Writing Exercises to Reframe and Transform Your Life
From New World Library (publisher of Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, Dan Millman’s The Peaceful Warrior, and the Deepak Chopra’s The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success)
Our lives consist of stories that can be told in infinite ways. Every time we open our mouths, turn on our Ipads, or “put pen to paper,” we make choices about how to tell a tale, about highs and lows, relationships and jobs, heartaches and joys.
But if there are many ways to tell the same story, how do we choose the best version so that the telling leaves us feeling hopeful and empowered? How do we find the redemptive, silver-lining narrative in the situations life throws at us?
In this groundbreaking book, therapist and writer Kim Schneiderman offers a story lens on life that help us see ourselves as ever-evolving characters growing through changes and challenges that show up in our narratives, which are works in progress. Chock full of life-affirming, liberating writing exercises designed for novices and habitual writers alike, this groundbreaking book will help you embrace the subtle, often unrecognized personal victories that build character – facing a fear, changing an attitude, or kicking a bad habit. As you write new scripts for old stories, you’ll come to understand big-picture story lines in ways that allow you to steer your actions and relationships towards redefined, realistic and genuinely “happy endings.”
Sample Exercise:
In this exercise, you will write a plot summary of the current chapter of your life. The Plot Summary Exercise is this book’s cornerstone exercise. It sets up the remainder of the writing exercises and will become the focal point of your transformational work. You will use it to play with your story’s mood and tone, identify the antagonist, and explore how narrative tension creates opportunities for character development and attitudinal change.
Please answer the following two-part question in the third-person narrative:
If you were reading the story of your life in a novel, the current chapter would be called:
“__________________________________________________________________________” [insert title],
and would be about [summarize chapter in 8 to 10 sentences]
_________________________________________________________________________________________.
Testimonial
“We are all constantly telling ourselves stories about our lives. Often we do this without being aware that we are not merely characters to whom things just happen, but the creators of our story as well. Through an ingenious series of exercises, Kim Schniederman shows us how to make this unconscious storytelling process conscious, and to use this new-found awareness to take control of our lives. Read this book, do the exercises. You will discover that you can step out of your story, and create it as you live.”
— Albert J. Bernstein PhD, author of Dinosaur Brains and Emotional Vampires
