13. So... what is visionary storytelling, anyway?

There’s a New Year meme that circulates a lot in online spaces, about picking words to act as guideposts for the year. And in this first month of 2024, I’ve found myself reflecting on two sort of abstract terms I use to describe what I’m up to with this podcast: “visionary,” and “praxis.”

These terms are signifiers for the real core of what I’m grappling with here – the disconnect so many creatives experience between all the beautiful and transformative things we believe about creative craft in theory, and all the doubt and dismissiveness we often feel about our own work in reality.

Today I’m getting into what I’m actually saying when I say “visionary writers” or “visionary storytelling,” and why I think cultivating a visionary approach could free us from all of our creative hang-ups and blocks and neuroses, now and forever.

(I am clearly joking with that grandiose claim… but also, I’m kind of not?)

To kick off year two of the podcast, dive deep with me to discover what becomes possible when we define true vision for ourselves and our stories.

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Writing praxis tips

This month, I’m committing to experimenting hands-on with some old story drafts, to see what surfaces when I make a simple shift in my approach to my writing sessions based on the definitions explored in the episode.

If you want to join me for some experimenting of your own, here’s the plan:

1. Pick a scene from a project that has felt deeply blocked – either something current that you’ve been considering giving up on, or something old that you already shelved but have never quite let go of.
2. Continue the scene from wherever you left off, and write for at least fifteen minutes.
3. Every time you don’t know what to write next, ask “What does this story want to teach me next?”
4. Don’t edit or try to force the scene forward, and don’t evaluate your work based on that goal.

When you’re done, take another fifteen minutes to look back through what you wrote and make some notes. Ask yourself the following:

1. In this session, what did I learn about the world of the story?
2. What did I learn about the people in this story?
3. What did I learn about my connection to this story?
4. Does any of what I learned reveal something about my connections to my own life and my own world?

I’m not entirely sure where this is going to go with my blocked stories, but I’m curious to see what might shift or be revealed if I make a seemingly small change in my foundational goal when I sit down to write.

No matter what ends up on the page, I suspect it’ll be a lot more interesting than if I’d made yet another cranky attempt to “fix” or “unblock” the story. And whatever happens, I’ll learn something.

Episode references

Walidah Imarisha

What is "Visionary Fiction"?: An Interview with Walidah Imarisha.

Books and other projects

Tyson Yunkaporta

Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World

For the Wild podcast: Tyson Yunkaporta on Inviolable Lore