A Practice to Unearth Your Story Magic by Veronika Magali-Marosy

Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Veronika Magali-Marosy as she shares with us “A Practice to Unearth Your Story Magic.” Enjoy!

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Where’s the magic?

You’re working hard on your story, day after day. Buckling down, you fill page after page, but it feels like treading water. And even worse, everything you write feels dry and falls flat. There’s no magic in it. Something is missing, and it’s not talent.

It’s all about focus

Have you ever tried to balance on one leg, while looking at a puppy running around? Or even standing on both feet, looking straight up while the clouds were shifting rapidly across the sky? Did you succeed?

Staying balanced and focused, while constantly keeping our eyes on something that is moving, is extremely difficult. We need a fixed point to be able to keep our focus and stay upright.

When your story feels disconnected, you might be trying to balance on one leg, while looking at that playful puppy.

The playful puppy and your story magic

The playful puppy is like all the details of your story. The happenings, actions of your characters, the environment, the timeline. Your one leg is the storyline.

Your foot is that one thing, that connects it all to the source. The one thing that can ground your story and make it feel tangible: your main theme.

And the ground is the underlying quality that makes it possible for readers to deeply resonate with your story. It is something universal, that reaches people on a deep level. Something we all experience, like being held up by the ground underneath our feet.

The universal quality makes the connection, and the theme will focus and intensify this connection, by drawing in the right readers.

Story Magic, Where the magic comes from

Most people make the mistake of focusing too much on the details, even when editing the story. Where does it all take place? What time of day is it? How many people are there? But these are of secondary importance. The first is to ground your story in a universal quality and find the theme that will resonate with your readers.

All great stories that connect with their readers, have a universal quality to them and a theme that guide everything else. Everything that happens, every character that participates, is born out of that quality.

When you lose focus and get all tangled up in the details without keeping an eye on those two main elements, you fall. You can’t rely on the connection and therefore your story becomes disconnected.

Finding solid ground

To really find the magic, the connection in your story, you might need to dig a little bit until you find the solid ground you can build on. Here’s an exercise to help you in the search:

1. Lean into the support of your seat and let go of tension.
2. Get in touch with your core, your creative center and/or Creation itself (or you can call it God, Source, the Divine, Life, etc. Whatever feels appropriate for you)
3. Start exploring these questions:
   – What message does my story want to bring into the world? What belief does it reinforce or disperse? This will be your theme.
   – What universal feeling, posture, emotion does it embody? (Love, forgiveness, trust, support, power, etc) This will be the quality.
4. Ask yourself while writing or editing: Does this support the message of my story?
5. Watch your story come to life!

Do you want some support to go through this exercise? Join me in a meditation, while I lead you through each step.

Focusing on the universal quality and theme of your story during the writing and editing process, will give it the magic of deeper connection with anyone who reads it. Your story will touch lives beyond anything you can imagine.

Here’s to your story magic!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Veronika is a mother, former illustrator, meditation teacher and a recovering master procrastinator. She helps creative entrepreneurs, freelancers and working parents, who are dedicated to make a difference in the world, but who struggle with staying productive.

Website: www.nosywitty.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nosywitty
Insight Timer: www.insighttimer.com/VeronikaMaMa

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Veronika’s previous post on Writer’s Fun Zone: When Cleaning Your Bathroom Seems More Important than Working on Your Story