In 2022, I picked up a year long project of writing Story Prompts.
I had this wild wild dream of enabling people to spend time with their stories.
With social media, the outward appeal of visibility, recognition and validation, I dreamt of enabling a small moment of introspection, reflection and acknowledgment.
If only we could look within, and reflect on WHO we truly are.
“What’s your Story?”
Does that question make you mumble, jumble & ramble?
After all, there are 3 kinds of stories:
1️⃣ Stories we Tell Ourselves
2️⃣ Stories we Tell Others
3️⃣ Stories Others Tell about Us
Going through the 3 layers of stories is like peeling off the layers of the onion.
I felt the need myself.
Who am I? What makes me me? What drives me to be the human that I am?
I generally look at myself as a person who is well-connected to herself, confident & secure in being the outlier. Despite that I felt I needed a stronger thread to weave my life, my perspective & my purpose in life.
So that when my son asks, “What is the purpose of life?” I can give a story of finding MY purpose and letting him gather the clues to finding his own.
And thus was born 365 Days 365 Stories, a project to WRITE & GATHER stories from my life.
In 2022, I built this project in the open, sharing story prompts on social media, mostly through Your Story Bag
The prompts have made their way into several workshops and trainings, triggering stories & LIVE exercises.
The prompts are direct, some carry hints, some take you back to specific moments in your life, others require you to scan your life’s memories. Some prompts are universal (at least that’s how I tried writing them), some may be MORE true for specific people.
What’s common between all the prompts is that carry deep meaning and relevance. If you find the tenacity & resilience to Recall, Retrieve, Rewrite & Revisit every story, I guarantee you will be a different person.
With time I have realised that some of us don’t like to spend as much time with themselves as they like spending time with others.
Maybe its intimidating? Or too boring!
So while there are 365 Story Prompts, I do not expect everyone to sit with a story everyday. It can lead to fatigue, I agree. So the prompts are there, just like a daily reminder to go for a brisk walk, or a jog, or work out…a small act of working inwards to strengthen who we are outside.
How does that help?
If you work through with 365 Days 365 Stories and I ask you, “What’s in Your Story Bag?” You don’t mumble, jumble and ramble!
This year I am writing more prompts, customising them for Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, Social Entrepreneurs, Women, Parents and Educators.
There is a wish to put all the prompts in a Journal so that they can be downloaded / bought.
Would you be interested in something like that?
Let me know your thoughts.
Happy Storytelling!
Rituparna
#StorytellingWithRituparna #StoryPrompts #365Days365Stories
