Everything is so interesting that it's hard to choose just one most interesting thing! But I have a vivid memory of the moment I realized that Story-Argument is everywhere. That it's not just a pattern in scholarship or written texts, but also a pattern in built environments, communities, religions and schools of thought, and in life itself.
The memory is from May 2019, a rainy day in Rome with my friends. All morning as we'd woven through the streets taking in the sights, I kept having this powerful feeling of deja vu. I knew logically that I'd never been to Rome before but kept feeling that I had. The shades of gray and green, the smell of the air, the flow of the streets, and even the way the raindrops slid over the ancient sculptures all felt so eerily familiar.
And then, around mid-day, we rounded a corner and in front of us was the Pantheon. It's a massive temple-turned-basilica that has stood for almost two millennia and been in continuous use its entire life, reinterpreted by successive generations. I felt this physical sensation like sometimes happens in ancient or sacred places, where the building itself draws you toward it. Inside, standing in the rotunda on the marble floor that had been set in place almost 2,000 years before, looking up at the sky through the open oculus, I lifted my arm and felt the raindrops falling into my hand.
That was the moment when I went from "knowing" Story-Argument as a useful academic idea to *feeling* it as a deep structure for meaning-making. The Pantheon was a Story-Argument, Rome was a Story-Argument, the whole world was a Story-Argument. And if we, collectively, could come to better understand these deep patterns tying everything together, maybe new kinds of conversations and collaborations would be possible.
This revelation didn't publicly shift my work right away, but in the years since, it has quietly changed everything. I still help scholars develop scholarship, but the meaning of that work is much more expansive now. And gradually, the deep internal shift that started all those years ago in Rome is beginning to reveal itself in ScholarShape's outer layers.
Whew! Great prompt, Laura. Thanks for drawing out these memories with your questions!
Oh, thank you for the kind words! 🙏 The free Scholar Magic course is a great place to start – each of the 9 exercises has a mini-essay hidden within the practical tasks! http://scholarshape.com/scholar-magic-course
I’m about to launch a fundraising campaign for a cause I care about deeply; this lovely prompt from Laura Portwood-Stacer helped me think about what story (and whose) to focus on for each of several potential audiences. What’s The Most Interesting Thing? How can I make this the GOAT fundraiser?! (Thanks Laura and Michelle!)
Nov 4, 2023Liked by Margy Thomas, Laura Portwood-Stacer
The best example of this in my work is when I conceptualized a frame of analysis for a character based on one quite famous theory in the field of disability studies.
This “a ha” moment occurred while I was editing a manuscript with a colleague. While the overall manuscript didn’t pass muster and wasn’t accepted, the editors who reviewed this paper mentioned my discovery as an interesting and important thing to keep working on. I’ve put it aside for awhile but have been meaning to write about it more.
But just thinking of how to explain its importance and how it encourages me to move forward with my writing is significant. I need to get back to it!!
How great that you received encouragement for this idea, even if the overall paper wasn't meant to be at that particular time. Wishing you luck as you develop your project!
Nov 5, 2023Liked by Margy Thomas, Laura Portwood-Stacer, Helen Sword
Over & over since November 2016, my students have shown up to class full on looking to LIVE. They did not despair, even though they had a lot of good reason to do so. At the slightest invitation, they share their ideas, insights, dreams. They jump into collaboration with each other, support one another's growth, celebrat each other's victories, and are so kind to one another (and me!) in their struggles. They want to grapple with the hard stuff, and they want to listen to each other and come up with solutions, and they want no part of the nihilistic frenzy of social media's freak-out culture. This is just who has been showing up in my classroom all these years, well before that election, but it was just amazing to see that they were bringing it just a little bit harder the day after the returns came in. It's been the most beautiful confirmation that life wants to live, no matter what.
Nov 4, 2023Liked by Margy Thomas, Laura Portwood-Stacer
Since I was a kid, my family has played a game we called "The Most Interesting Thing That Happened to Me Today." My parents started it to keep me and my brother from complaining and fighting all the time. We still play it when I go home for visits! This prompt reminds me of that--except it's like you're asking us for the GOAT story from our research :)))))))
Oh, I love that you called it the GOAT story, Michelle! (To be totally honest, I hadn't even thought of that when I used the photo of a goat, but it's perfect synergy!!)
While writing my memoir, I did research on my grandfather. It was hard for me to research his life because he lived his whole life in Taiwan and the information would be in Chinese, and I don't read or write Chinese. He founded Shiseido Cosmetics (Japanese company) in Taiwan and so was prominent in Taiwan. But in doing my web research I came across some info about him and Shiseido in the novel The Stolen Bicycle by Taiwanese writer Wu Ming-Yi. Wu features in his novel my grandfather's history with Shiseido and also his bicycle company before he worked for Shiseido--I didn't know about the bicycle company! The novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize after it was translated into English, and so that made it accessible for me to read. I bought a few copies of the novel for family members, and this also spurred my mom to tell me stories about the bicycle company. Just really cool connections and surprises with finding out about this novel and more about my family history.
I mentioned in the comments on AcWriMoment #3 that sharing other people's good work is my favorite part of the work. For my current project, I spoke with a library staff member in charge of teen services for her whole city. She told me about a program where her library partners with a local independent filmmaking organization. This organization wanted to provide more outreach to teens. The library wanted to provide more ways for teens to recognize that their personal interests can pave the way to careers. They team up to put groups of teens together with experienced filmmakers. The library provides equipment. The organization provides mentorship. The teens end up making short films. This program is a brilliant example of the learning model at the heart of our research. The teens form relationships with mentors and each other. They pursue their personal interests. They have the opportunity to create a piece of work they can include in a filmmaking portfolio. The library staff and filmmakers recognize that their interest has value. They work together for a shared purpose, using shared practices. The work connects their experiences at the library with their experiences in their community. It's rare that a project incorporates every piece of the model. This one does.
Nov 5, 2023Liked by Margy Thomas, Laura Portwood-Stacer
What a great way to reframe a literature review! "I found this article and I can't wait to tell you about it!" What if talked about peer reviewed journal articles the way we talk about the NY Times bestseller list?
Nov 5, 2023Liked by Margy Thomas, Laura Portwood-Stacer
I tend to get stuck on “the most” anything, so I have to reframe as “an interesting” or “a very interesting” thing I’ve found. My interesting things tend to center on connections and how small the world is/was. (Fewer degrees of separation than six, in general.) And I suppose that’s a helpful insight. Thank you.
Nov 5, 2023Liked by Margy Thomas, Laura Portwood-Stacer
Day late but I pondered this off and on all day yesterday. I, of course, think everything about my book is interesting. It's going to be a real page turner! But what actually struck me is that I wrote the proposal after getting removed, sign, again. I left my former univ to take a position at NMSU in the provost's office. No less than 7 months in, the faculty did a vote of no confidence for the President and Provost. Instead of understand that as symbolic, the Chancellor and board removed them. As collateral damage, I was removed shortly afterwards.
So, what do faculty do? We do research and thus in the shock and awe of losing my administrative leadership position, I had to revisit my research agenda. And this book project was born.
What is that the most interesting story? I think because our academic leaders serve "at the pleasure of" and the trauma associated with those endings isn't talked about much. So perhaps I will put all of this in the acknowledgements to be transparent and destigmatize this not so pretty side of higher education.
That's quite a story, Rebecca. Here's a book you might find interesting (though also kind of depressing!): Critical Storytelling: Experiences of Power Abuse in Academic, edited by Julie Hansen & Ingela Nilsson. It contains lots of compelling first-person narratives about academic traumas of various kinds -- an attempt to destigmatize and re-story.
(This story is going to kick off my sample chapter for my proposal. Again, I'm not sure if it makes sense for me to include myself and if the hybrid memoir is valid, but this story is what sparked this entire book.)
Scott Powers was an elementary physical education teacher with over 20 years of experience. He was the father of three and the champion of his students. Based on the 200+ people who left messages on his obituary page, he was an all-around great guy, with good looks and a gift for uplifting everyone he knew.
He had many, many friends. Based on the pictures uploaded to his page, he was the member of several wedding parties and the guest of many other special events, as well. He was the hero in a number of stories from students who needed encouragement. His pep talks gave them the strength to push through rhetorical and physical barriers, but no matter how much he believed in the young people he sought to inspire, Scott Powers gave up on himself. He kept his internal suffering quiet and private until he leapt to his death off of a parking garage on October 23, 2022.
Based on the notes Scott’s family, friends, colleagues, and students left behind on his page, there was a collective quake of shock upon the news of his sudden death. Scott was a teacher, a father, and the ultimate motivator of everyone he knew. He had it all. He was it all. Why would he choose to end his own life?
I didn’t know Scott as well as the loved ones he left behind. In fact, despite living in the same community, I never met him at all. But, I did understand him. Because in the weeks before Scott’s suicide, I had thought about it myself. There were a couple of days where I looked outside my classroom window and imagined my body sprawled out on the tennis courts. I wondered who would find me. I imagined that my family would be better off without me. The torment inside my mind was consuming me and when I heard Scott’s story, I wondered if his final thoughts were similar to mine.
Scott’s death prompted me to contact my psychiatrist and tell him about the darkness that was starting to consume me. When we narrowed it down, we realized that the stress of teaching had exacerbated my pre-existing condition. It took several weeks for my doctor to tweak my medications to the point where I was stable. During those weeks, I began to realize that my job was the #1 source of my stress. “Every time you walk into that building, you’re going to feel anxiety,” my doctor said. Ultimately, I decided to quit. I did it for my family. I did it for my mind.
I’ll never get to thank Scott Powers for saving my life, but he did. Someday I’m going to read all of the messages and look at all of the pictures on his obituary page. I want to get to know him more so that I can share his story. I also want to speak to his family. His ex-wife has graciously agreed to speak with me after work one day. I’ll just have to find us a comfortable place to meet because my new office is less than a block away from where they found Scott’s body, right next to the parking garage where I park my car, every day. I don’t enter or exit that garage without thinking about Scott and without wondering that, if I’m not careful, some day I might follow in his footsteps.
I’m so glad that you reached out to your doctor and were able to find help and support to take the positive steps you needed for the sake of your own health. Please take good care of yourself, Robyn! 🙏
Everything is so interesting that it's hard to choose just one most interesting thing! But I have a vivid memory of the moment I realized that Story-Argument is everywhere. That it's not just a pattern in scholarship or written texts, but also a pattern in built environments, communities, religions and schools of thought, and in life itself.
The memory is from May 2019, a rainy day in Rome with my friends. All morning as we'd woven through the streets taking in the sights, I kept having this powerful feeling of deja vu. I knew logically that I'd never been to Rome before but kept feeling that I had. The shades of gray and green, the smell of the air, the flow of the streets, and even the way the raindrops slid over the ancient sculptures all felt so eerily familiar.
And then, around mid-day, we rounded a corner and in front of us was the Pantheon. It's a massive temple-turned-basilica that has stood for almost two millennia and been in continuous use its entire life, reinterpreted by successive generations. I felt this physical sensation like sometimes happens in ancient or sacred places, where the building itself draws you toward it. Inside, standing in the rotunda on the marble floor that had been set in place almost 2,000 years before, looking up at the sky through the open oculus, I lifted my arm and felt the raindrops falling into my hand.
That was the moment when I went from "knowing" Story-Argument as a useful academic idea to *feeling* it as a deep structure for meaning-making. The Pantheon was a Story-Argument, Rome was a Story-Argument, the whole world was a Story-Argument. And if we, collectively, could come to better understand these deep patterns tying everything together, maybe new kinds of conversations and collaborations would be possible.
This revelation didn't publicly shift my work right away, but in the years since, it has quietly changed everything. I still help scholars develop scholarship, but the meaning of that work is much more expansive now. And gradually, the deep internal shift that started all those years ago in Rome is beginning to reveal itself in ScholarShape's outer layers.
Whew! Great prompt, Laura. Thanks for drawing out these memories with your questions!
I was interested before but now I can't wait to read your work! Post something for a newbie for me?
Oh, thank you for the kind words! 🙏 The free Scholar Magic course is a great place to start – each of the 9 exercises has a mini-essay hidden within the practical tasks! http://scholarshape.com/scholar-magic-course
I’m about to launch a fundraising campaign for a cause I care about deeply; this lovely prompt from Laura Portwood-Stacer helped me think about what story (and whose) to focus on for each of several potential audiences. What’s The Most Interesting Thing? How can I make this the GOAT fundraiser?! (Thanks Laura and Michelle!)
The best example of this in my work is when I conceptualized a frame of analysis for a character based on one quite famous theory in the field of disability studies.
This “a ha” moment occurred while I was editing a manuscript with a colleague. While the overall manuscript didn’t pass muster and wasn’t accepted, the editors who reviewed this paper mentioned my discovery as an interesting and important thing to keep working on. I’ve put it aside for awhile but have been meaning to write about it more.
But just thinking of how to explain its importance and how it encourages me to move forward with my writing is significant. I need to get back to it!!
How great that you received encouragement for this idea, even if the overall paper wasn't meant to be at that particular time. Wishing you luck as you develop your project!
Over & over since November 2016, my students have shown up to class full on looking to LIVE. They did not despair, even though they had a lot of good reason to do so. At the slightest invitation, they share their ideas, insights, dreams. They jump into collaboration with each other, support one another's growth, celebrat each other's victories, and are so kind to one another (and me!) in their struggles. They want to grapple with the hard stuff, and they want to listen to each other and come up with solutions, and they want no part of the nihilistic frenzy of social media's freak-out culture. This is just who has been showing up in my classroom all these years, well before that election, but it was just amazing to see that they were bringing it just a little bit harder the day after the returns came in. It's been the most beautiful confirmation that life wants to live, no matter what.
Beautiful - love this. The young have a way of continually bringing us back to life!
Wow what a gift!
Since I was a kid, my family has played a game we called "The Most Interesting Thing That Happened to Me Today." My parents started it to keep me and my brother from complaining and fighting all the time. We still play it when I go home for visits! This prompt reminds me of that--except it's like you're asking us for the GOAT story from our research :)))))))
Oh, I love that you called it the GOAT story, Michelle! (To be totally honest, I hadn't even thought of that when I used the photo of a goat, but it's perfect synergy!!)
OMG!!! I only JUST got that it’s a pun on the photo 😭🤣 Michelle, I am not worthy of your cleverness!! ❣️
LOL!
Love this!! Also, the creativity of your parents 😍!!
While writing my memoir, I did research on my grandfather. It was hard for me to research his life because he lived his whole life in Taiwan and the information would be in Chinese, and I don't read or write Chinese. He founded Shiseido Cosmetics (Japanese company) in Taiwan and so was prominent in Taiwan. But in doing my web research I came across some info about him and Shiseido in the novel The Stolen Bicycle by Taiwanese writer Wu Ming-Yi. Wu features in his novel my grandfather's history with Shiseido and also his bicycle company before he worked for Shiseido--I didn't know about the bicycle company! The novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize after it was translated into English, and so that made it accessible for me to read. I bought a few copies of the novel for family members, and this also spurred my mom to tell me stories about the bicycle company. Just really cool connections and surprises with finding out about this novel and more about my family history.
Wow, what a story, Jane! Thanks for sharing!
What an AMAZING synchronicity, Jane! This is a story you need to tell, if you haven't yet (not just here...). Beautiful. Thank you for sharing it.
Ditto what Patricia said (Hi Pat!)
Thank you, Patricia, Michelle, and Margy. And I'm just grateful for this extremely supportive space!
I mentioned in the comments on AcWriMoment #3 that sharing other people's good work is my favorite part of the work. For my current project, I spoke with a library staff member in charge of teen services for her whole city. She told me about a program where her library partners with a local independent filmmaking organization. This organization wanted to provide more outreach to teens. The library wanted to provide more ways for teens to recognize that their personal interests can pave the way to careers. They team up to put groups of teens together with experienced filmmakers. The library provides equipment. The organization provides mentorship. The teens end up making short films. This program is a brilliant example of the learning model at the heart of our research. The teens form relationships with mentors and each other. They pursue their personal interests. They have the opportunity to create a piece of work they can include in a filmmaking portfolio. The library staff and filmmakers recognize that their interest has value. They work together for a shared purpose, using shared practices. The work connects their experiences at the library with their experiences in their community. It's rare that a project incorporates every piece of the model. This one does.
Great story that sounds like it illustrates the heart of your project!
What a great way to reframe a literature review! "I found this article and I can't wait to tell you about it!" What if talked about peer reviewed journal articles the way we talk about the NY Times bestseller list?
This is such a wonderful prompt! I feel energized to start writing:) Thank you, Laura.
You're so welcome! Thank you for the kind words and good luck with your writing!
I tend to get stuck on “the most” anything, so I have to reframe as “an interesting” or “a very interesting” thing I’ve found. My interesting things tend to center on connections and how small the world is/was. (Fewer degrees of separation than six, in general.) And I suppose that’s a helpful insight. Thank you.
I'm exactly the same way with superlatives. I'm glad you were able to reframe productively!
Day late but I pondered this off and on all day yesterday. I, of course, think everything about my book is interesting. It's going to be a real page turner! But what actually struck me is that I wrote the proposal after getting removed, sign, again. I left my former univ to take a position at NMSU in the provost's office. No less than 7 months in, the faculty did a vote of no confidence for the President and Provost. Instead of understand that as symbolic, the Chancellor and board removed them. As collateral damage, I was removed shortly afterwards.
So, what do faculty do? We do research and thus in the shock and awe of losing my administrative leadership position, I had to revisit my research agenda. And this book project was born.
What is that the most interesting story? I think because our academic leaders serve "at the pleasure of" and the trauma associated with those endings isn't talked about much. So perhaps I will put all of this in the acknowledgements to be transparent and destigmatize this not so pretty side of higher education.
That's quite a story, Rebecca. Here's a book you might find interesting (though also kind of depressing!): Critical Storytelling: Experiences of Power Abuse in Academic, edited by Julie Hansen & Ingela Nilsson. It contains lots of compelling first-person narratives about academic traumas of various kinds -- an attempt to destigmatize and re-story.
Sounds awful - - I'll check it out! LOL
(This story is going to kick off my sample chapter for my proposal. Again, I'm not sure if it makes sense for me to include myself and if the hybrid memoir is valid, but this story is what sparked this entire book.)
Scott Powers was an elementary physical education teacher with over 20 years of experience. He was the father of three and the champion of his students. Based on the 200+ people who left messages on his obituary page, he was an all-around great guy, with good looks and a gift for uplifting everyone he knew.
He had many, many friends. Based on the pictures uploaded to his page, he was the member of several wedding parties and the guest of many other special events, as well. He was the hero in a number of stories from students who needed encouragement. His pep talks gave them the strength to push through rhetorical and physical barriers, but no matter how much he believed in the young people he sought to inspire, Scott Powers gave up on himself. He kept his internal suffering quiet and private until he leapt to his death off of a parking garage on October 23, 2022.
Based on the notes Scott’s family, friends, colleagues, and students left behind on his page, there was a collective quake of shock upon the news of his sudden death. Scott was a teacher, a father, and the ultimate motivator of everyone he knew. He had it all. He was it all. Why would he choose to end his own life?
I didn’t know Scott as well as the loved ones he left behind. In fact, despite living in the same community, I never met him at all. But, I did understand him. Because in the weeks before Scott’s suicide, I had thought about it myself. There were a couple of days where I looked outside my classroom window and imagined my body sprawled out on the tennis courts. I wondered who would find me. I imagined that my family would be better off without me. The torment inside my mind was consuming me and when I heard Scott’s story, I wondered if his final thoughts were similar to mine.
Scott’s death prompted me to contact my psychiatrist and tell him about the darkness that was starting to consume me. When we narrowed it down, we realized that the stress of teaching had exacerbated my pre-existing condition. It took several weeks for my doctor to tweak my medications to the point where I was stable. During those weeks, I began to realize that my job was the #1 source of my stress. “Every time you walk into that building, you’re going to feel anxiety,” my doctor said. Ultimately, I decided to quit. I did it for my family. I did it for my mind.
I’ll never get to thank Scott Powers for saving my life, but he did. Someday I’m going to read all of the messages and look at all of the pictures on his obituary page. I want to get to know him more so that I can share his story. I also want to speak to his family. His ex-wife has graciously agreed to speak with me after work one day. I’ll just have to find us a comfortable place to meet because my new office is less than a block away from where they found Scott’s body, right next to the parking garage where I park my car, every day. I don’t enter or exit that garage without thinking about Scott and without wondering that, if I’m not careful, some day I might follow in his footsteps.
I’m so glad that you reached out to your doctor and were able to find help and support to take the positive steps you needed for the sake of your own health. Please take good care of yourself, Robyn! 🙏