I noticed the rich color of the man's coat and imagined that it was a velvet robe, a relic from a more luxurious time. He pulls it on first thing in the morning, fingers gentle with the fraying belt, to watch the sun rise over the smoke stacks in the marina.
Can you find a surprising detail and use it to start a story?
Congrats, you've just sharpened your ability to identify emerging possibilities.
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Didion uses a narrative invention that helps you process your grief while she shares her own. She stalls the plot, acknowledging that grief is place where your sense of self is obliterated, leaving you unmoored and waiting. Then she infuses that shared experience with her unique grief.
Didion waits for her husband to return for his shoes.
Which begs the question: what does your grief leave you waiting for?
Why do we do this exercise?
So you get better at identifying what you feel and why.
So we have a reference library of literary works to help you alleviate hard feelings when they hit and to flourish by building up stores of positive emotions.
You can learn more about the narrative techniques that help heal grief in chapter 8 of Wonderworks.
03. Commonsense
How to Earn Your Divine Status
You're an opera singer on the rise, winning raves for a role that showcases the best of your vocal abilities.
You have three shows left.
Another singer falls sick and you're asked to take on her role in a different opera: one that demands you use your voice in an entirely different way. One that requires months, if not years, of preparation.
If you chose Option A, you have the kind of commonsense that could make you the greatest opera singer of your time.
Commonsense is your ability to match the newness of your plan to the newness of your environment.
Maria Callas knew that attempting to perform the Walküre Brunhilde and Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani in the same week was possibly career suicide. But she also knew hers was a voice like no other and that she alone had the dramatic flair to interpret both roles.
The newness of the challenge matched the newness of her ability.
The extraordinary range Callas showed in performing both roles in the same week earned her the name LaDivina.
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