How to Get Ready for a Writing Workshop

Writing is therapeutic. Most people who write often intuitively know this. We write in journals to help us process our thoughts. Many people have specific journals for specific emotions, like an angry journal or a gratitude journal. For years, I have kept a dream journal because it helps me remember and understand the meaning behind the often strange imagery of dreams.

Beyond journals, you may have found yourself tasked with writing many other types of literature, from a grocery list on a sticky note to an essay covering some vital current event that was begging to be unpacked and analyzed. We write to remind ourselves, as in the case of the sticky note, and to analyze events, as in the case of the essay. Good writing communicates something to others, but great writing clarifies something for the writer. The process of collecting thoughts, organizing them, and putting them together really makes a difference in how we see those thoughts.

Don’t take my word for it, though. A 2023 study from the American Psychological Association Journal of Personality & Social Psychology agrees. In the study, people who were prompted to put their life experiences into a framework of the classic Hero’s Journey, as coined by Joseph Campbell, reported a greater sense of purpose and meaning in their lives (Rogers et al., 2023). Having a greater sense of purpose results in greater satisfaction with life. This study proves the importance of seeing how our struggles define us as people and even how they give meaning to our suffering.

“Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life.”

Viktor Frankl

As Viktor Frankl asserted in Man’s Search For Meaning, it’s a great task for a person to find meaning in life. That means it isn’t easy. It takes work, and writing is one accessible way to do this work. The results of this psychological study also suggest a role for storytelling therapy in helping bereaved parents who are searching for some sense of meaning in the wake of the greatest loss.

This is what Infinite Imprints Workshops exist to do: to help bereaved parents and family members connect with each other and their wider communities by creating works of art, music, and literature that tell their child’s story.

So, let’s talk about preparation for an Infinite Imprints Writing Workshop. There are things you can and should do to prepare yourself for this great act of love you’re about to perform for your child. These tasks will help you come prepared to share with others, delve into emotional memories, and structure your story in the best way for your goals.

1. Think of your most emotional memory: What is the highest emotional memory related to the life of your child? It can be incredibly joyful or devastatingly hard. This can be a prenatal memory, a birth memory, a memory around the time of their death, or anywhere in between. It shouldn’t be hard to find this emotional memory; it’s one that has been calling to you for some time and you feel you must write about it. (Now set that emotional memory aside for a moment.)
2. Think about what you wish people knew: In your wider family & community, what do you wish people knew about your child? What is the thing about them that people need to know? Is it a characteristic of your child’s personality? Some event that happened in their life? A message you feel your child would have you share?
3. Think about your perspective: Think of how you define yourself and the unique perspectives that go with these identities. Are you a math person or a language arts person? Are you artsy or creative in more mechanical ways? What’s your job? A computer programmer will approach the world with a different perspective than will a nanny or a teacher. In the workshop we’ll talk more about perspectives and why it’s important to understand your own, as well as giving space for other perspectives that might be different from yours.
4. Think about the Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces, about the great, overarching Monomyth, meaning one central story that is told over and over again. The monomyth is an overarching narrative pattern that is found across diverse cultures, mythologies, religions, and historical periods. This pattern, though adjusted and customized into millions of seemingly unique stories and myths, basically follows the same fundamental structure: a hero departs the world he knew, is initiated or welcomed into a new one full of challenges and new experiences, and returns completely changed.

Since this is your last preparatory step before you come to the workshop, let’s spend a little more time breaking down the Hero’s Journey and why explaining our own life events, as well as our child’s life, inside this construct makes us see everything differently.

In his book, Campbell argued that this universal story reflects the human psyche’s deep structure: the shared journey of transformation and self-discovery that all people must go through. The monomyth, therefore, represents a singular, archetypal story template that resonates across human experience, embodying the collective wisdom, values, and challenges of humanity. It’s where all our unique struggles and personalities unite into a completely relatable and universal thread. This is where we must stand as we share about our beautiful babies (here, babies means a child of yours at any age or stage).

THE HEROINE’S JOURNEY (just to keep things fair)

1. Departure:
   • Call to Adventure: The heroine is drawn away from her routine existence into the realm of adventure.
   • Refusal of the Call: Hesitation or refusal due to doubts or fears.
   • Receiving Aid: A mentor or ally provides support or advice.
   • Crossing the Threshold: The heroine leaves her familiar world behind to face the unknown.
   • Initial Challenge: A significant challenge that initiates the adventure.
2. Initiation:
   • Trials and Allies: The heroine faces tests and meets allies and foes.
   • Discovery of Inner Strength: The heroine discovers a source of strength or support within herself or through a meaningful connection.
   • Facing Temptation: The heroine confronts challenges that test her commitment to her goal.
   • Confrontation: The heroine faces a major challenge, often against a powerful adversary or her own fears.
   • Transformation: A significant change or realization occurs, granting new insight.
   • Achievement of the Goal: The heroine obtains what she has been seeking, whether it be knowledge, insight, or a physical object.
3. Return:
   • The Decision to Return: The heroine decides to return to her world with her newfound wisdom or achievement.
   • Pursued Escape: Challenges may arise on the return journey.
   • Assistance on the Return: Help from allies or a significant realization facilitates the return.
   • Reintegration: The heroine must find a way to integrate her new knowledge or power into her everyday life.
   • Balance: The heroine finds balance between her inner and outer worlds, often bringing new insights or changes to her community.
   • New Life: Freed from past constraints, the heroine lives with a new understanding of herself and the world.

Whether you ultimately choose to write a story in which your child is the hero/heroine or whether you see your own journey as the one that gives the most context to your child’s life, this is a structure that will bring clarity and deep, universal meaning to your writing. It will be a way for you to introduce them to the people who never got a chance to meet them, to allay some of that tragedy with your own power, because words do have power.

Join us for the first free Infinite Imprints Writing Workshop online on February 24, 2024 at 6:00PM Central Time. REGISTER NOW. I look forward to meeting you! Contact me with any questions.

References

Rogers, B. A., Chicas, H., Kelly, J. M., Kubin, E., Christian, M. S., Kachanoff, F. J., Berger, J., Puryear, C., McAdams, D. P., & Gray, K. (2023). Seeing your life story as a hero’s journey increases meaning in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 125(4), 752-778. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000341

Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell