How do you take an idea and convert it into a story?

In a recent blog, I shared a range of writing tips and received this comment from Parag Shah, a creative writer: “I observe a lot, I get a lot of ideas, but I struggle with converting them into a story. I hope the challenge I’m facing inspires you to write a blog post on this topic.”

So I decided to accept the challenge of addressing Parag’s challenge.

As I have said before, anything can be a gateway into a story – but Parag’s comment made me think more deeply about how to take an idea and convert it into a blog.

This is where tips 7 and 8 come into play: give yourself time to reflect on your angle, and don’t be afraid to share your point of view.

Reflection time is not writing time. It may involve staring into space, going for a walk, having a bath or even washing the dishes. It definitely involves letting your mind wander.

I often keep a note of quotes from articles, podcasts or videos and come back to them later to see if I can develop a story from them. So I’m going to revisit one of those quotes to see if I can unpack the process as I go.

What follows is how I would write the blog, with notes on my process in italics.

Four things Jane Fonda taught me about how to deepen your life

A few months ago, I watched an interview with 83-year-old actress and activist Jane Fonda. At one point she says: “You can’t make life longer, but you can make it deeper.”

I made a note of the quote, trusting that I would have something to say about it at some point in the future.

I’m giving myself some reflection time here to see what bubbles up.

Now I’m revisiting it, and wondering why the quote resonated with me so much. I think it’s because I watched the interview shortly after my 64^th birthday – the first one without my mum. There’s nothing like losing a parent to make you reflect on your own mortality.

I’m less than two years away from collecting my state pension, which feels unreal. I have no intention of ‘retiring’. I still feel I have a lot to achieve in the creative space – and not just as a hobby. There’s still so much I want to share and express – and I probably have less than 30 years in which to do so. It’s a sobering thought.

I can’t extend my life but, as Jane Fonda says, I can make it deeper. And that means further reflection on life lessons and the wisdom I can share with others.

However, you don’t have to wait until you reach retirement age to live deeper. But how can you do that?

Having written that question, which emerged from my reflection on the quote, I took a break to regroup before continuing and came up with these four headings. This is where tip 8 really kicks in – not being afraid to share your point of view in the form of personal learnings.

Here are my first thoughts on ways in which to live deeper.

1. Deepen your personal and business relationships
   If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that quality counts over quantity when it comes to relationships of all kinds. I can count on a small, mutually supportive circle of close friends, and enjoy meeting new people as long as it’s not in a superficial way. I believe in building business relationships over time rather than trying to sell to people I’ve only just connected with.
   
2. Deepen your understanding of your area of expertise
   The prime intention of writing my blogs is to be a writer for the sake of it, free from the demands of a client or other commissioner. This will make me a better writer-for-hire, a better editor and a better coach. I’m always learning on the job, and incorporating those learnings into the next job. Focusing more on my expressive and creative writing has led to some fantastic and unexpected opportunities, including working with authors on their business books.
   
3. Deepen your self-awareness
   To me, this means being aware of your thoughts, beliefs, emotions and behaviours and examining and challenging your perception of yourself and the world whenever necessary. I check in on my thoughts and feelings every day by writing Morning Pages and doing a short meditation. If I get triggered by something or someone, I go through a simple reflective practice to work it through. Here are the questions: What happened? What went well? What didn’t go so well? What would I do differently next time? What are the lessons and learnings?
   
4. Deepen your gratitude
   I have been doing a daily gratitude practice for several years, and it has trained my mind to constantly search for silver linings. If you can find something (anything) to be grateful for, the more likely you are to accept the present moment, even when it feels uncomfortable. In my experience, gratitude leads to contentment and the ability to be still and listen without trying to change anything. As I get older, I’m more able to create a space in which I can hear what I need to hear – be it birdsong, the wind in the trees, my intuition or my creativity.

And now for the conclusion…

After writing these bullet points, I paused again to read what I’d written and made some small changes. Now I need to think about what the outcome will be if you follow my suggestions, and how I can tie it all back into the original quote. That will mean sleeping on it and returning to it tomorrow.

I’ve now returned the next morning, having had time for more inspiration and ideas to emerge – especially during a long bath! I thought of finding another Jane Fonda quote to round off the story and reinforce my point about deepening your life.

As life is one long series of lessons, I think you can start deepening your life in these four ways at any stage of adulthood – and maybe they will set you up for being a wise elder, much like Ms Fonda.

She sees herself as finally “coming of age” in her 80s, and constantly deepens her life by doing and saying what she believes in. In her TED talk, Life’s Third Act, she talks about a staircase being a more appropriate metaphor for ageing: “The upward ascension of the human spirit, bringing us into wisdom, wholeness and authenticity.”

Sharing my observations and insights in blogs like this is my way of deepening my life and becoming more wise, whole and authentic. And, hopefully, spreading a little wisdom along the way.

I decided to come full circle back to Jane Fonda and how I’m putting her philosophy into practice myself. So much of this process is about trusting your intuition and being guided by it. When I wrote that final sentence, I knew it was a wrap – I could feel it. The final part of the process is to think of a headline. I decided on an old newspaper favourite – “things x taught me about x”. Then I created a graphic to illustrate the quote with an app called WordSwag, took a screenshot of Jane Fonda delivering her TED talk, inserted them into the post, and did a final edit.

So that’s it – that’s my process from idea to published blog. It’s not an instruction manual, but it’s not meant to be. It’s meant to be meaningful and relatable, which I hope it is. With thanks to Jane – and Parag.