This has been a long time coming and should have been written about two weeks ago. Give me a break. 
I had the pleasure of attending the first ever StoryLine Conference hosted by Donald Miller the author of best seller Blue Like Jazz and a Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I love the writing of Mr. Miller and was thrilled to be able to spend a day or two with him in Portland, Oregon. Talk about a beautiful city!
I didn’t really know what to expect when I first decided to attend the conference. I know that Don has a ton of writing surrounding the idea of building a better story in your life and who wouldn’t want to attend a conference about bettering your life! I’m not talking about the “live your best life now” or a smiling Tony Robbins raining his praises and neural linguistic fueled smile down upon his followers. I’m talking about a bare bones build out of how to live your life and tell an unforgettable story.
We are all living in a script filled world… do you want the best script or one that is tossed?
The conference had the ups and downs of any event that is working out growing pains. There were times when I was completely involved in the conversation and other times where I didn’t have clue what to think. The best part of the conference was where Don talked about inciting incidents and how they apply to your life.
In writing an inciting incident is the moment in a script that kicks the story into motion. It occurs after the setup and everything that follows should be a result of that incident. It’s where a story really begins. In movies, there is usually one inciting incident that changes the landscape of the storyline so drastically that you have to watch for the end result.The same idea applies to your life. However, you will have multiple inciting incidents (both good and bad) that will help build your story over the course of your life.
I can now pinpoint different “inciting incidents” that have formed my opinion of life.
Your story is the only thing that is actually yours in life. You have the ability to tell your story in any way you see it. Do you want the main character of your story to be healthy? Do you want them to be successful and live a fulfilled life? Or do you want to live a tragedy? There is beauty behind the concept of rewriting your story. We are all on this path towards an ending. What type of conflicts, successes, mountain and valleys are you going to take to reach the climax of your life?
Are you striving to write a better story?
It's not really built out like Breaking Through… it is more of how you apply the concepts of writing a script to how you write your daily life. You need to be able to notice your inciting incidences through life in order to understand where you are headed. You have positive and negative inciting incidences whether it has to do with your family or your business.
Basically, you listen to Don Miller talk about people who are living extraordinary lives and how to give as much as possible in order to live your story. I would encourage you to read Million Miles in a Thousand Years… brilliant.
Very cool, Kyle. I just read "A Million Miles…" a couple of months ago – it was an enjoyable read. Did you get a chance to meet/talk to Miller?
Great post Kyle. Along these lines, another great book is Story by Robert McKee http://amzn.to/cEUDTD
We forget how we define ourselves and tell others how to treat us based on how we use language and tell our stories. This post is a great reminder.
Thanks
@BrettGreene
I read about half of Blue Like Jazz and saw Donald Miller speak at a conference in 2008. Everyone gave him a standing ovation and I couldn't figure out for the life of me while people liked this guy. On a suggestion I read AMMIATY and it wrecked me in a good way. Maybe it'll connect with you, maybe it won't. But it's worth a shot.
It, along with the conference is about the idea of life as story, or applying screenwriting principles to your life, and writing a better story than you're living now. Though I was disappointed overall in the conference because so much of it was Donald presenting the book, which I'm sure nearly everyone there has read, there was still some new things, especially some good, practical takeaways.