The Worst Mishaps Makes the Best Stories

 Not all moments in life are as glamorous as they appear on social media.

As you scroll, remember that it’s not all magic, new friends, and amazing food.

And if it were… That would be boring!

Notice how quickly people tune out the moment you begin describing a perfect vacation to some incredible new locations – blah blah blah…

Add conflict and drama? BOOM! It’s a story. One that people will tune in to hear.

Our family of 4 spent New Year’s in Las Vegas. After 2 nights on the Strip, we were ready for a change of pace: A restorative hike in nature.

But 5 miles along the freeway on our way to hike Red Rock Canyon, we got a flat tire. More accurately, the bottom of the poorly-done rejiggered lowrider we'd unknowingly rented from Turo fell out, shredding the tire.

It took an hour of sitting in our car with increasingly antsy 10-year-old twin boys to get Turo to call roadside assistance. Then they told us it would take another 2 hours for the tow truck to arrive!

We decided to leave the vehicle there, but no taxi, Uber or Lyft would pick us up along the side of a freeway. (Probably a good thing!)

Luckily, a friendly construction worker pulled over to help. He ended up giving us a ride to the nearest casino. *Angels are everywhere!

Turo saw it all through, took care of the tow, found us a new and much better vehicle to rent at same cost, and paid for our Lyft to get there.

3.5 hours total - quite the trying turn of events.

The next day, we made it to Red Rock. And when we climbed to the top of that startling landscape, tinged with massive boulders the color of dried blood and amber, we appreciated the view over the Las Vegas Strip that much more for the troubles we’d overcome. 

All along the way, Kiran and I kept reminding our children of our family mantra - and the opening to my viral TED talk on The Story Cure: "The worst experiences make the best stories!" 

Aloha,

MeiMei

Writing Tip of the Week

• Consider a vacation or adventure at home – it could even be a trip to the grocery store! – that you embarked upon, which did not go according to plan. 
• Spend 5 minutes writing about what happened. Can you recount the incident with humor? 
• What lesson did you learn as a result of the mishap?
• Now reflect on how much less entertaining the story would be if everything had gone according to plan. 
• Think about your writing the same way. At each step of the journey, your protagonist must face challenges, mishaps, and difficulties. They must struggle to find their way forward to some goal – and learn lessons along the way. 

Otherwise, it’s just boring!

Quote of the Week

A writer—and, I believe, generally all persons—must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.

~Bestselling Author Jorge Luis Borges