*Today I’m excited to share a special guest post by Kate Brenton, ED.M.

Story is timeless medicine for the human spirit, both in the telling and the receiving, even today. Let’s jump to my marketing meeting for the finalization of my first book’s subtitle (I promise this is universally relevant to writers—stick with me), I was talking with an amazing person who had no idea what my book was about, but he was kind, skilled and open-minded. Which was a great combo, because if it made sense to him it would likely make sense to others was my thinking.

Perhaps, I should mention that I advocated with my publisher to be granted this hour of (free) marketing help because they wanted me to have an active marketing plan, yet I am a writer—not a marketer. I said teach me, and I will.

“So, this is a how-to book?” the dark haired man asked on Zoom.

“No,” I answered.

“Is it a process book? You teach a branded process?”

“No,” I answered again.

He moved in his chair, “So it’s more like a 5-step, how-to? Like how to Reb-, how to do something and it will…”

“No,” I squirmed. “No, it’s not like that at all. It’s a compilation of stories for the reader to be reminded of their own fortitude, and the worth of their dreams. Five-steps don’t work here because if your path is different, and the steps don’t happen prescriptively, you will think you have failed,”

I am now moving my hands and getting really into it. “But life doesn’t work like that. I’m not telling people how to change their lives, I am sharing stories, from all verticals, of people who did it in all kinds of ways, to encourage them to do the same.”

“When we hear a story,” I drop in, “we insert ourselves into it. We say, Yes, I feel that too. It’s why when Proust (yes, I actually pulled on my undergrad degree from my subconscious and unplanned) describes la madeleinen with such precision, everyone tastes their own cookie from their own childhood. Story unifies us and calls forth our own experience, it also directs our brain to emulate that trait in ourselves…”

“Well, now I want to read it,” the man slips out almost too honestly.

I remember thinking: That’s it. That’s the whole point.

When I taught high school English, all of our curriculum planning (that we submitted weekly) contained the Essential Questions that we were answering in the book and how our strategies correlated in drawing that out for the teen readers. It’s a great strategy for writers too: What do you want your readers to be contemplating and correlating while they are reading? What in here applies to everyone?

In the modern, linear, and oh-so-fast, no one has times era, everything is being distilled down to a 15 second sound byte or memes of that 5-step process; and while it is great for algorithms it leaves the human spirit devoid of the journey that creates fulfillment and nourishment. As we create, the process is as significant as the product. The story is the answer, the key for the reader to unlock for themselves.

For a writer, there is tremendous joy in plucking the right word out of the air and onto the page, in crafting what was once an observation into a conversation, to letting one’s own creativity take flight and form.

Likewise there is great medicine in telling one’s story, over a fire, a cup of coffee, in a class or through the page. Your own journal can hold an alchemy for you. Writing out what was can create meaning. Hearing someone else’s story can bring illumination to your own. When we sort through a moment, or take the time to craft a story, we are structuring the events into meaning, and sometimes a new perspective arises and sometimes we have the satisfaction of being witnessed—something that also soothes the spirit.

So if your story is calling—write it. Don’t write what the market tells you, write what the Muse is whispering and if you do, and you do your best, there will be many who will benefit from its medicine.

About the Author

Kate Brenton, author, teacher and mother, helps women connect the dots between their purpose and their passion. Her first book Rebirth: Real-life stories about what happens when you let go and let life lead hit #1 on Amazon for New Thought, and can also be found at your favorite bookseller. Once a high school English teacher, Kate spent seven years in Hawaii learning holistic healing and now braids the power of story — whether in the bones or on the page — to inspire and uplift. She teaches online classes and retreats for spiritual development and inspiration. She also hosts a cohort, Sit & Write for mission-led authors.