Samantha Shad: The Write to Happiness [Summary]

Samantha Shad: The Write to Happiness [Summary] 

Writing a story is a personal journey. 

Each story you create is an experience of “writing to happiness.” A writer can find both personal answers and universal insights by plying the craft of storytelling.  The story usually will be a subject that is bothering you. Conjure a main character with a goal, and imagine the obstacles he or she must overcome to achieve that goal. 

To create a process that changes your life, you must allow material simmering below your consciousness to come to light in a way that doesn’t frighten you. Look for subconscious clues and follow them. Dig into research, or wait for a great idea to come to you while you’re gardening, taking a walk or daydreaming. Ideas come from many sources, including dreams, journaling and meditation.  

Create a main character who is like you, but not you. Maybe he or she is a little smarter, or dumber, or younger, with a different name. What does that character want? Explore your character to pin down specifics. Find the “but” – the obstacle that stops your character from achieving his or her goal.

“Your protagonist will be someone who is broken in exactly the place where your story will challenge him or her.”

The human brain recognizes story patterns. Create a structure that lets others enjoy your story and learn from it. If your story’s structure is off, people won’t follow it. Your story must have a beginning, a middle and an end. Movies follow a “three-act structure”: Act One introduces the main character and lays out the situation. Something big happens to send the hero on his or her journey in Act Two, when the hero faces obstacles, confronts the antagonist and, after up and down, is in utter despair. In Act Three, the hero revives after seeming defeat to face the biggest conflict and prevail.

The idea of memory as a vault of experiences in the brain is an illusion.

The brain creates past and present reality on the fly. Memories are mutable. People can change their minds by changing their brains. Repetition and training influence “neuroplasticity,” the brain’s ability to learn. If you don’t repeat new behaviors or skills as the brain rewires changes, they won’t stick. With persistence, you can rewire your neural pathways.

When a story absorbs you, it changes your perspective and behavior. Writers inhabit the mind of a character to decide what he or she will say and do; then they inhabit the mind of another character to see a reaction or a more objective perspective. Writers experience obstacles from multiple perspectives – and that changes them. As writers engage their whole brains, they increase their neuroplastic capacity, and that helps them learn and grow.