Assignment: Revising Our Personal Stories

As a follow-up to the discussion held with my students about the persuasive power of stories and storytelling, I'm now going to ask my students to consider personal stories and how we can draw more from them (both for personal and social purposes) by reworking them.

This is a two-part assignment. The first post (due Friday 10/30) will be a list of 10 stories (explained below). The second post (due Tuesday, Nov 3) will be based on the responses given by those who comment on the first post (as will be explained in a separate instructions post).

To introduce this assignment, I'd like to review how stories define us, as well as confine us, and how they can be used to bring about change. Then I will give the assignment details for the first post.


Stories Define
Whole societies know themselves by the stories that they preserve and retell. The Greeks knew themselves by retelling the Iliad and Odyssey. Americans know themselves as they retell the story of the American Revolution. Mormons know themselves as they tell and retell the story of Joseph Smith's story, or of the pioneer trek across America in the 19th century. Stories have enormous cultural power, manifesting core principles and values.

Stories also define us personally. They are a vehicle for identity. Some of these are frequently shared with others; other personal stories we keep completely to ourselves. They are often tied to events, to key relationships, or to decisions. Stories bring coherence and order to the chaos of our thinking and actions and the actions of others.

Stories Confine
As Gavin illustrated with a great analogy about sand and rivulets, our stories can get in our way. They control how we represent and understand the past, or specific relationships. Stories bias history. They can function negatively, like labels. They can keep things alive that should die. They provide identity, but this is sometimes an identity we may not wish to have, or we may wish to alter it.

Stories Persuade Change
We can see stories as things that we can control. We can't change too much in our world, but we can alter how we account for it. Someone once said "If you don't like the past, then change it." They were referring to rewriting the story. I'm not talking about misrepresenting or falsifying. By changing one's story, I'm talking about varying how it's told, or what details are brought into it. The change will be in the meaning or impact, even if the bare facts aren't changed.

Changing one's story can change one's life. At the very least, it can give us fresh eyes. So, having the capacity to conceptualize stories as artifacts that are subject to rhetorical manipulation, we can escape the confinements of unhealthy or problematic stories and substitute more constructive stories.

Changing the story - or "controlling the message" is a key part of contemporary marketing and public relations. What can be done for a corporation can be done for ourselves, too. Before we can change our stories, we need to know what they are.

Step One: Catalog Your Stories
I'd like my students to make a list of 10 personal stories using the format shown below. These are to be stories that they have often told to others about their own life or experience, not something new. These are not to be fictional. It may be that some stories are too personal to share in this setting, so those should not be included. But I'm sure that everyone can create a list of stories that they often tell. They need not all be dramatic or life-changing, or even entertaining. They just need to be personal accounts that you've taken time to tell and retell over time.

Remember, these are to be personal (Don't list stories that a family member tells. Don't list stories of you telling others' stories, like when you explain a movie you've seen); and they should be often-told stories. They should be stories about your life, not jokes or anecdotes telling about others' or about fictional experiences.  Avoid only listing stories from which morals or lessons can be drawn. And try to use some variety in the stories that you list so that these stories reflect the complexity of your life.

As for format:

• Title your post "Personal Stories Catalog - [your name]"
• Use this label for this post: "personal stories catalog"
• Do not use images this time. 
• Use a numbered list for your entries, and each entry should include the following three parts (see the example catalog that follows to get a better idea):

1. First, name or refer to the story (without telling the whole thing). 
2. Second, classify this story. Put one or more terms in brackets. These are like hashtags to categorize the type of story this is.
3. Third, say what prompts you to tell this story (occasions, scenarios) OR why you think you tell it; OR what the response often is.

Step Two: Vote / Comment

Read at least three other students' catalog of stories posts. In commenting, vote for your two favorites (by number) from the 10 listed. Try not to be influenced by other voters/commenters. Base your vote on whether or not you'd like to hear that story told in full. (The idea is that you will base your next blog post on the votes you get on this one, so do your part and vote on others' posts).

Example

[Post Title:] Personal Stories Catalog - Gideon Burton

1. The story of provoking a dog bite that almost cost me my hand [animal story, getting injured story, moralizing story]. I've often told this story as an example of the high cost of anger.
2. The story of riding a train in India and having a woman in medical school convince me that arranged marriages are superior to "love marriages." [travel story, story using an accent] I tell that story to people as an example of getting persuaded to an idea I never thought I would consider.
3. The story of learning to waterski only when I finally ignored everything people told me [advice story, athletic story]. I think I tell this story mostly so people know that I waterski.
4. The story of stumbling across a poem by Pablo Neruda at age 17 that changed my life [story of awakening or realization, story of literature's power]. I tell this story to my literature students to get them thinking about literature that has affected them powerfully.
5. The story of playing a fictional character (Charly Gordon) and how it freaked me out when I connected with it. [story of unexpected consequences, story about acting] I tell this story to myself to remind myself about how much I love the theater (and wish I could do more).
6. The story of the death of my first grandchild. [tragedy story, story of a defining family event]. I am careful about when and to whom I tell this story, as it is a very difficult and sacred story, but telling it has helped the healing.
7. The story of me being the rebound guy after my wife was jilted by her fiance who converted her to our religion. [relationship story, family folklore story]. I tell this when others talk about how they met their mate.
8. The story of my father's business failure and ensuing lawsuits [business story, legal story, story about integrity]. I tell this story as a way of illustrating my father's character and as a way of inspiring myself to have the same grit and integrity.
9. The story of being rowed out on the Ganges river and telling off my guide. [travel story, standing up for yourself story, invective]. I tell this story to illustrate the powerful irony of the sacred and profane being mixed together in India, and maybe to show that I'm not someone to be taken advantage of.
10. The story of my niece praying there will be no "monsters with teeth like knives." [family story, religious story, little kid story]. I love telling about how precocious my nieces are, and this story always gets a good laugh.