Telling a story with #storyseeds

I post a lot here about #storyseeds, but it's a nice chance for me to think them through. As you know, many #storyseeds are single-shot prompts, with no connection to other #storyseeds or larger narrative framework, but I sometimes post sets that are intended to suggest another narrative. Tax day inspired just such a run.

I'm thinking about turning #storyseeds into a card deck, with some rules for play or just as a creative tool. What do you think? Would something like that interest you?

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(c)2019 Laura S. Packer

Planting, cultivating, and harvesting #storyseeds

Many of you know I've been sending out near-daily #storyseeds for several years. They are short images or questions, crafted to spur the reader's imagination and maybe lead to new creative work. Truthfully, I started them as a way to spur my own creativity. It's a challenge coming up with something every day and it's keeping my imagination supple.

#storyseeds started as text only. Sometimes they would be interrogative:

What is that smell?

or

Name your superpower and why.

or

What would you give up to create the change you hunger for?

Other times they might be a teeny-tiny story, or a sentence with the potential to become one.

My garden is full of wild onions, tumbleweeds, and dandelions.

or

You find a note on the mirror. "Don't look behind you."

or

"I can never find shoes in my size," grumbles The Monster, "It makes me think there is an anti-monster bias in the fashion industry."

Lately I've been experimenting with #storyseeds that include images. I'm really enjoying this because it's giving me a multi-layered challenge. Not only do I have to come up with the seed itself, I need to find a way to enhance it with an image. Sometimes the image is integral to the seed as in these:

Other times not as much. While the image supports the seed it isn't the key part. This particular set of #storyseeds were part of a set released over one week, intended to suggest a longer story.

I'm also offering expanded, multi-part #storyseeds over on Patreon. To see those go over to my Patreon page.

I find planting and cultivating #storyseeds has given me a great harvest of ideas. I hope it has for others. Stories rarely emerge fully formed like Athena from Zeus' forehead; they often need to be tended and cared for as they grow. When we pay attention, the potential for a story is everywhere.

As I mentioned in the ideas, images, and story seeds entry in my book, From Audience to Zeal: The ABCs of Finding, Crafting, and Telling a Great Story, "Storyseeds are all around. Ask yourself questions about why the world is as it is. Pick one thing and wonder about it. Maybe your next-door neighbor has a secret. Maybe they are really a minotaur...or used to be a prima ballerina. Maybe they are looking at you and wondering who you really are."

Which leads me to ask: Who are you? What are your #storyseeds? What are you cultivating?

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Support me on Patreon.
laurapacker.com Performance, coaching, keynotes, and more.
thinkstory.com Organizational storytelling, communications consulting, and more.
(c)2019 Laura S. Packer

The world through my eyes - adventure day

I went for an adventure a few days ago. Adventures are good for my spirit. They help me feel both minuscule and vast, connected to the world in a deep way and still observational of it, as well as offering me glimpses into the unknown. I decided to explore parts of the Twin Cities that are new to me and I found wonders.

I posted some of these photos originally on Instagram, but here I can explore them a little more thoroughly. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into my adventure and (more than that) I hope you have adventures yourself.

Adventures are about looking at the world in new ways.
Looking up in the lobby of a historical building.

They are about the details you see when you look closer.
The skylight.

They are about watching the watchers.

And finding beauty.
The ceiling in the hallway of the historical building.

Beauty that is in the details as well as the big picture.
Mushrooms in an asian market.

They are about cherishing the contrasts in the world.
This is my favorite picture in the bunch. It was taken in a Hmong market and shoes skeins of embroidery floss, used to make traditional art, and modern shoes.

Sometimes adventures bring unexpected friends.

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laurapacker.com
thinkstory.com
(c)2019 Laura S. Packer

#storyseeds

As you may know, I've been posting #storyseeds on Facebook and Twitter for several years. These are little creativity sparks. I've shared longer, text based seeds here before, but I'm trying something new. I've begun making them image focused and it's really fun. Having to think through an image and seed has been sparking all kinds of ideas for me, so I wanted to share them with you here. I'd love to know what they might evoke!

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patreon.com/laurapacker
www.laurapacker.com
www.thinkstory.com
(c)2019 Laura S. Packer

You can't go home again

This past weekend I returned to Sharing the Fire for the first time since Kevin died. We were both deeply involved with this conference, and the thought of returning filled me with dread for quite a few years. I had tremendous trepidation about going back this year, but decided I may as well find out if I could.

It was both easier and harder than I anticipated, as so many things are.

On the one hand, it was wonderful seeing people I care about whom I haven't seen in years. I did a good job of planning for something that would be stressful so when it was, I had a safe place to hide and people who took care of me. I didn't have to bark at anyone, which was something I had genuine concern about since so many people say well-meaning things that are actually hurtful.

On the other it was yet another marker, another way of noting that Kevin has been gone for five years now, which seems so very long. It was another way of noting how much things change and how little they change. It was an enormous marker of how I have changed and not always in ways I would have hoped.

It was hard and good and hard. So it goes.

I expect I will return next year, now that I've managed it once. I don't expect that it will ever be easy.

My gratitude to all who helped me through. As it is with most things, I wouldn't have made it without you.

p.s. I posted a ghost story on patreon, one that is largely about Kevin. There is a video teaser here, and you can support me (and therefore have access to the story) here.
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patreon.com/laurapacker
www.laurapacker.com
www.thinkstory.com
(c)2018 Laura S. Packer