Why Your Story Matters

Writers who spend hours trying to understand another period of history know the value of personal stories. Were it not for the journals and letters from the thirteen century, we would grasp very little of how those people felt or thought.

But what will remain of our time after we’re gone? Our “letters” are cryptic phone texts and short emails, and what passes for a journal is nothing but a series of equally cryptic messages on FB.

Fortunately, that’s not all we’ll have to offer those future historians. Life in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is being recorded and reflected upon—not by professional  historians and news commentators, but by the people who actually lived it.

 

More people are writing stories today than ever before, and these writings—whether memoir or fiction—published or self-published—will become the repository of our times.

Stories reveal us, connect us, and inspire us. And-they leave a legacy.

Those of us who write work hard to make our own stories better and get them published. But as a writer, I have to ask myself, who am I to think that MY story is more universal, more inspirational, or wiser than anyone else’s? If we learn anything looking at the great writers of the past, we learn that they often appeared unprepossessing and unexceptional. Some of the most ordinary stories have had the most extraordinary impact.

The value of story cannot be overstated. If even ONE story changes ONE life for the better, there’s value in that. If one battered wife finds courage or one lonely child finds hope, what price can be put on that?

Perhaps the story most needed by the world is not the one I write, but the one we help make possible by empowering other would-be writers.  

 

The Challenge~~Empower Writers

That’s why the Village Writing School exists—to enable ordinary people to tell their stories by teaching them basic tools to craft a readable and interesting narrative, and by making this instruction affordable and flexible for all.

All of us can write stories. Yes, there is such a thing as innate writing talent. And a tiny percentage of the population will write heart-stopping prose. That many not be you or me. But I believe that everything you need to write a beautiful, interesting, compelling book can be learned.

 

At the Village Writing School, we believe your story is important.

  • Stories provide healing for the writer and the reader.
  • Stories connect us, empower us, and inspire us.
  • Stories will provide a record for future centuries of who we were and what we faced and how we felt.

We must teach as many people as possible to tell their stories. And we have a bold plan to do that. Read about it here. 

Village Writers~~Stronger & Better Together