become whole by embracing ourselves – and our stories.

A Powerful Story Begins with a Character We Care About. The character we care about in your writer’s life story is You. This is your personal writer’s narrative. Whatever your challenges may have been – in your writing life and beyond – you are the major reason you are still here and still creating today.

You Struggled to Hang On to Your Creativity. You battled to overcome your challenges. Sometimes you needed help. We all do. Sometimes you got the help you required. But mostly your champion was You. What does that mean? It means You Are the Hero of Your Writer’s Life Story.

Joy Write. What is the toughest challenge you ever faced as a writer? What was the worst part of it? When and where? Who was involved? What happened? How did it make you feel? Write it back to life in your writer’s journal. Emotions may arise. Keep on writing. Straight from your heart.

You May Not Think of Yourself as a Hero. You must change your mind about that. Upgrade your attitude. Tell your writer’s life story. The story with you at its center as your main character. You are the prime mover of your creative destiny.

You May Not Think of Yourself as Luminous. But you are the person in your life – especially your writer’s life – who kindled the spark that set your imagination on fire. That fire blazes still because You did not allow it to die. You are definitely your hero. And this is your heroic writer’s journey.

What Does It Mean to Say You Are Heroic? It means you persevere. Despite the difficulties of your writer’s life – and we all have them – you try your best to shield your creative spark from the storm. Those storms may overwhelm you at times. We all experience that.

What is Your Writer’s Struggle and Triumph Truth? You struggle to beat back the tempest. Sometimes you succeed. Sometimes not. But you keep on trying. You keep on feeding the flame. That is your triumph. Share snippets of your hero’s tale on social media. Use the hashtag #MyWritersStory.

You are a Human Hero Not a Superhero. You would just as soon let the struggles pass on by. But something must be done or your precious writer’s life could be lost. Your creative blaze could be extinguished. So – you respond to the challenge you face. You step up. You act. You employ as much strength as you can muster.

You Do the Best You Can in Your Circumstances. You defend your dream. There is emotional power in that. There is emotional power in writer’s stories. Whatever your outcome may be – You Are the Hero of Your Writer’s Life Story. Say it out loud and proud. Mean it with all your heart.

My Writer’s Life Story is Sometimes a Screwball Comedy. I am the screwball hero. Take for example the time I turned down one of the best literary agents in New York City. She offered to represent me and my entire psyche spun into panic mode. I longed to run away.

Even the Imagined Proximity of Success Terrified Me. “I’m not ready!” I told Ms. Super Agent this at a fancy lunch in a fancy midtown Manhattan restaurant. My sushi went warm while I floundered through a writing identity crisis. Too long later I realized what a fool I was. I had even paid for the lunch.

Yet – I am Still a Writer. Which often bewilders me. The only explanation I can come up with is the grace of God. I staggered from midtown that day to our stoop on West 50th Street and hunkered down there in defeat. Then – Suddenly…. Any anecdote worth telling must have a Suddenly moment.

Suddenly Something Wonderful Happened. He sprinkled grace over me and somehow it turned to resilience. The next morning I got up and continued writing. This is a writer’s redemption story. That next morning – after ignominious defeat – I became the hero of my writer’s life story.

Joy Write. Ignominious means deserving of or causing shame. Have you ever cringed through an embarrassing incident in your writer’s life? Share your story in the Comments section of this post or contact me at aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. Do not forget to include how this episode proves that You Are the Hero of Your Writer’s Life Story

You are the Prime Subject of Your Creative History. Virginia Woolf agrees. “Every secret of a writer’s mind, every experience of her life, every quality of her being, is written large in her heart.” Every experience of our storytelling life is written in your heart and mine and the heart of every writer.

Immortalize Those Scenes on the Page. Make them vivid. The secrets of your adventure in creativity are ready to be revealed. Stop seeing yourself as “just a writer.” You are the main character of an epic adventure. Write with that in mind. You Are the Hero of Your Writer’s Life Story.

Tell Your Writer’s Life Story is a Four-Part Series. This post is Part I – You Are the Hero of Your Writer’s Life Story. Part II – Explode Into Your Writer’s Life Story. Part III – Cast Your Writer’s Life Story. Part IV – Structure Your Writer’s Life Story. Stay Tuned.

FYI – More Joy Write Prompts for You as Hero of Your Writer’s Life Story.

Imagine you are being awarded a commendation for reaching this heroic moment of your writer’s life. Write the speech the presenter will give. Make clear that you deserve this award. Describe specifically how you earned it. Consider writing a short story that dramatizes this event. Feel free to fictionalize if you are inspired to do so.The first Joy Write prompt in the above article was about the toughest challenge you have encountered in your writer’s life story. You persevered beyond that challenge. Tell your writer’s journal what you gained from that perseverance.Recall a time when you turned a dark moment to light in your writer’s life. What was the nature of the darkness? How, specifically, did you bring light to the situation? Write an article that tells this inspiring story. Submit the article to an online writer’s publication or your local writer’s group newsletter. Your writer colleagues need to read such hopeful tales.How does it feel to think of yourself as a hero in your writer’s life? Share those feelings with me in an email to aliceorrbooks@gmail.com . I would love to know about your emotional experience with adopting this empowered point of view. I look forward to hearing from you.Share this post with a writer friend. Encourage her to think of herself as the hero of her writer’s life story. Document your conversation as an audio or video recording. Share that recording with your critique partners or another writers’ group.What wisdom have you gained by recognizing yourself as the hero of your writer’s life story? Brainstorm ways to share that wisdom with other writers and creative people. Which option most appeals to you. Act on it. Email aliceorrbooks@gmail.com . Tell me what happens.

Keep on Writing whatever may occur. Alice Orr. http://www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice Orr. Teacher. Storyteller. Former Editor and Literary Agent. Author of 15 novels, 2 novellas, a memoir, and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells.

Joy Write with Alice. http://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Visit Alice’s Substack Page.

Read Alice’s Novel. A Time of Fear & Loving. Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5. Available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving. “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet!”

Experience Alice’s Suspense Novel Series. Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series. Five intense stories of love and death and intrigue. Available HERE.

Praise for Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series. “Romance and suspense at its best.” “I highly recommend this page-turner series.” “Twists and turns, strong characters, suspense and passionate love.” “The writing is exquisite.”

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know? About your writer experience. About telling your stories. Ask your question as a comment following this post.

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