It Takes a Village to Tell a Story

What's New #4
–by Susan Wittig Albert

If you're like me, you belong to a gazillion organizations. You're active in a few, an onlooker in more. Some offer resources, most offer just membership.

SCN is one of those organizations that invites you to become an active participant and to use the many resources we offer. If you're serious about documenting your life experiences–through journaling, memoir, drama, poetry, or other art forms–we know that the more you practice, the more you will gain in insight, clarity, and (yes!) skills, techniques, and knowledge. But few of us can do this alone. It takes a village. We're that village. We're here to help.

We've put together a list of the ways that SCN can help you tell your story. We've posted the list here, but let me suggest just a few, from my own experience.

• If you want to write, you need to read, and read, and read some more. If you're writing about your life, you need to read other women's lives. We help by pointing you to the very best books by, for, and about women, at our book review site, www.StoryCircleBookReviews.org.
• If you want to write about your life, you need to be journaling. Yep, every day. Don't have a clue? You can read a book. We recommend SCN-member Christina Baldwin's Life's Companion. It's my personal choice as a book for the journaling classes I teach. Or you can take a class in SCN's online program. Our fall journaling class is closed to new enrollments, but watch for another offering in the spring.
• If you want support in your lifewriting practice, join a story circle. There may be a group in your community–if not, we encourage you to start one. We also offer online writing circles, an online reading circle, an online chat group. We sponsor workshops. And best of all, we come together as a village–a village of women lifewriters–in our biannual Stories From the Heart Conference. The next one's coming up in February, 2010. We hope you'll be there!

Women's stories are a precious personal, family, community, and cultural resource in a fast-changing world. SCN wants to help you tell yours.