Kim Schneiderman
Psychotherapist, Author, Columnist, Writing Workshops

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Tapping into Your Omniscient Narrator

How Writing in the Third Person Helps You Step Out of Your Story

In the movie Stranger than Fiction, Harold Crick is a robotic IRS agent who begins to question his mundane existence when he hears a mysterious voice narrating his life and foreshadowing his untimely death. When he discovers that he is not the master of his own destiny, but rather a fictional character dreamed up by an eccentric female author, whose voice he has been hearing, Crick tracks down his creator and convinces her to rewrite the ending of his story.

While both strange and fictional, Crick’s journey speaks to our capacity to reclaim our personal narratives when we tap into the voice of our inner omniscient narrator, which like the author in Crick’s narrative, has an elevated perspective on our life story.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-novel-perspective/201505/tapping-your-omniscient-narrator

Filed Under: Blog, Media

Comments

  1. Nilton says

    July 29, 2015 at 4:13 pm

    I did NANO 2 years in a row. The first year I wrote 50,000 words of a decent story that MIGHT still becmoe a novel, but is still very amorphous in my head. When I started, I thought I had a novel, but really just an idea that got fleshed out and is still waiting to be finalized. The second year, I really DID have a novel and after the 30 days I went on to write another 60,000 words and now I am doing final editing and hope to start querying agents. Honestly, I thought it would be the other way around. I think the biggest thing about the whole NANO experience is the discipline of ABC (applying butt to chair) and getting the 50K words out of your head and into physical form. After the 30 days, if you keep going or if you put it aside to marinate, that’s up to you, but at least you have a hunk of work done and that’s a good thing. Good luck and keep writing!thank you! I was chatting with some other NaNo participants last night, one of whom is also a short story writer. We were talking about what a stretch it was to go long when you’re used to holding an entire story in your head. And we agreed it was a good stretch. It is definitely good for ABC discipline, for showing me what is possible even given how insane my schedule is and how many other demands there are on my time. I love the idea of failure not being a problem. That’s one thing that’s always stopped me before, the idea that if I didn’t have it all figured out, or if I lost steam partway through, it wasn’t worth continuing. Now I have given myself permission to fail, permission to get off track sometimes and permission to just write stream of conscious that will eventually get deleted. Whether I’m writing something for the story or something that is more like brainstorming, it’s all contributing. It’s a good experience and I’m glad I’m doing it. Halfway there K

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About The Author: Kim Schneiderman

Psychotherapist and freelance journalist Kim Schneiderman utilizes research-based methods to help people who are stuck – in a dead-end job, relationship, of life stage – imagine themselves as the star of their own stories with the power to reclaim their personal narratives. Drawing on the elements of a story that many of us learned in high school (premise, scene, plot, conflict, climax, resolution), readers will assign titles to different chapters of their lives, observe recurring themes, identify supporting characters, and explore how conflict creates opportunities for personal growth that can lead to a meaningful resolution. They will also be asked to examine how the decisions we make, both big and small, affect our storyline – the relationships we choose, how we spend our day, and how we nourish ourselves, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Unlike most self-help writing workbooks, most of the exercises in Step Out of Your Story are framed in the third-person voice, freeing readers to see beyond their usual point of view. Psychological research suggests that people are more likely to view their lives favorably when they see themselves as characters in a story. In a 2005 Columbia University study reported in the Journal of Psychological Science, test subjects who spoke about difficult chapters in their lives in the third person narrative displayed more confidence and optimism than those who recalled bad memories in the first person. By retracing their steps from the perch of the third-person narrative, people were more likely to regard their problems as something outside themselves – challenges they had conquered or adversaries they had defeated - instead of character flaws. Additionally, the perception that they had overcome obstacles left them feeling more confident to face the future.

Step Out Of Your Story

STEP OUT OF YOUR STORY

Writing Exercises to Reframe and Transform Your Life

Every life is an unfolding story, and how individuals tell their story matters. Recent Stanford and Columbia University studies show that how we view the story of our life shapes the life itself. Who are the heroes and villains? Where does the plot twist? How are conflicts resolved? Learn more...

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