Category Archives: The Stories Behind the Stories

James spent eight months interviewing with fifteen years of experience — and silence after every interview. In this episode, I go deeper into the failure, success and passion stories behind the character — and into the real pattern I was observing when I wrote him. The story that reveals who you are professionally is always there. James shows what happens when it finally gets told.

Before going inside anyone else’s story, I share my own. My success. My failure. My passion. And Aisling — the character whose three stories carry more of my real experiences than any other I’ve written. Writing myself as a character takes me somewhere I couldn’t reach any other way. It creates the distance that allows me to go deeper. And shapes the personal into stories others can find themselves in.

Something new is coming to the Storytelling Newsletter. Every Thursday — a weekly bonus story with exclusive content for subscribers. The Stories Behind the Stories goes deeper into the thinking behind the ideas, the real experience inside the crafted stories, and why this work exists. The first story is free.