600 Words Coming to Life!!

600 words happens this Saturday!! My friend, Teresa Saum, and I are going to be at Rock Bend Folk Festival in Minnesota Square Park this Saturday and Sunday, September 12th and 13th. We'll be there under the blue tent with the sign, What's your Story, from noon until six collecting stories from folks at the festival. We'll also be talking about story writing or anything else that comes up: music, dancing, wine, the weather, the price of corn or beans.

We've thought about doing this gathering of stories for awhile. There are a lot of projects and books about writing down one's stories: The Stranger Project and What's Your Story and the Facebook page Humans of New York come to mind. We decided it was time to stop talking about gathering stories and do it.

We know that our stories connect us to other people and are a showcase of pieces of our lives. They also show our vulnerability and humanity and that's sometimes hard to do. We're often taught not to talk about ourselves or not to bring about up little gems of accomplishments or to hide our utter failures.

But oh, the stories we could tell! Walking through fresh cement, and getting chased by crows comes to my mind. And the stories we have heard. Our family tells them. Our neighbors tell them. The guy in the grocery store tells them. The cab driver, the woman on the train, a kid in the park, the pediatric nurse, the musician, the hula dancer, the cop....all have stories to tell. And often do. A young woman in the second hand store where I was volunteering told me a story this morning that brought me to tears.

But oral stories often get lost and not written down. And often, no one just looks at you and says what's your story. We are doing just that.

Our little mission is to find people who are willing to open up to us and write a 600 word story. Your stories can be anonymous. We will collect them and eventually put them in booklet form as a collection of local stories and writing. With your consent, we'll post them on our 600 word Facebook page or this blog.

We don't tell you what to write. We don't use red pens. That would defeat the purpose of your story and the flow of words.

We're excited to get started. We had one early foray to a bar where we learned that three men in a bar with their backs to us was probably not an easily accessible situation. There has to be an element of trust and ease. We've got an event planned in late September at an assisted living facility. We have tons of people giving us ideas and offering advice from their own experience.

At the tent, we will also have an area for kids to write and draw their own stories with markers and colored pencils about Rock Bend, music, dancing...whatever.

So stop in at our tent on Saturday or Sunday. Sit down and write a story and drop it in the box. Or take the idea home with you and contact us later, if you're so moved to write 600 words, more or less. Or just sit with us and chat!