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Beauty and the beast: a Shattered Rose or a Captured Heart?

Emma Parfitt — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 13:43:00 +0000

I’ve been asked by some inquisitive readers why my novella Shattered Roses tells Rose’s fragmented story. And why this old lady’s story is told through the eyes of 16-year-old Megan?

To answer this question requires talking about the writing process. It can be so much fun to explore new ways of writing — essentially to see if they work. I’m happy with the final effect. Perhaps you’ve read Shattered Roses and disagree. The story came to me in scenes, skipping about with each blink of my eye. I was writing something, but I didn’t know what. I was channelling some confusing emotions at the time, and it was fighting its way out of me. I’d also been thinking about time and whether it was a straight line, a ball of string, or more of a Jeremy Bearimy Timeline (A Good Place reference).

Scene writing

We place structure and meaning on our lives, but who’s to say that our daily lives aren’t more fluid and mysterious … From these initial scenes I began to imagine Rose in a nursing home telling her version of Beauty and the Beast. One of my favourite fairy tales as a child, and, incidentally, (my mum being a carer) I also grew up around nursing homes. It’s not a setting I come across much when reading. Yet one I know by its smell and by its touch.

So far I only had the middle of my story. Megan became my start as she attends an interview for a Saturday job. At first, Megan featured infrequently. I added her only to frame Rose’s story, to force it into a more munchable narrative. One with hints of Scheherazade, here and there. I soon realised that the book was more about Megan’s story. While it is also an uncovering of Rose’s relationship with “the beast”. I began to focus more on revealing Megan’s life to her. The mysteries of her own life she couldn’t see. At an age where we struggle to find our place in the world.

Structure

I also stuck to a novella format to leave gaps purposefully in the story. Yes, I know, I know, sorry! I did it for you, inquisitive reader, to fill, or ponder over, the information I left out. In this way, the book requires a smidge of work on the reader’s imagination. I mean, since you’ll be imaging the whole thing anyway … see what I mean? You can draw your own conclusions about the boundaries between reality and fiction. I know that I would choose to believe in magic every time.

I hope you understand these intentions, for whatever English Crit. Lit. says author intentions aren’t dead. It’s up to you if you wish to carry a fragment of Megan and Rose’s story into your lives… such is the magic of storytelling.

Storytelling?

Oh, yes, storytelling, a theme I’ll return to in the book following A Friendship of Thistles (my current project).

There’s much I could say about storytelling outside my book Young people, learning & storytelling, instead, I’ll leave you with an invitation (if I may). To dip your toes into Shattered Roses to explore the tip of the iceberg of numerous retellings of Beauty and the Beast. A story which captures our hearts time and time again.

Buy Shattered Roses via ebook or print.

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Therapeutic Ends

Emma Parfitt — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:18:00 +0000

After months of waiting I read Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends, by White and Epston, and discovered that it wasn’t particularly relevant to my research. Mainly because it focuses on individual therapy sessions and I am working with groups. However I liked how White and Epston discussed the importance of imagination. It is through communication of their “story” that individuals are able to externalise thoughts. This begins the process of reforming the meaning around certain events in order to ‘revise their relationship with the problem’ (p63). Verbalising allows recognition that what is causing distress quite often is a miss-match of our story with how things are, or how we would like them to be. A letting go of the need to control others, of expecting others to act in a certain way; an understanding of what we feel, why, and how to process it. These things take time to reshape in the brain.

While my study hopes to examine the changes that occur in adolescent’s emotions as a result of storytelling what I have mainly learnt this week is that coding is complex and time consuming. This is where it is invaluable to have a clear and focused idea from the start; otherwise you end up scrapping a lot of work. I admit there were one or two false starts this week. The outcome is that I’ve accepted the idea that being specific at this stage is a way to allow ideas to expand over time. The words we use to express emotions are very complex. Often a word like frustrated is not used, rather expressed through tone which I have to ignore at this stage of simple word counting. I need to count the words to see patterns that otherwise might be overlooked and later return to a more critical analysis. The transcripts I’m currently examining may inspire new directions once I get my head around using NVivo.

In other news I have been asked to write a guest blog for Youngminds. And Scientific American published an interesting article in issue 23 this month. In Schools add Workouts for Attention, Grit and EmotionalControl, Ingrid Wickelgren discusses the importance of emotional control being taught in schools: ‘Thinking about thinking, known as metacognition, may give kids better control over how they think and feel in ways that could enhance learning.’ It is a very good thing that recognition is being given to teaching positive psychological skills in schools. Although, letting down the side somewhat, Charlie Taylor, the government expect on behaviour, in his April 2012 report on Improving Attendanceat School suggested more focus at a primary level to prevent problems. This seems to be the governments go to area. Sure, I don’t disagree, primary care is very important, but what are you proposing to do about those pupils who are older and need our support? They need us to teach them to engage in life, they need their emotional needs met, and the current system is failing to do this. Especially where one of the suggestions to control truancy places a financial burden on the family by fining parents, how is that going to encourage a positive attitude to school? It could backfire, big time. Of course, I’m biased, but I think storytelling could engage pupils where other methods have failed. Thoughts?

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Review of Letting Stories Breathe a Socio-narratology by Arthur W. Frank.

Emma Parfitt — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:27:00 +0000

Socio-narratology: what is it?

‘People’s access to narrative resources depends on their social location: what stories are told where they live and work, which stories do they take seriously or not, and especially what stories they exchange’ (Frank, 3).

I had been looking at socio-psychology as a form of analysis when Jack Zipes suggested a book that he had just reviewed himself. ‘This is a splendid book, and anyone who takes storytelling seriously should find the time to explore’ (Jack Zipes, Living Through Stories, Review by email, April 2012). I had already heard a few people mention Arthur W. Frank’s book The Wounded Storyteller, but this one seemed more relevant for my research.

I didn’t know anything about dialogical narrative analysis prior to reading this book. Like socio-narratology, dialogical analysis includes what a story does, how it connects and disconnects people, and that there are numerous possibilities when it comes to interpretation. Socio-narratology is practiced via dialogical analysis, learning from storytellers how to use stories appropriately and in what setting. There is no set way of doing this. I rather like that it is so fluid: unless I’m completely missing the point. Overall it is very confusing; at the same time it makes perfect sense. Frank’s writing style is representative of the quality of his experience in the field. I like the questions he raises and how he phrases his discussion in a creative way.

Huh?!

The main concept that I understood from Letting Stories Breathe is that this form of analysis encourages working with those you are studying, forming a relationship, opening a dialogue, and learning from this dialogue as a researcher. Dialogical analysis accepts that we cannot know all the inner workings of another person, as people are constantly changing. But we can acknowledge our own weaknesses and predispositions—as a result of our own social conditioning—as a part of the interpretation process.

Frank talks about what stories do, how they work, and provides some possible perspectives, when considering methods of analysis. He considers, in chapter six, that dialogical analysis ‘begins with how stories give people a sense of who they are’ (Frank, 159). From this we can progress into the way in which connections are formed in people’s ‘inner library’ of stories. The way in which this creates bonds between groups and communities; bringing us back to what narratives do and how they do it.

Emotions and stories

Although I am looking at the emotional benefits that fictional stories provide, Letting Stories Breathe is relevant to my work with storytelling because it stresses the importance of ‘story and storyteller working together’ (Frank, 107). Dialogical analysis attempts to unravel how stories affect individuals and become woven into a sense of cultural identity; between friends, acquaintances, businesses, and the community.

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Society for Storytelling

Emma Parfitt — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:26:00 +0000

Great news, The Society for Storytelling is interested in my research and my research aims. Which is to see storytelling in schools throughout the UK.

“I’m pleased to confirm that the trustees agreed at last week’s meeting that supporting your research would be a worthwhile cause.” (Chip Colquhoun, Chair).

They are going to sign a letter of support to help me fund raise. At present I am seeking funding from 2013 to cover my 2nd and 3rd PhD years. With funding being so competitive this year I am thinking of new ways to raise funds. For example I am looking into a collaborative project with others. Being involved in research with more experienced persons is very exciting. I have already learnt a great deal and look forward to what is ahead–despite it being challenging. With a new spring in my step thanks to this support from the Society for Storytelling, more information will follow once something is confirmed.

Update: well, in case you were wondering I could not find any funding, instead I switched my PhD to parttime and took on three jobs to support myself. Finishing in four years, not bad! Now I keep in touch with my storytelling pals while writing, and helping others with their writing.

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Questions about the stories surrounding us

Emma Parfitt — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:34:00 +0000

‘some methods are more useful for the questions they offer’(Arthur W. Frank, Letting Stories Breathe, p.72)

Questions and crossroads

My question is how can traditional storytelling be used to support emotional health? It’s a tough one. The term narrative therapy was coined as a result of the work of two men, Michael White and David Epston (see https://narrativeapproaches.com/books/narrative-means-to-therapeutic-ends/). Though they didn’t want to be associated with any formal definitions. What exactly they did, I don’t know yet, because I am waiting for their book to come into the library. However in my search, of what felt like every periodic journal in an electronic maze, I found Pennebaker.

In the United States, Pennebaker took the idea of narrative and health further by attempting to test it empirically. He and his colleagues did experiments on writing therapy and discovered that writing had a positive effect on not just mental but also physical health! Which brings me to another question, how do we test this? Pennebaker used qualitative data analysis, the measure of positive versus negative words and how these changed over the test period. I am about to trail this myself in a test run of what I hope will be a larger project in 2013, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

Mental health

There aren’t any definitions that really cover ‘positive’ mental health. In medical dictionaries the definition states that problems in mental health are more measurable. It is like trying to define what makes a ‘whole’ person, sometimes we need different things in our lives to feel secure and comfortable. However individuals know for themselves when they feel well adjusted to the environment around them. T hose moments where things flow perhaps, where we don’t only get on with things but feel truly alive and engaged with our environment. We can feel an emotional and physical balance. When it comes to measuring this I’m still trying to figure it out, I’m sure many other researchers are also.

So where am I starting from? I got the core idea of my PhD after reading The Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She discusses stories from a female and Jungian perspective. I got to wondering what, if anything, had been tested on the emotional effects of story? At first there was very little. I found mention of an experiment after 9/11 demonstrating that stories helped people cope with anxiety. But these were real life stories. What of fiction? Because of Estés’ book I was drawn to folk lore. My mum encouraged me to read fairy stories as a child, and that later developed into an interest in science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Weaving the threads together

Could I find a way to bring storytelling and mental health together? White & Epston’s idea was also to bring different disciplines together so that people could learn from one another. If only someone had told me this in school when I was conflicted between studying English or Science! To me the two things went together, apparently a lot of other people think this way outside of the curriculum. And so despite being funnelled initially into a biology degree, I gave up science to pursue writing, and here I am attempting once more to bring the two things together. A storytelling based research project, resulting in a mix of qualitative methods, a book of short stories, and the development of another new skill, blogging. Then went back to an old skill and passion: writing!

Get your copy here!

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