Hi everyone! It\u2019s Amelia writing today. In today\u2019s post, I talk a little bit about stories, their structures, and how both have helped me to look at life a little bit differently. I hope you enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you ever read a book (or watched a film) and wished you could be transported into that world and time? If you\u2019re anything like me, then you have wanted that pretty often! But that desire has probably gone beyond just that \u201cit would be a cool experience\u201d or you would like to be in someone else\u2019s shoes for a day. It has probably been more about your desire to be needed, loved, and fulfilled, and to really be the \u201cmain character\u201d of your story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I think that this is one reason that stories are written, in a way. To teach and inspire and spur us on to doing more with our lives. And, if stories really were meant to teach us, then we must be willing to learn. If you have longed for that \u201cstory world\u201d where there seems to be so much more to live for, your life really can look more like that world than you think. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Internal Conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since I started getting more into writing, I have done quite a bit of research on what makes a good story. I am no expert, but I have started to realize how much we can learn from the structure of a story and how, just as characters must conquer their fears, we can as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For those who may not be familiar with internal conflict, it basically boils down to desire vs. fear. Though there are different ways that authors go about it, I learned it like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Character\u2019s desire<\/p>\n\n\n\n Character\u2019s fear<\/p>\n\n\n\n Character\u2019s misbelief about the world<\/p>\n\n\n\n How that character goes about fulfilling their desire and overcoming their fear<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the main backbone of character development and growth, and what a large part of a story focuses on. And, just like characters in a story, we all have our own internal conflict, too. Because humans are complicated beings who have so many past experiences, our lives are more complicated than fiction, and it might be difficult to find what your own internal conflict really is. I\u2019d like to give an example of my own life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My Own Internal Conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My desire: to feel loved and have a purpose<\/p>\n\n\n\n My fear: Doing new things and letting others down<\/p>\n\n\n\n My misbelief: That I cannot make a difference to others because of my own inabilities and weaknesses <\/p>\n\n\n\n How will I go about fulfilling my desire and overcoming my fear? In many ways. Some of them are: giving God control of my life to guide me towards opportunities. Stepping outside of my comfort zone. Reaching out more to others and realizing that my misbelief isn\u2019t really true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why it Changes you<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n How does being aware of this internal conflict help me? It reminds me of how I can start making changes in my life, and how I can really make a difference. It brings me back to my goals in life, and my ultimate goal of trying to live for Jesus. And, it reminds me that my life isn\u2019t so different from a story, where I can grow and overcome my fears and defeat the evils of the world in the small ways around me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This will not mean much to some, but for those who have envied all kinds of fictional characters and their stories, I would encourage you to live your life much like a story. This doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019ll live in a false world, or always have your head in the clouds. It means that you will live more intentionally, more goal-focused and more willing to grow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I think that, if we remind ourselves more frequently of our goals in life, we will find more of our purpose and more of our will to live. We will remember that we are much like a character in a story, who will continue to mess up and need help, but will not ultimately give up in the end because we see why we have purpose and how we must keep striving to our end goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I am still very, very bad at this. I forget my goals and my purpose frequently, and I don\u2019t remind myself enough that I believe lies about both myself and the world. But I want to try harder. I want to have the courage of a book character and the ability to keep on fighting for the good and perfect things. And I think that, if I can accomplish the act of living like a story, I will find that I can be more content, more brave, and more ready to remember my purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I hope this post gave you some things to think about! I won\u2019t pretend to have all of the answers, and I can\u2019t promise you that trying to live like a story will change your life, but I hope that taking more steps towards living in that way can be something fulfilling, and can be a good reminder for us all. Just like a character in a story, you have a purpose, and, no matter how much evil surrounds you and no matter how many flaws you have, you can continue to live out the purpose God has given you to the very end.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n – Amelia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hi everyone! It\u2019s Amelia writing today. In today\u2019s post, I talk a little bit about stories, their structures, and how both have helped me to look at life a little bit differently. I hope you enjoy! Introduction Have you ever read a book (or watched a film) and wished you could be transported into that world and time? If you\u2019re anything like me, then you have wanted that pretty often! But that desire has probably gone beyond just that \u201cit would be a cool experience\u201d or you would like to be in someone else\u2019s shoes for a day. It has probably been more about your desire to be needed, loved, and fulfilled, and to really be the \u201cmain character\u201d of your story. I think that this is one reason that stories are written, in a way. To teach and inspire and spur us on to doing more with our lives. And, if stories really were meant to teach us, then we must be willing to learn. If you have longed for that \u201cstory world\u201d where there seems to be so much more to live for, your life really can look more like that world than you think. Internal Conflict Since I started getting more into writing, I have done quite a bit of research on what makes a good story. I am no expert, but I have started to realize how much we can learn from the structure of a story and how, just as characters must conquer their fears, we can as well. For those who may not be familiar with internal conflict, it basically boils down to desire vs. fear. Though there are different ways that authors go about it, I learned it like this: Character\u2019s desire Character\u2019s fear Character\u2019s misbelief about the world How that character goes about fulfilling their desire and overcoming their fear This is the main backbone of character development and growth, and what a large part of a story focuses on. And, just like characters in a story, we all have our own internal conflict, too. Because humans are complicated beings who have so many past experiences, our lives are more complicated than fiction, and it might be difficult to find what your own internal conflict really is. I\u2019d like to give an example of my own life. My Own Internal Conflict My desire: to feel loved and have a purpose My fear: Doing new things and letting others down My misbelief: That I cannot make a difference to others because of my own inabilities and weaknesses How will I go about fulfilling my desire and overcoming my fear? In many ways. Some of them are: giving God control of my life to guide me towards opportunities. Stepping outside of my comfort zone. Reaching out more to others and realizing that my misbelief isn\u2019t really true. Why it Changes you How does being aware of this internal conflict help me? It reminds me of how I can start making changes in my life, and how I can really make a difference. It brings me back to my goals in life, and my ultimate goal of trying to live for Jesus. And, it reminds me that my life isn\u2019t so different from a story, where I can grow and overcome my fears and defeat the evils of the world in the small ways around me. This will not mean much to some, but for those who have envied all kinds of fictional characters and their stories, I would encourage you to live your life much like a story. This doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019ll live in a false world, or always have your head in the clouds. It means that you will live more intentionally, more goal-focused and more willing to grow. I think that, if we remind ourselves more frequently of our goals in life, we will find more of our purpose and more of our will to live. We will remember that we are much like a character in a story, who will continue to mess up and need help, but will not ultimately give up in the end because we see why we have purpose and how we must keep striving to our end goal. I am still very, very bad at this. I forget my goals and my purpose frequently, and I don\u2019t remind myself enough that I believe lies about both myself and the world. But I want to try harder. I want to have the courage of a book character and the ability to keep on fighting for the good and perfect things. And I think that, if I can accomplish the act of living like a story, I will find that I can be more content, more brave, and more ready to remember my purpose. I hope this post gave you some things to think about! I won\u2019t pretend to have all of the answers, and I can\u2019t promise you that trying to live like a story will change your life, but I hope that taking more steps towards living in that way can be something fulfilling, and can be a good reminder for us all. Just like a character in a story, you have a purpose, and, no matter how much evil surrounds you and no matter how many flaws you have, you can continue to live out the purpose God has given you to the very end.\u00a0 – Amelia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[57,47,13],"class_list":["post-1114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-57","tag-thoughts","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220628_164247-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":637,"url":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/4-historical-fiction-books-we-recommend-for-this-summer%f0%9f%93%9a\/","url_meta":{"origin":1114,"position":0},"title":"4 Historical Fiction Books We Recommend for this Summer📚","author":"Mattie and Amelia","date":"June 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey, everyone! Today we're going to be recommending a few Historical Fiction books that we really enjoy and think that others will too. We found that we really enjoy Historical Fiction books, so we thought we would share some that we really like that we haven't talked about on our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Books\"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/tag\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot_20210614-205123_Gallery-2-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot_20210614-205123_Gallery-2-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot_20210614-205123_Gallery-2-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot_20210614-205123_Gallery-2-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot_20210614-205123_Gallery-2-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1140,"url":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/why-l-m-montgomery-is-my-favorite-author\/","url_meta":{"origin":1114,"position":1},"title":"Why L. M. Montgomery Is My Favorite Author","author":"Amelia","date":"July 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello everyone! It\u2019s Amelia, and today I wanted to talk a little bit about my favorite author, L. M. Montgomery, and why I enjoy her books so much. I started reading them when I was around eleven or twelve years old and I\u2019ve read ten of her stories so far.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"AnneofGreenGables\"","block_context":{"text":"AnneofGreenGables","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/tag\/anneofgreengables\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220723_180014-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220723_180014-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220723_180014-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220723_180014-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/20220723_180014-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":884,"url":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/blessings-from-my-week-a-picture-a-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":1114,"position":2},"title":"Blessings From My Week – A Picture a Day","author":"Amelia","date":"April 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey, everyone! It's Amelia writing today. I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to take a picture each day of the week and share those here! Going off of the unintentional theme we've had lately on our blog about finding the blessings in our ordinary lives, I hoped\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blessings\"","block_context":{"text":"blessings","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/tag\/blessings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Day-6-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Day-6-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Day-6-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Day-6-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Day-6-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1093,"url":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/my-summer-writing-goals-and-how-you-could-set-some-too\/","url_meta":{"origin":1114,"position":3},"title":"My Summer Writing Goals (and How You Could Set Some Too)","author":"Amelia","date":"May 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi, everyone! This is Amelia today. With school pretty much over and summer on its way, I thought I would talk a little bit about my writing goals for the summer and how I plan to achieve them. I also wanted to talk about how, even if you're not a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"2022\"","block_context":{"text":"2022","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/tag\/2022\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220529_174512-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220529_174512-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220529_174512-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220529_174512-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220529_174512-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1182,"url":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/shadows-of-beauty\/","url_meta":{"origin":1114,"position":4},"title":"Shadows of Beauty","author":"Amelia","date":"September 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello everyone! It's Amelia writing today. School started up for me about a month ago, and, before my English class began, we were instructed to read an essay called The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis. This essay was extremely influential to me and, on my second read-through, it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"2022\"","block_context":{"text":"2022","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/tag\/2022\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20220918_172538-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20220918_172538-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20220918_172538-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20220918_172538-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20220918_172538-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1077,"url":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/art-journal-pages\/","url_meta":{"origin":1114,"position":5},"title":"Art Journal Pages","author":"Mattie Grace","date":"May 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello everyone! Today I just wanted to share my art journal pages and a few reasons why you might want to start an art journal, too! I haven't been doing this for very long, and I'm certainly not good at it, but it's very fun to do! This was my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"2022\"","block_context":{"text":"2022","link":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/tag\/2022\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/featured-photo-edit-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/featured-photo-edit-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/featured-photo-edit-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/featured-photo-edit-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/featured-photo-edit-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1116,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions\/1116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imageidaho.com\/talkingovertea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}