Respond to Susan Wittig Albert

As we reveal ourselves in story, we become aware of the continuing core of our lives under the fragmented surface of our experience. We become aware of the multifaceted, multichaptered "I" who is the storyteller. We can trace out the paradoxical and even contradictory versions of ourselves that we create for different occasions, different audiences...Most important, as we become aware of ourselves as storytellers, we realize that what we understand and imagine about ourselves is a story. --Susan Wittig Albert


When I first read this quote, the part that stuck out to me was that we craft different versions of ourselves that are saved for special people and occasions. It’s something that everybody does but we never realize it. We also don’t write about it, since it seems that we may not be truthful at all times. But that’s not true. We’re just not the same with everyone we’ve encountered in our lives. Each person has their own place in our lives.
But now that I read this quote a second time, I realized that as I started writing more, there are a lot of memories and experiences that resurfaced. I guess this is what she means when she says, “…we become aware of the continuing core of our lives under the fragmented surface of our experience. We become aware of the multifaceted, multichaptered "I" who is the storyteller.” We all have so many layers that make us as a whole. These layers are our life experiences and recollections. I usually blank out on a writing assignment, but as I force myself to type, all my memoirs start to come back to me. I am now aware of how much I could write about, and that there’s no ending. As one experience is typed, another comes right after it. But I still struggle with putting all these memories and episodes on paper and detailing them, transforming them into stories that people can “see”.
Each of us is one main idea, with separate mini chapters stretching out, that sometimes stray from the story. But the difference between our life stories and the regular paperbacks is that there is no editing.