Writers Lab: Sets of Three
A Simple Practice for Writing from the Inside Out, Into Your Voice
Welcome to the Writers Lab! The Lab is the only paid portion of Storybelly, which all subscribers can read until we get to THE ASSIGNMENT. If you have a story you’re itching to write, we’ve got you, in the Lab. We’re a warm-hearted community of messy writers. Feel free to subscribe, or read along for some weird-but-wonderful enlightenment to happen along your writing path (ha!), and come back anytime.
On Sundays/Mondays I publish the Storybelly Digest for all subscribers to read, see yourselves in (or not), and comment on — this is where the conversation begins. On Thursdays/Fridays I try to have the paid-tier Lab post out — and here we are.
{We return to Mission and Vision Statements and Core Values next week, so you’ll have all that material ready to go this fall, for our Writers Lab fall semester. I want to ensure we don’t fall into fatigue with this summer project, so let’s do a writing exercise this week.}
Onward!
History: Yours.
This week we’re turning our attention to personal narrative, to writing directly from our lives.
I write a lot about moments, memories, and meaning in this space (most recently, here), and that’s what I teach in workshop. Our lives unfold, moment after moment. We remember some of those moments, and we assign meaning to them. That’s the shape of a life.
When we write about those moments, we call on our senses, and we write about what we know, what we feel, and what we can imagine. That’s the shape of a story. I write about this in my “About” as well, which you may have seen.
As we write, we pay attention, ask questions, and make connections.
These three sets of threes stack together in an infinite set of possibilities that make up every story I write, and every story you write or tell as well: Fiction, non-fiction, memoir, poetry, prose, on and on.
We are storytellers. Every one of us. I always say in workshop, we *are* stories, because we are, every one of us. .
These sets of three supply a rhythm — one I’ve come to trust — in both my writing and my teaching. I fashioned them from experience and observation over many years of studying how we structure our narratives — spoken or written — and how to write or tell our stories in ways that feel true to us and also make space for others to connect.
This week I’ll share these sets of three with you in a particular way — not just as something I teach, but as a way to ease into a story or poem from your own life, and how to find your authentic voice.
This is a chance to:
Write something new.
Or return to something you’ve already written and see it freshly through this lens of threes.