Writing in the Margins
We’re partway through the first week of Patchwork, and if you’re anything like me you might be judging yourself for how little you’re writing, or worried that your stories aren’t worth telling. Getting into the habit of writing is incredibly challenging! There are so many blocks to overcome, and it can be difficult to start writing, difficult to tell our stories.
If you need some encouragement this week, listen to Chimamanda Adichie talk about “The Danger of a Single Story.”
As writers in the margins, we can sometimes feel like our stories are too different from the stories being told all around us.
It can feel overwhelming to be different, to have different perspectives, to have different stories in our histories and our imaginations. Adichie points out how damaging it can be to be hear only one single story about ourselves or other people, because it limits our ability to even recognize other stories as valid, even when those stories are our own!
This TED talk is one of the reasons I started Writing in the Margins, and continues to be an inspiration for me. Many voices are needed, and it is important to make space for silenced and marginalized voices to be heard – even if they are only ever heard on the private page of a personal journal, or in a story that is never shared.
I appreciate the ability to offer Patchwork and other writing workshops, inviting writers out of the margins and encouraging you to take up space for your stories!
Your prompt for today is this – write a scene that examines a common situation from a different angle. Bring another voice into a well-known story. This could be a story from your own life that differs from the common narrative, or you could create a fictional character who sees and experiences things in an unexpected way.
Happy writing!
