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Nearly everyone who writes personal stories in any form has agonized over how much to share.\n\n\n\nWill writing about an issue from childhood break Mom's heart?\n\n\n\nShould I change the name of a high school teacher? The next-door neighbor? The dog? The children?\n\n\n\nAre the hyacinths blooming by the mailbox worth mentioning?\n\n\n\nWe write.\n\n\n\nWe worry.\n\n\n\nIs this naval gazing or vulnerability?\n\n\n\nWill people feel I'm airing the dirty laundry or sharing my own struggles so others might find healing?\n\n\n\n\nhttps://youtu.be/bzd7a8J4UXc\n\n\n\n\nStories Bring YOU into Your Writing\n\n\n\nBut...stories!\n\n\n\nGoodness, stories set your projects apart from all other essays, articles, and books, because\xa0only you\xa0had that encounter, that experience, that struggle, that\xa0transformation.\n\n\n\nWhen you make a claim and support it with your own life story,\xa0no one else\xa0could have written that piece.\n\n\n\nStories create connection between reader and writer.\n\n\n\nStories convey universal truths through specific situations.\n\n\n\nYou don't have to share your darkest eras or most embarrassing moments to offer transformative stories to readers.\n\n\n\nYou don't have to bare all to be a generous and effective storyteller.\n\n\n\nYou get to choose\xa0what to share with the public on a blog or in an article...and\xa0you get to choose\xa0what will live only in a journal, shoved under your mattress.\n\n\n\nOur Three Lives\n\n\n\nA few years ago, I found a quote from author Gabriel Garc\xeda M\xe1rquez, suggesting we have three lives:\n\n\n\n\nA Public life\n\n\n\nA Private life\n\n\n\nA Secret life\n\n\n\n\nA\xa0Newsweek\xa0article\xa0writes:\n\n\n\n\nAbout [M\xe1rquez's] own romantic passions, though, the author remained tight-lipped. He told his biographer Gerald Martin "with the expression on his face of an undertaker determinedly closing a coffin lid back down, that 'everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life and a secret life'." When Martin asked if M\xe1rquez might give him access into the latter, he replied: "No, never."1\n\n\n\n\n\u200bKenneth Samples at\xa0Reasons to Believe\xa0describes these three lives:\n\n\n\n\nA Public Life:\xa0This is the side of themselves that people present at work, church, civic arenas, and other public contexts. This is how people are generally seen in their daily life outside the home.\n\n\n\nA Private Life:\xa0This is the side of life that people share with family and close friends. Only a person\u2019s inner circle...gets to see this \u201cversion.\u201d\n\n\n\nA Secret Life:\xa0This is the side of life known only to an individual. In can include one\u2019s private thoughts and secret actions. People may be aware of their secret life, but that is not always the case. The reality of the secret life may be unknown even to the individual person himself for all of us have blind spots that stand in the way of true self-realization2\n\n\n\n\nAs writers, we are in control. Like M\xe1rquez, we get to choose the stories that will be part of the essay, the memoir, the interview\u2014the public self.\n\n\n\nAnd we get to choose the stories that will never be told\u2014that will remain part of our secret life.\n\n\n\nIsn't that freeing? You get to write, and\xa0you get to choose.\n\n\n\nMy Stories \u2014 Our Stories\n\n\n\nMy primary newsletter is my coaching newsletter. It's how I show up in your inbox to support your writing goals and encourage you on your writing journey. I share as much as possible to help you make progress.\n\n\n\nYou may have noticed I share very few personal stories. I guess I default to keeping a lot of my life out of the public eye.\n\n\n\nTo explore that, I decided to launch a side project on Substack that I'm calling\xa0Story Hatchery.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe premise?\n\n\n\nWe can outwit AI and learn more about ourselves by capturing and crafting our stories. We need a safe place to do that, a haven for storytelling.\n\n\n\nThat's\xa0Story Hatchery.\n\n\n\nI'll be writing my own stories, using prompts I'll share with you.\n\n\n\nYou'll get a peek at my writing process, including drafts leading up to a final version.\n\n\n\nI'll pass along storytelling wisdom from people who inspire me.