To uncover truth in the hard stories we carry with us can be difficult and distressing. Almost everyone has some aspect of our lives which seems to defy logic and make us uncomfortable.
If you are like me, you worry at the sore places, much like probing a tooth that hurts. We know that to ruminate is to disturb our peace and tranquility. Regretting things in the past and worrying about the future can stop us from living in the present.
Here’s something new I’ve recently tried that helped clarify an incident and its aftermath that both hurt and confused me. Writing it in the way I’ll describe made it much clearer, so I could let the emotions go.
Acknowledgement
I am grateful to Jeannine Oullette, whom I’ve written about previously. See more, here, here and here.
This remarkable woman works as an academic, writer and teacher. Her Substack site, Writing in the Dark, provides a rich playground for anyone who writes or would like to write. It’s worth checking out, especially for the comments from the wide community of writers whom she involves.
In a recent post, Jeannine outlines a method which can help those who want to write harder stories: Two Unusual Exercises for Writing Harder Stories. She says the first exercise is,
A lot of fun and can lead to funny stories, heartbreaking stories and truly surprising stories. You can use it in fiction, non-fiction.”
The method also works for those who simply want to uncover truth in the stories they tell themselves so they can move on in their lives.
Write to uncover truth
The way to uncover truth is simple. And easy. Here are the steps from the Writing in the Dark essay.
- Choose your story. Maybe it means much to you or you have struggle with it.
- Jot an outline. But instead of starting at the beginning, quickly write what happened last in the story from the end to the beginning. List the key moments in the story
- Start at the end. Write an outline from the last thing that happened, numbering it 1 in your list. Do not include too much detail.
- Work your way to the beginning of the story. You are not telling the story of your whole life so STOP when you get to the beginning of THIS story..
- Have fun!
Brain science behind this method
Daniel Kahneman says, in his book Thinking Fast and Slow, that thinking takes place in two different ways which he calls System I and System II. System I is fast and emotional. System II is deliberate and logical. We instinctively prefer System I because it is easier and less taxing.
When we use System II intentionally, it disables System I so we can see beyond our emotion-ridden beliefs and get to the truth. In other words, we bypass old, habitual ways of looking at our lives. The basis for the theory can be found in the theory of neuroplasticity.
Telling a story backwards uses System II thinking. It puts a constraint on what we think and write. Jeannine Ouellette says,
Constraints are like puzzles…and suddenly as if by magic we write something newer and truer.”
Conclusion
You may find, as I did when I tried this exercise, that afterwards you think differently about both the story and the incident. This can be valuable for writers. It can be therapeutic and helpful, also, for those who want to live richer and freer lives.
If you do try it, please share the results in the comments section below.
A thought provoking post, Maureen. I am looking forward to my journey with Writing in the Dark program Strange Containers.
I find journalling backwards, in the fashion you’ve described, or writing a poem “in reverse” quite illuminating. The dross slips away under the pen, leaving a nugget of gold.
Thanks, Eileen Susan. I can’t wait to write with you in the Strange Containers module.
I’ve never thought to write backwards before. It makes such good sense in terms of theory of thinking that it’s based on. I’ve made a couple of discoveries, but so far no nuggest of gold! I guess I need more practice.
I’m excited! It’s a joy to share my writing journey with you, and to share in yours.
How’s your small containers writing going, Eileen Susan? I felt it was a bit of anticlimax in some ways, and so many people from everywhere commenting. My writing feels quite prosaic after all my buildup.
I’ve found it interesting, mainly because of people stories.Plus the post about friendships. I’ve written thousands of words, truly, dealing with triggers from ‘contsiners’ and from the friendships post.
Plus, I’ve allowed myself to read around , mainly those whose posts resonated, to check out their sites. All in all, I’m finding the largest container of all, substack itself, illuminating, challenging, life changing!
I have another project happening too, and I think that will inform my blogging quite dramatically.
Any changes may appear gradually though!
We must talk face to face soon.
That’s terrific, Eileen Susan. I hoped you’d enjoy it and you seem to have gathered more information from Writing in the Dark and Substack than I have. Good to find something that is life-changing. I cant wait to see what happens next for you in this adventure. And yes to face to face.
It sounds like an interesting way of writing, Maureen.
A tutor at university told us to write down whatever comes into our heads, get it down on the screen, and save it. Each time we go back to it, we begin to reorder and add a little more. That’s still my method; my first version is usually very different to the final copy.
Everyone writes in their own way, Susan, but I think essentially we reorder and rewrite every time we go back to our drafts. My apologies for not responding earlier.