Telling Courageous Stories

A six week storytelling workshop to inspire ourselves to face today’s challenges

We’re living through a time in history that holds unprecedented dangers. The effects of unchecked power and greed are chilling enough, but the planet’s fate also hangs in the balance.

This daunting reality can bring on a host of conflicting feelings from anxiety and fear to pessimism and hopelessness.

The fact is, humanity has all the skills it needs to solve these issues. What it sometimes lacks is courage, but this has a remedy.

When the future seems bleak, where can we find inspiration and courage?

Well-told stories. 

One of humanity’s deepest wells of strength comes from the practice of recounting the stories of others who’ve gone before us, who faced similar challenges and persevered.

In books, movies, and private conversations, we discover how people we admire survived impossible odds. Even childhood fairy tales prepare us for going into dark woods (the unknown) and navigating our way out. 

A well-told story reveals this truth: Even impossible situations have solutions.

Who tells the stories today

Fund-raising politicians and corporations know how addictive fear is. Doom-filled narratives are profitable and keep us furious, hooked, and helpless. Yet we can’t seem to tear ourselves away.

These toxic tales imply that we face impossible odds and need someone powerful to rescue us. But we really don’t.

Claim your own courageous stories

Inside of you is a trove of experiences in which you did something you used to think was impossible. In the process of living through such times, you gained wisdom.

Our stories—yours and mine—are essential to inspiring ourselves and others through these difficult days. Not only can our collective wisdom override the fearful narratives on our screens, our stories inspire hope to attempt the “impossible” with bravery and love.

Telling Courageous Stories

Telling Courageous Stories is a six-week workshop offering tools and space to write a courageous story from your own life and to share it with others. 

Over six sessions, you get support to:

• Choose one story to complete during the class.
• Learn the six elements that make a story compelling and instructive.
• Apply those elements to your story.
• Share this story with a small, supportive group.
• Get ideas for storytelling to a wider audience. 

If you want to be part of inspiring people to meet the challenges of our time, this is the class for you. If you want to understand and claim the bravery within you, this is the class for you. If you want to feel part of something bigger than yourself, I hope you’ll consider taking part.

All are welcome. You do not have to be “creative” or a writer to participate. All you need is a story (and believe me, you have one). 

My approach to storytelling isn’t creative writing, but instead consists of a step-by-step system. When you follow these steps, you end up with a compelling story that inspires people to find their inner courage. When we share these stories with each other, we gain wisdom, hope, and inspiration.

About Jen

While you may know me as the founder of the Americans of Conscience Checklist, I am first a storyteller. Since 2013, I have been writing both a personal blog about courageous journeys and a spiritual memoir about walking a 500-mile pilgrimage. What inspired me to tell these stories were people like Anne Lamott, Sue Monk Kidd, Elizabeth Gilbert, Barbara Brown Taylor, and Mary Karr who experienced difficult times and turned them into stories with an inspiring, universal message. Their wisdom changed my life. In turn, telling my own stories has inspired others.

I’m offering this class so you can do likewise.

What’s included in Telling Courageous Stories:

• Three instructive 75-minute classes on storytelling techniques.
• Exercises to help you tell your story in a compelling way.
• Two classes with shorter techniques, followed by real-time writing sessions.
• A final class dedicated to sharing our stories. 
• Video recordings of each class for review or in case of absence.
• Optional: Two coaching sessions with Jen to get supportive feedback on your story.

Dates: Mondays from October 10 through November 14, 2022

Time: 8:30pm Eastern/5:30pm Pacific 

Duration: Each session is 75 minutes (7.5 hours total)

Payment: PayPal, major credit cards, and checks are all accepted. Checks must be received by October 14, 2022.

Thank you for considering signing up for this class. If you have any questions at all before making the leap, please get in touch. Please allow 24 hours for a reply.