Why Writing Matters to Steph

William: Honestly, I chose to present my audio narrative as a website because I feel like the presentation of having a transcript sync to the audio as you listen is very valuable in improving the user's immersion to the story. Not everyone is an audio learner, so by including audio as well as the visual narrative we can help a wider audience experience, and actually be able to endure (maybe even enjoy) this narrative. we can just kind of get into it if you're ready because it's not super–

Steph: Yeah

William: All right…

How do you think writing has helped you connect with other people?

Steph: Well, I think it helps you get into other people's minds like reading stories, whether they're fiction, or if it's a biography, autobiography, whatever. It's just like, it gives you a whole different perspective into somebody else's thought process, their brain.

Steph and William first met a month ago when William was being taken to the hospital by his uncle; Steph’s boyfriend. [Sound of distant ambulence siren] Here I wrote in the transcript the sfx that can be heard in the audio at this exact moment. I did this because in some feedback from Aidan in class I was told that even though I expect the audience to be listening along, having the text there helps to draw the reader into the story because even reading [Sound of distant ambulence siren] can elicit the scenery of that in the audience's minds eye.Not to mention this also broadens this storytelling style to include audiences who may be physically unable to listen to the audio!

Since then, Steph and William have loved talking about the influential books in their lives (faded clip of them talking and laughing) and digging into the story behind the authors. Talking with Steph, William learned that according to her, her personality today is a product of the lessons she’s learned in writing over the years.

Let’s explore more about how writing has mattered to Steph.

Steph: I've always been a reader. I’ve loved reading ever since I was younger. But then in the last couple years I have been doing [these] reading challenges.

Steph uses an app called Fable to track her book reading progress. In just a few years she’s accrued a vast library; in large part thanks to a goal setting challenge built into the app’s features. She had set the goal to read 50 books in a year and increased it up to 100 a year ago. Both feats she accomplished!

Steph: I think I like reading so many different types of books because, before I set the challenge I've always had certain genres or whatever that I've always read, or an author. But then when I set my sights so high I really had to start reading anything and everything, right? And then reading all of the different styles and how different people write, I got more into the real stories.

Much like you and I, when we’re facing a (sometimes arbitrarily self imposed) challenge we start to see things that were once normal to us in a new light.

Steph: Then I started reading it like I was watching a movie and I was like, "Oh man, that's so much more interesting reading someone's story when it is laid out like that”. Take that versus when I go back and read my own journals from, you know, forever ago and I'm like, “Oh my gosh, I sound super depressed”. It's stupid, right? Because you only write when you're either super mad or super happy and there's like no in between. I'm like, man, if I died and somebody read my stuff, they'd be like, “well, she was really pathetic and had a boring life.”

I think we all feel that way about our journals a lot of the time.

William: You mentioned in the past a little bit about journaling. I chose to space the questions in the center and in bold like this to make it easier for the reader to digest the narrative into four sections at a glance. This paired with the indented narrator's comments and the colour coded dialogue makes for a very readable audio narrative experience.

What is your process when journaling?

Steph: You know, I'm an old lady. I'm 46. My whole life, anytime I've tried to journal it's always been almost like, bullet points of: “here's what happened today” you know and “this made me sad” or “this made me happy” type thing. But then, like I was telling you, I recently just tried to kind of start writing my journal more like as if you were watching it in a movie type way, instead of just writing down the facts. It's been more like telling the story which has been more fun to express and then read it back. I think your memory of [events] is different.

Steph has, along with books, been a fan of movies and almost all types of entertainment. Just like most people to the extent she consumes art, the drive to create burns within. Journaling has been one form of artistic output she had overlooked most of her life.

Steph: So it's been kind of fun to look back and read. I haven't been very good at keeping it up, but the little that I've done has been really fun.

She’s definitely not alone in that thought.

So, what inspired you to actually try a different type of journaling?

Steph: I think probably honestly because I have been reading so many books.

What's been in your life the most valuable writing experience that you've had?

Steph: I think that probably my most valuable writing is actually when Ava was born, I had a little calendar.

Steph raised her little daughter Ava mostly alone at an early and hectic point in her life.

Steph: Every day I would write something that happened just in the tiny little block of the calendar. And so I think it was less pressure because a journal sometimes, you feel like you have to fill up a page or something, right?

This is the classic problem every artist faces when confronted with a blank canvas. I think we can all relate to that in some way, even a journal can feel like such a challenge.

Steph: I think that's where it gets a little bit too bullet pointed, but I would just like pick a small little thing that happened like “she giggled because of this” or whatever and it, I love going back and reading that because it does feel more natural and it's like, whatever happened on that day, but it I think there just was less pressure because it was just like a tiny little snippet.

Perhaps shockingly, for the lady who has read over 150 books in 2 years and probably hundreds in her life, and who has undoubtedly written many a report, email, party invitation, and more, the most valuable writing in her life has been the little usually forgotten about squares in her daily fridge calendar.

Steph continues to be a light to William and the many people she sees every day. Her testimony stands strong and rings true to those who listen, writing changes our lives when we let it in deeply personal and profound ways.