TELL: How the way we tell a story impacts its meaning

Chrissy opens today’s episode with a walking meditation on the power of telling your truth, then shares the definition of the word TELL, and invites us to consider the question: how does the way we tell a story impact its meaning?

Writer and journalist Fran Hawthorne also joins Chrissy to share her love of storytelling. Together, they discuss how stories can inspire change, the importance of sharing real-life experiences, and the impact of personal narratives.

Then Chrissy shares this week’s book recommendation, I’m Telling the Truth But I’m Lying by Bassey Ikpi.

And in the end, Chrissy encourages you to ask yourself:

• How does the way we tell a story impact its meaning?
• How can we use storytelling to inspire change and make a positive impact in the world?
• How can telling our stories help us connect to others on a deeper level?

☀️ My memoir, Finding Sunlight, is here! Learn more & order your copy today

Transcript

Chrissy Holm [00:00:03]:

Do you love words? Are you passionate about health and wellness? Hi. Welcome to Stirred by Words, a podcast that uses the power of words to unlock your writing and wellness practices. I'm your host, Chrissy Holm, writer, editor, and wellness advocate. This show is about my love for words, writing, and wellness, And I'm passionate about learning from others. Grateful to have you join us. Today's meditation is inspired by this week's word, tell. Find a place where you can walk, whether it's a quiet street, a garden, or a park. Pause for a moment and take a few deep breaths.

Chrissy Holm [00:00:53]:

Close your eyes and feel your breath going in and out of your lungs. When you're ready, start walking and pay attention to the movement in your body. Notice your legs and arms moving. Forward and back. Forward and back? Imagine the sensation of the air on your skin or the breeze hitting your clothing or jacket? As you walk, focus on your You might breathe in for 4 steps and breathe out for another 4 steps. Breathe in for 234. Breathe out for 2, 3, 4. Continue on that rhythm.

Chrissy Holm [00:02:26]:

And next, take a moment to consider something in your life that you need to express or communicate to others. What is your truth? Is something holding you back from expressing it? Take a deep breath in and slowly exhale. Think about each step forward for a moment, how 1 foot travels slightly ahead of the other, but you always have 1 foot planted to to the ground? Now think back to the thing that you need to communicate. Imagine yourself speaking your truth with confidence and clarity. Visualize the impact of telling your story for yourself and the impact on others. Take a few more breaths in and out, Feeling a sense of empowerment and maybe even peace. As you start heading back to your original location or if you continue to walk on, remember the steps you took to get here. Remember to breathe, and remember that you have the power to tell your truth.

Chrissy Holm [00:04:05]:

Now it's time for today's word, tell. Merriam Webster has many definitions for the verb tell. Here are a few, To describe in detail, to make known, to express in words, and to give information to. Here are a few fun facts about the word tell. The first known use was before the 12th century. Tell is in several idioms and expressions, such as Don't tell a soul, kiss and tell, and tell it like it is. The phrase let me tell you is used to emphasize a statement, And let me tell you, I use it often. Other synonyms for tell include reveal, divulge, explain, Announce and express.

Chrissy Holm [00:04:48]:

Today's question is, how does the way we tell a story impact its meaning? A story can really evoke many different feelings and emotions, especially how we tell it. Right? When we think about different points of view from 1st person to 3rd person, We can get a unique perspective on the characters, story, the plot, and themes. For example, a first person narrator can help you really get into the thoughts and feelings, which could make it more personal or relatable, but whereas 3rd person can be a broader view of the story, allowing a more objective view. Another example is the variations between tones. So for example, a sad tone versus a humorous tone. The story might come across differently in each instance. Something that I do during writing or when I'm editing other people's work. I'm asking, are the sentences short and blunt? Do they have a more flowery feel to them, or do they have, like, lots of metaphors and imagery? Those are a handful of ways of how we tell the story can really impact it's meaning.


Chrissy Holm [00:05:59]:

Today's guest is Fran Hawthorne. She's been writing novels since she was 4 years old, Although she was sidetracked for several decades by journalism. During that award winning career, she wrote 8 nonfiction books And was an editor or regular contributor for The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Fortune, and many other publications. But Fran never abandoned her true love. Her debut novel, The Heirs, was published in 2018, and Now I Meant to Tell You, which was published last November by Stephan f Austin State University Press, Has already won or is a finalist for 7 awards? Fran is at work at 2 new novels and also writes book reviews for The New York Journal of Books. Happy to have her join us today. Welcome, Fran Hawthorne. Hello, Fran.

Chrissy Holm [00:06:42]:

I'm super excited to have you on the show.

Fran Hawthorne [00:06:44]:

And I'm excited to be included. I love your concept. It's so different.

Chrissy Holm [00:06:49]:

Thank you. Yeah. It's interesting job. But, Yeah. Anyway, you know, you've been writing novels since you were 4 years old or, like, dreaming up some ideas. And since our word of this episode is tell, do tell us, what writing was like for you in those early years, or, like, what what really inspired you to write ultimately?

Fran Hawthorne [00:07:10]:

You know, Don't know back when I was 4 what inspired me. I just know that my earliest memories Are okay. Of me taking a piece of paper, folding it like a book, and reading to my family. Now that in itself is not someone you wish. Well, a lot of kids do that. But my early sense of myself was always, always, I was gonna write novels, period, flat. That was what I was going to do. I just knew it.

Fran Hawthorne [00:07:37]:

I also somehow knew that you can't earn a living doing that probably because I didn't know any writers. So I figured I would be an English teacher like my mother too in our living, but I just knew that this was me. And, of course, I love to read and all little many little kids love to read who do not become writers. But I do remember In elementary school, for sure, I that I knew how to write and form letters, and I was writing books. And I mean, I remember, a couple of them from elementary school. Okay. I tell you one. Yeah.

Fran Hawthorne [00:08:10]:

Very sophisticated for elementary preschool. It was about the American Revolution, probably, we'd been studying at the school. And it occurred to me that in the civil war, American students always learn that families were divided in North South. And I said, well, maybe they were divided in the revolution. Right? It could make sense. You got 1 brother because those days, it was all sexist. 1 brother who supported, you know, the British and one supported the rebels as they were. So I wrote a novel about a family that was divided, And I remember.

Fran Hawthorne [00:08:41]:

You know that paper that little kids have, it's beige, and it's got the blue lines written, and the the spaces between the lines are huge? Yep. Carefully printing in pencil and raising and printing and printing because I knew it had to be nice, and it's encouraging. Yeah. Like, I figured they use British money, so I found out what British money would you know, how did I know all this? How did I know It had to be carefully done and factually accurate. I don't know.

Chrissy Holm [00:09:07]:

Oh, yeah. That is so cool, like, To not only dream up of a story, but, like, just know that you have to, like it's just like an innate thing to, like, go do it. Like, second nature.

Fran Hawthorne [00:09:20]:

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It's first nature. It's who I am.

Chrissy Holm [00:09:25]:

Oh, right. Exactly. I guess. That's fine.

Fran Hawthorne [00:09:27]:

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know why. Speaking of words, that could be your next word. Why is it second nature? Anyway yeah.

Chrissy Holm [00:09:32]:

Yeah. No. It's good. That's funny. So, I mean, from there, you've spent a lot more years, 3 decades, writing award winning nonfiction, including 8 books. So Let's if you were to sum up your experience, why did you tell some of those stories during those years?

Fran Hawthorne [00:09:50]:

The nonfiction? Mhmm. I mean, look. Be honest with magazines and newspapers, which I did first, and then the nonfiction book. With magazines and newspapers, you don't usually Write about what you're passionate about. You get a job and your assignment is, you know, covering the county government. You know? The books, it was kind of I was getting tired of daily, weekly, even monthly journalism. I wanted to dig into something deeper. I had been, after all, always willing to write books.

Fran Hawthorne [00:10:22]:

So I got offered my 1st nonfiction book contract, and, again, it was not My desire, I have to confess. You know? I have to tell you. Oh, anyway. Yeah. Well, it was basically my agent Said, oh, you know, John Wiley, which is a big publish the I think the biggest business publisher in the world, needs someone to write a Book about one of the big drug companies. Fran, you know that industry, don't you? Well, I've been covering health insurance. You know?

Chrissy Holm [00:10:50]:

But I know some. Yeah.

Fran Hawthorne [00:10:52]:

So and and I turned that though into what I wanted. It's called the book called The Merck Drug or Not, and it's not just about the drug company Merck. I did use it to investigate The drug industry more itself. But, anyway, that was not my passion to do. And the 2nd book was also the publisher asked me to do. But after that, The nonfiction books were things I wanted. The third one came from my reporting experience where I've been writing for financial magazine, and I was writing about these techniques. And I had to write from kind of the investor Wall Street point of view.

Fran Hawthorne [00:11:24]:

Mhmm. But I was very upset about the impact on workers. So I proposed to bloom that Bloomberg press then had a book publishing arm. I proposed my agent proposed to them a book about the impact on Working people of a certain technique, where where hedge hedge funds and whatnot would come in, buy up a failing company, And kill their pension plan and basically steal the money. And that became a book yeah. Called pension dumping. So from then on, I was taking Things that had bothered me in life, and a couple of books were based on my experience as an ethical consumer and trying to juggle my values When I shopped or whatever. So, anyway so then they started coming from my own life or my previous reporting.

Chrissy Holm [00:12:10]:

That makes sense. Yeah. How did you kinda, like, then shift to more of that fiction

Fran Hawthorne [00:12:17]:

role? Or the real question is, you know, what took me so long? I was 4 when I was in elementary school. So how did I temporarily depart from fiction? Was basically in college. A roommate said, well, if you like to write, why don't you work for the student newspaper? And I was horrified. Hack writing. But I went this was at the University of California at Berkeley, and I have to give a shout out to the student paper because it changed my life. I walked into the doors of The Daily Californian, the student newspaper, got an assignment, did it. Apparently, did a good job. I got put on staff immediately, and I loved it.

Fran Hawthorne [00:12:54]:

Well, that was the end of that. I mean, in a sense that then I just got hooked. And for, you know, 3 decades, I'm doing, As you mentioned, first, the newspapers, magazines, then, you know, the the books. You know? And I'm writing. After all, I'm earning my living writing. Wasn't that Always what I said, well, not exactly.

Chrissy Holm [00:13:13]:

Wait. Not the same thing.

Fran Hawthorne [00:13:15]:

Yeah. But, I was, you know, a writer, a Paid writer. And, I was writing novels on the side, but I'm probably not the only person listening to this who has Said to herself himself, oh, I'll do that. I'm tired today. I'll do that dream of mine tomorrow over the weekend. You know? Blah blah. And after all, I I write all day. Now I'm can't go home and write more.

Fran Hawthorne [00:13:42]:

Mhmm. So 3 decades of this fiddling around with novels, putting them aside, I don't know how much longer I would have done that. But and and this is not the happy story. This is not a great inspiration. But so about 10 years ago, My parents died within 7 months of each other. Yeah. And that kind of gets you thinking. I'm gonna die someday.

Fran Hawthorne [00:14:04]:

Hopefully, not for a long time, but, you know, what do I wanna do with my life? You know? People have these kinds of moments, Diagnosis of serious illnesses, you know, things like that. And it the good part is it does really make you think about your your priorities. So I did. I drastically cut back on my freelance journalism, my paid work, and picked up one of those novels I put aside And wrote it. And, so that's how I got back to fiction.

Chrissy Holm [00:14:33]:

Yeah. Yeah. It's always Amazing to go through, like, life and death experiences just to, like, like you said, kinda shift what you Wanna do and almost like who you become too in that next season or whatever you wanna call it.

Fran Hawthorne [00:14:50]:

I mean, after all, if you are a feeling, caring, sensitive person and it's a death of someone close to you, it it probably will shake you up. And it may not make you change careers, but, you know, it will affect you.

Chrissy Holm [00:15:04]:

Absolutely. Yeah. So let's think a little bit more about, like, the word tell for a moment. Do you think it's just like conveying information, or does it involve, like, a deeper level of understanding between the speaker and listener?

Fran Hawthorne [00:15:18]:

Yeah. I think it's the latter. I mean, I was thinking about this. I sorry. I love your show because you had these Questions that people think about that they don't normally think about. Luckily, English, and I'm sure I know many other languages also have many words for a similar concept. Right? Allows us writers to switch words and not use the same word all the time. Allows us to express nuance.

Fran Hawthorne [00:15:39]:

So There's say, tell, speak, utter. No one uses utter, but, you know It's

Chrissy Holm [00:15:47]:

a good one.

Fran Hawthorne [00:15:48]:

Converse, Or more dramatically, that's exclaim and ask. Those are very different. So so I do think tell implies A connection is I can picture someone leaning forward. And, I mean, we do this. We say, tell me what happened. Do tell. Yep. Let me tell you.

Fran Hawthorne [00:16:07]:

Right? It it just we don't say, let me say to you. I mean, we just don't. Let me speak to you. Each of them has a different connotation. To me, say is much more bland. What do you say? Should we go to the park? Speak is more like orienting. That was another verb. Right.

Fran Hawthorne [00:16:25]:

Tell to me is much more between friends Or confessing, which is different than between but, anyway, it's much more I can point out personal, intense connotation.

Chrissy Holm [00:16:37]:

Yeah. There are so many nuances with Yeah. All those words.

Fran Hawthorne [00:16:42]:

Yeah. Look. I get I don't wanna use tell 5 times in 1 page. Yeah. Oh, talk. That's another one. Talk and say and speak, I think, are a little more interchangeable. All inter but, you know?

Chrissy Holm [00:16:54]:

Yeah. That gets me thinking even about, like, said. Like, when you said I said or this person said in, Like a page of a book and stuff. Like I mean, sometimes it gets the point across, but sometimes you need a little bit more. Like, how do they say it?

Fran Hawthorne [00:17:10]:

And then there's the cliche, never use adverbs, which, like, any never command, shouldn't never be away totally. But, again, if you want to avoid adverbs, then you need a more dramatic verb. Mhmm. Or, obviously, you can show action. That's it. Without a verb, just show the person moving. But, Anyway, so we need these nuances of verbs to avoid adverbs. Mhmm.

Chrissy Holm [00:17:34]:

Exactly. I mean, we're we're talking a lot about the word tell here and all the other different variations of it. And I know for your most current novel, Tell us. I'm gonna people are gonna be listening and be like, Chrissy. Okay. We get it. It's tell. But what is the story about, and what inspired you to write I meant to tell you?

Fran Hawthorne [00:17:54]:

Yeah. Thank you. Well, if you don't mind, I'm gonna read the little summary I wrote because I took a lot of time to get this short. Okay.

Chrissy Holm [00:18:01]:

Yeah.

Fran Hawthorne [00:18:01]:

So the quick Story, synopsis. When Miranda's fiance, Russ, is being vetted for his dream job in the US attorney's office, The couple joke about whether Miranda's parents' history as antiwar activists in the sixties might jeopardize Russ's security clearance. But as it turns out, the real threat emerges after Russ's future employer discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping 7 years earlier, an arrest she'd never bothered to tell Russ about. So, obviously, to me, I knew obviously. It's about one theme of the book is Secrets or lies of omission, lies of commission, you know, the impact of the things we don't say or do say. That's the one most people notice, and that's fine. I think there are 2 other themes I wanna bring up. Yeah.

Fran Hawthorne [00:18:59]:

1 is how far will you go to help a friend? In this case, we know from the prologue that the kidnapping is when Miranda is helping her friend kidnap her own daughter. So not no spoiler there. It's in the prologue.

Chrissy Holm [00:19:11]:

Yeah. Yeah.

Fran Hawthorne [00:19:11]:

To help a friend kidnap her own daughter. You know? How far? And a third seed, which is I I guess maybe I'm giving them an order. I don't I wanna say that. An order. I mean, the third theme is, do we have a responsibility To try and make the world a better place. This is something that's very important to Miranda and Russ, which is only hinted at in the summary, and and Miranda's parents. And I I I would like that message to come out from my book too. You know?

Chrissy Holm [00:19:44]:

Absolutely. How would you say, like, throughout the book, and, obviously, those are different themes throughout the novel. Do you think The act of, like, telling can be used as, like, a tool for activism?

Fran Hawthorne [00:19:58]:

Thank you for asking that, for picking up on the activism. Yes. The obvious one. Or is it actions? Right? Activism action. I mean, in the book, there's a focus on, as as I mentioned, her parents' Sixties, you know, anti war protests, the takeover at Columbia University, or even in the current day of the book, which is 2003. Miranda and her sister are planning to join a big march against the war in Iraq. Okay. But we don't even realize the power of words sometimes.

Fran Hawthorne [00:20:29]:

Mean it. Think about one of the most powerful protest, quote, actions ever taken, and that is Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech. Mhmm. We're still talking about it 60 years later. Yep. It was powerful. It inspired people. It opened people's eyes.

Fran Hawthorne [00:20:47]:

And in the book, one of the subplots so as I said, activism is important to Miranda. She feels her parents' generation had all the exciting stuff. It's boring, you know, in her generation. Her big activism has to do with Stories. Believe it or not, 20 years ago, congress was considering passing a law that would lower drug prices by getting the government to negotiate Drug prices at Medicare. This finally passed last year in the inflation reduction act, but okay. Back in this is a fact. I was writing about this as a journalist Back in 2003, they were trying okay.

Fran Hawthorne [00:21:22]:

So Miranda knows, as anyone in politics knows, the most effective way to get Elected representatives' attention is to have real people come and tell their stories. So Miranda is trying to persuade the congressional staffer. She had been taking this is based on my reporting. She's taking Bus they were chartering buses up to Canada, taking Medicare aged people up to Canada to fill their prescriptions because it was a lot cheaper in Canada. And she took the buses, and she is now getting recruiting some of these people to come and talk to congress and tell their stories. So this is very clear cut. And I didn't know you were gonna ask me this, but it's a a important part of my book, how telling your personal stories Might change the laws.

Chrissy Holm [00:22:18]:

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing how important stories are. Like, Not only writing, but, like, tell like,

Fran Hawthorne [00:22:26]:

just Yes.

Chrissy Holm [00:22:27]:

Or reading it or you know?

Fran Hawthorne [00:22:30]:

Yes. Yes. And, I mean, we you know what? The first books were with storytelling, you know, more of the oral tradition of telling stories people, You know you know, that was their entertainment, and that was their way of passing on important information. It was both. Mhmm. And so thank goodness we're still doing it. Only Absolutely. Reading it too.

Chrissy Holm [00:22:50]:

Yeah. Exactly. But it keeps, like, passing down to different generations too, so it Can shape that, like, activist thinking in a sense. Like, even if it's a different issue of the time? Like, you still are kind of going about, activism in similar ways, you know?

Fran Hawthorne [00:23:10]:

Yes. Yeah. And that's good, I hope.

Chrissy Holm [00:23:13]:

Yes. So when we think about the title of your novel, so I meant to tell you, When you think about that word tell versus confess, like we're talking about that earlier, how would you maybe differentiate those 2? And Yeah. Yeah. And if, like, let's say the title was I meant to confess, would that have changed that perception of the book? Why or not? Why not?

Fran Hawthorne [00:23:35]:

Yeah. I mean, all the different versions of tell. To me, confess has a nuance of telling something Negative. Confessing a a a love writing. A felony that Miranda, you know, didn't confess to her Fancy. Or something embarrassing that you did. So it might have drawn more readers. I mean, maybe I should have done it.

Fran Hawthorne [00:23:57]:

You don't oh, there's gonna be something Evil that's gonna be confessed. I didn't think to say that because, to me, Tell is broader. Mhmm. And not there this book is full of secrets that get revealed. Not all of them are as dramatic as, oh, I was arrested for a felony that I never told you. Is there ever a secret that's good? That second thing? Oh, I never told you that I won the Nobel Prize.

Chrissy Holm [00:24:26]:

Yeah.

Fran Hawthorne [00:24:27]:

No. I I mean, no Nobel Prizes in the book. Anyway but certainly, there Differentiations, degrees of confession or telling. And I I guess I I think that to say I meant to confess also might imply there's only 1 confession. I mean, how many dramatic confessions? Just one small circle of friends and family have. So I don't know. I anyway, it's what it is. So listeners, please, please.

Fran Hawthorne [00:24:55]:

It's It's just as exciting as a confession.

Chrissy Holm [00:24:58]:

No. I I mean, I I love it. I like you said, it keeps it a little bit more broad, and, I think it's like like you said, for me, like, when I was thinking about this question, like, confess does feel like it's just one thing. I didn't confess this one thing versus tell is like, oh. And it feels like, oh, well, I meant to tell you that even though it's a really big thing. You know? Like, it just yeah. I think it's a powerful title.

Fran Hawthorne [00:25:21]:

Oh, thank you. I'm glad you're

Chrissy Holm [00:25:24]:

Thinking about, like, your experiences in writing and in everything, but how has your history, your own personal history, impacted how you tell stories, especially, like, from nonfiction to novel writing?

Fran Hawthorne [00:25:38]:

Well, of course, Almost every novelist probably takes some things from her or his life. In fact, it's interesting. Just a couple days ago, we were at a family, you know, kind of Labor Day weekend gathering, and and there was just a new kind of girlfriend in the family. So, you know, we're all meeting her. And and At the end as we're saying goodbye, she says to me, oh, are these stories that we've been sharing, are they gonna be in your next book? And I said, well, not all of them. Yeah. And I mentioned that there's 1 small anecdote, and I meant to tell you that does come from real life. So when my son was born, it has nothing to do with him being born, but my husband brought home some kind of box of Nabisco cookies, and we opened it, and there was a worm.

Fran Hawthorne [00:26:21]:

So we wrote to Nabisco, and they sent us a carton of 1 box of, like, every cookie, cracker, snack they made, Plus, I think maybe a credit toward buying Nabisco products. Wow. So a version of that is in the book. And I deliberately was trying to think of an example to show how goody goody Russ, the fiancee, is, the one who wasn't told about the kidnapping. And I I Change that exact story to a different version, but that was an example. So,

Chrissy Holm [00:26:52]:

That's funny.

Fran Hawthorne [00:26:53]:

Anyway, that's I mean, how's my life affecting my books in more ways than I probably realize, Honestly.

Chrissy Holm [00:26:58]:

Oh, yeah. And it's kinda like, with not or with fiction, you can kind of adapt it and just and it feels like you read it and People or other people read and be like, oh, yeah. I gotta I remember something like that happening. You know?

Fran Hawthorne [00:27:10]:

Hope so. Good point. Yes. Yes. It helps people relate to your characters. Absolutely. If they do things, make stupid mistakes, you whatever. Yeah.

Fran Hawthorne [00:27:20]:

Usually, we relate more to Mistakes they make and successes, I think, but, whatever. Yeah. Absolutely.

Chrissy Holm [00:27:28]:

Yeah. Definitely. I think it kinda really can shape, our self perception of who we are and kinda going 1 more question, I think, before we get to the writing piece, but How do you think stories impact self perception or, like, how and how it impacts, like, future generations?

Fran Hawthorne [00:27:47]:

Oh, totally impacts the future generation. Not total, but very much so. And and also self perception. Self perception, we have A lot of input. I mean, they are sure what people say about us, but also how we feel. We know how we react to things. You know, we see our own actions. You know, we see other people's facial reactions, which may be different than the words they use.

Fran Hawthorne [00:28:11]:

So we do get a lot of stimuli, But what people say is certainly an important part of that for future generations. I mean, it's 90% of it. I mean, What do future generations have? They have the stories that are orally handed down. They have the written records. Maybe my book, if people are still reading it, Archival, you know, newspapers, carvings on tablets. You know? I mean, that's mostly what we have. We have some artifacts. You know, pottery or wall paintings, you know, which are not well, wall paintings are kind of stories too, but, you know, we have we do have artifacts, absolutely, and I've been on archaeological digs.

Fran Hawthorne [00:28:50]:

So I do know that.

Chrissy Holm [00:28:52]:

Physical.

Fran Hawthorne [00:28:52]:

Yeah. It is. Oh, it's in Colorado. It was wonderful. But, but I Maybe not 90%, but the vast majority of what we know about the past comes from stories and words. So it's tremendously important.

Chrissy Holm [00:29:07]:

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, even like, when you're listening all the different kinds of ways we get information or stories, like Music is a story, like songs. Like, that's another way we can because it's words in Lyrical form.

Fran Hawthorne [00:29:24]:

Without words. Some music is just a good beat to dance to, but The best music or the classical music tells a story in its patterns, in its tempos, in its loudness versus softness. You know? Yep. You know? Sure. But Yeah. We're storytellers, human beings.

Chrissy Holm [00:29:44]:

I love it. Well, speaking of storytelling, As we wrap up the conversation, this is the part of the episode where I ask, my guests to share a piece or reflection related to a word, whether it's fiction, nonfiction, poem, or personal experience. So Fran, has a piece for us, and it's based on the word tell. So without further ado, Fran, if you wanna just let us know What you're gonna read, and feel free to read it.

Fran Hawthorne [00:30:08]:

K. Well, it's more like spoken more than read, but, this is a personal experience. So I was in 3rd or 4th grade, and I know my age based on where I was living because we moved around a lot. So at this point, we were in Lexington, Massachusetts. 3rd or 4th grade. And we had some jars of, you know, like Gerber baby food in the house, because Someone had been sick for dental surgery, and they needed soft food. And I'm the youngest, and I have a Kinda bossy over older sister, or, like, that's how it always seems to younger siblings. Right?

Chrissy Holm [00:30:45]:

I'm the youngest too.

Fran Hawthorne [00:30:47]:

Okay. So I wanted a younger sibling. Mhmm. So inspired by the baby food, I told my friends that we had a new baby, And I, being a storyteller, elaborated. Oh, you know, last night, the baby was up all night. I don't know. I picked it up from books I'd read, obviously. Well, what didn't occur to me was my friends told their parents.

Fran Hawthorne [00:31:13]:

And eventually Came a time when a mom, one of my friends' moms, had a reason to call my mother. And in the course of the call, she said, Lillian, congratulations on the new baby.

Chrissy Holm [00:31:24]:

Oh, no.

Fran Hawthorne [00:31:25]:

Yes. Well, I don't think my parents had ever been as angry as they were, but but They recovered. What's more important? You know, we've talked about this before. I've set you know what? 7, 8 years old. I've been writing for 4 years. I knew I was gonna be a writer. I was writing that American Revolution book maybe. And yet until that happened, it had never occurred to me, The power of storytelling.

Chrissy Holm [00:31:58]:

That's powerful.

Fran Hawthorne [00:32:00]:

Thank you. Yeah.

Chrissy Holm [00:32:01]:

Yeah. There's definitely a ripple effect.

Fran Hawthorne [00:32:04]:

So now you have to be careful of your words. That's something I suppose I haven't learned well enough.

Chrissy Holm [00:32:10]:

Yeah. So it's always something that I feel like is a constant learning experience.

Fran Hawthorne [00:32:16]:

Yeah. Yeah. Alright.

Chrissy Holm [00:32:17]:

Well, it's been a pleasure to talk about the word tell, and I meant to tell you with you, Fran, and I just really appreciate your time and energy today.

Fran Hawthorne [00:32:28]:

Oh, thank you so much for inviting me, and it's been fun.

Chrissy Holm [00:32:42]:

Today's recommendation is I'm Telling the Truth, But I'm Lying by Basi Iqbal, a deeply personal collection of essays exploring Nigerian American author Basi Iqbali experiences navigating bipolar two and anxiety throughout the course of her life. Basi Iqbali was born in Nigeria in 1976. 4 years later, she and her mother joined her father in Stillwater, Oklahoma, a move that would be anxiety ridden for any child, but especially for Bossy. Her early years in America will come to be defined by tension, an assimilation father complicated by bipolar 2 and anxiety that would go undiagnosed for decades. By the time she was in her early twenties, Bossy was a spoken word artist and traveling with HBO's Russell Simmons Deaf Poetry Jam, Channeling her experiences into art, but something wasn't right. Beneath the facade of a confident performer, Fosse's mental health was in precipitous decline, Culminating in a background that resulted in hospitalization and a diagnosis of bipolar 2. To sharpen to learn from our experiences and share them with others? Bosse became a mental health advocate and has spent 14 years since her diagnosis examining the ways mental health is inextricably Intertwined with every facet of ourselves and our lives. This really raw and honest, the result is an exploration of the stories we tell ourselves To make sense of who we are and the ways as honest as we try to be, each of these stories can also be a lie.

Chrissy Holm [00:34:11]:

Before we wrap up the episode, I encourage you to grab a pen and paper, Notebook or phone to write down your answers to these questions. How does the way we tell a story impact its meaning? How can we use storytelling to inspire change and make positive impact in the world? How can telling our stories help us connect to others on a deeper level? Feel free to pause the episode and come back to these questions later. If you have any thoughts on this episode, suggestions for a future episode, or if you or someone you know wants to be a guest on the show, Contact me via my website atwww.krissyholme.com. That's Thanks for listening to another episode of Stirred by Words, Meditations and conversations about writing and wellness. This has been your host, Krissy Holt. Tune in to future podcast episodes, and until next time, Keep learning new words. Stay healthy, and stay curious, my friends.