There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person. —Anaïs Nin
The Big Picture
As you probably know by now, one of the main reasons I created Bookflow is to help writers see into their plots more easily. I just love teasing out plots and figuring out the exact right events/series of events that will help our characters become the person they were meant to be.
Because that, to me, is what a plot is all about: watching people fulfill their destiny. E.M. Forster said that the difference between a story and novel is that a novel supplies a why. It links cause and effect, or events to their meaning.
Life v Plot
There are people who say that everything happens for a reason. But in life that isn’t true. Random things happen all of the time, unfair or inexplicable things happen. But in fiction, everything really does happen for a reason, and that is why plots are so fascinating and so difficult to work with.
I recently came across the above quote by Anaïs Nin and was struck by the parallel she made between life and plot. The way we go about crafting the story of ourselves and our lives is the same as the way in which we craft about others in our fiction. We are simply capturing a string of events with a particular meaning and importance for a particular person.
This is why it’s vital to live with intention.
My Secret
And so I’m aware that we are all currently writing our own stories. Not only literally, because we are writers, but in the grand scheme of encountering events and interpreting meaning. This is the essence of why I founded Bookflow in the first place—to help people write their own stories—and yet I often don’t actually live that way.
I get carried away by the mundane and forget to look for meaningful moments. I pay too much attention to negative events and not enough on positive ones. And, most of all, I forget about my intention. I forget to ask myself if I planned my day so that my events will support the outcome I want. I hope you’ll join me in setting an intention this week and planning your calendar accordingly. It will make a difference in the outcome.
