Writing prompt #51: STORYTELLING & FAMILY SECRETS

Hi Everyone:

I recently stumbled across an extraordinary documentary, STORIES WE TELL by Canadian filmmaker Sarah Polley. (I saw it on Netflix.)

The director attempts to capture—in a messy, fascinating, beautiful way—the life of her mother, Diane, who died when she was 11. What Polley discovers is a woman whose secrets rippled through the lives of all who loved her, long after her death.

Please watch the trailer below and, if it intrigues you, make time to see the film. There’s much to learn from Polley’s approach: about storytelling, and secrets, and the gaps families guard from each other and themselves.

YOUR PROMPT: Find an unlikely narrator, someone on the periphery of your story, and give them a voice. What can they offer us from their particular vantage point that no one else can? What gap do they fill? Start with a page.

Have fun!

Abrazos,

Cristina