Live from #adeacademy #montebello2024 as always, an Apple event that filled my buckets, over-filled my brain and depleted my feelings of solitary- ness. I am reminded of the tribes we belong to, the people we connect with and the way teachers always find each other. ADEs are built different, we all know that, and the way creativity sparks and grows exponentially when we are together, where we become the parts that are greater than the whole.
I stayed in the “Storytelling” stream, because it feels most relevant to where I am now. Led by other ADEs and Dr. Shawn Lennie, I didn’t expect to learn as much as I expected to be inspired…. Not surprisingly I got a surplus of both. We talked about the construct of telling a good story, and it turns out it’s more than a beginning-middle-end, and a “hero”. In fact, it turns out to be a lot less about the journey, and more about how the reader up-votes the characters.
Here is where the Suck comes in. According to Dr. Lennie, it’s really important that the writer SITS:“stays in the suck”. The reader won’t care about the characters’ journeys if they aren’t facing adversity, learning lessons and doing better. They also have to occasionally fail, or the reader won’t care, won’t connect, won’t feel the authenticity.
Turns out telling a good story is very much like, you know, just living. Gratitude for the suck.
Attach up to 5 files which will be available for other members to download.