2023 is almost over. It was a busy year. When I was a student, I used to write about what I was learning. But after finishing my studies, I stopped writing regularly. Now I want to focus on the future and adopt a storytelling theme for 2024. This post summarizes my intentions of committing to storytelling.
Read more: Storytelling: 2023 was a quiet blog year. In 2024, I recommit to storytelling.about adopting a theme
Recently, Joseph Gayoso from the Fedora Marketing Team proposed the idea of the Fedora Marketing Team adopting a theme for 2024. Together with the below video explainer, I felt his explanation was also convincing for the Team.
But it was not only good advice for the team. I tend to avoid resolutions for as a new year tradition. But I recognize change as something that can happen independent from January 1st. That is where the role of an annual theme comes into focus. It offers a flexible framework with wide guideposts. I can choose how to measure my success. Working from a theme provides me a clear way to measure incremental progress while also enabling me to feel tangible accomplishments along the journey.
So, if I could commit to one theme, what would it would be? It would have to be something that I believe in.
storytelling is my theme
I admire storytelling since a long time. I admire its flexibility to be simple yet powerful. It is flexible because there are multiple forms of storytelling. Storytelling can be defined in a literal sense and a metaphorical sense.
In a literal sense, storytelling is the telling of stories. Telling could mean written, spoken, or shown. Stories could mean almost any expression of human experience that fits into a timeline with a plot. Therefore, storytelling is creatively sharing a human experience with others.
In the metaphorical sense, storytelling connects communities. Stories represent several aspects of life that happen around humans. The most powerful stories compel hearts and minds to change. Someone who tells stories that change the hearts and minds of others is an influential person. In this metaphorical sense, storytelling becomes a skill that is honed and practiced.
building my storytelling habit back
What does this have to do with my theme? I am adopting storytelling as my theme because I admire the habits of good storytellers. I want to hone my own ability for both personal and professional contexts. My ability is weakened from lack of practice; it is like a muscle that is sore from not being used in a while. By adopting storytelling as my 2024 theme, it empowers me to write more often in my authentic voice. Lately, recent posts on my blog undergo a rigorous self-editing before I publish them. But in adapting with a theme of storytelling, I commit to being fine with not maintaining maximum production-value on everything I publish. I commit to being authentic over rigorous; honest yet open. I commit to the pursuit of documenting my own human history, or “the world as I see it.”
So, 2023 was a year of big changes for me personally and professionally. I have plenty of things to start writing about. To improve, I need to publish more and be ready to make some mistakes. That’s how I learn, after all.
So with that all in mind, more blog posts seems like a good starting point. To make this plan actionable, it needs more specific steps. My goal for right now is to make the commitment within myself, and follow it up with action in 2024.
Happy New Year, reader.
Original photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash. Modified by Justin W. Flory. CC BY-SA 4.0.