The Story Task
“Four or five moments – that’s all it takes to become a hero. Everyone thinks it’s a full-time job. Wake up a hero. Brush your teeth a hero. Go to work a hero. Not true. Over a lifetime there are only four or five moments that really matter. Moments when you’re offered a choice to make a sacrifice, conquer a flaw, save a friend – spare an enemy. In these moments everything else falls away” (Colossus, member of the X-Men).
For this writing task, I want you to write a Hero Story. It’s an interesting word, “hero.” Call someone a hero, and they will probably tell you right away that they are not a hero. No one wants to be a hero. Not Spider-Man or Luke Cage or Jessica Jones. And not the police and fire fighters and soldiers in the real world, either. Most people don’t go looking to be a hero.
On that terrible September 11th day in 2001, the fire fighters who rushed into the dust and debris of the damaged Twin Towers weren’t thinking about being heroes. They rushed into danger to save people’s lives. And I’m sure they were scared. If a person rushes into a burning building, there’s a good chance they will never come back out. Those firefighters rushed in anyway.
But moments of heroism aren’t always life and death. In fact, it’s the other heroic moments that we need to ponder. If one person saves another person’s life, it’s easy to identify that person as a hero. But what about the nurse who has gone to work every day during the pandemic? What about the teachers who drove house to house to bring learning materials to poor kids in their school districts? What about the government worker who says, “Sorry we can’t give you that house building permit,” then looks around and quickly stamps it approved anyway? Or what about the person walking through the park who stops to talk to an old man on a bench, not even knowing that the old man has no one else to talk to, so he will wait again on the bench the next day just hoping the stranger will walk back by again.
Here’s a story that I hope helps show the point from Sue Monk Kidd’s beautiful novel, The Secret Life of Bees (2001):
She was with me the day I went to the paint store to pick out [our house] color. I had a nice tan color in mind, but May latched on to this sample called Caribbean Pink. She said it made her feel like dancing a Spanish flamenco. I thought, ‘Well, this is the tackiest color I’ve ever seen, and we’ll have half the town talking about us, but if it can lift May’s heart like that, I guess she ought to live inside it.’
‘All this time I just figured you liked pink,’ I said.
She laughed again. ‘You know, some things don’t matter that much, Lily…Like the color of a house. How big is that in the over-all scheme of life? But lifting a person’s heart-now, that matters. The whole problem with people is–‘
‘They don’t know what matters and what doesn’t,’ I said, filling in her sentence and feeling proud of myself for doing so.
I was gonna say, ‘The problem is they know what matters, but they don’t choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily? I love May, but it was still so hard to choose Caribbean Pink. The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.’
Now, you tell me a story about someone who is a hero. And then try to be one yourself, when the day comes. I hope you can be a hero. I think you have that inside you.
Story Guidelines
- The final version of your Hero Story should be about 4-6 pages in length. Although I won’t penalize anyone for page length, I do like to give you a target range. This story should be shorter than your Literacy Narrative. You don’t need to write 10 pages now because we have a lot of other stories still to write!
- This narrative should be in a typical 12-point font, double-spaced, with 1 inch margins.
- You will be sharing a draft of this story with other class members, so please write with a real audience in mind. That means you should avoid writing anything that is too private to share.
Story Linkages
- If you can see a useful way to link your Hero Story to one or more of the the other stories you write, I encourage you to make that connection. Your book will feel more cohesive if there is some common ground among the stories.
- You might want to use some of the same characters or settings across your stories.
- You are not required to make connections like this. It’s fine if all the stories you write are entirely stand alone. But if you can make connections among your stories, that’s even better.
- Remember, though, that these are your stories, so tell them however you think is best.
Step 1: Start Writing a Draft of Your Hero Story
By now I hope you know what you’re doing, so let me get out of your way. Just start writing. You know the rest.
Optional Step 2: Interview the Hero
If the person is available and you think it would be helpful, please feel free to interview the hero of your story. You don’t have to tell them that they are a hero to you, but that would be pretty great if you did tell them.
If you do interview the person, ask them to recount the Hero Story to you. Getting the story in their words should help you add some rich details to it. If you decide to do an optional interview, tell the person that this is a class project. Be sure to explain that you will share the story with people in our class. Ask for the person’s permission to write their story.
If later on you hope to publish this story, you would need to get a signed consent form from the person before publishing.
Step 3: Add a Few Pictures
Of course we want to see a picture of your hero, if you can find one. The trouble is, most heroes don’t like to smile. And superheroes, well, they’re good at dodging out of sight whenever someone pulls out a camera. But try anyway.
Step 4: Frame the Story, Maybe
We’ve talked a lot about how to frame your stories. If you want to offer some reflection on your Hero Story, please do. But if you think the story needs to speak for itself, then let it. That’s up to you. You’re the storyteller now.
Step 5: Share Your Draft
Usually I ask you to share your draft with your team. You are welcome to do that as usual if you like. However, on our last class day I will ask one person to read your entire book and write a Forward for it. They will also offer any useful feedback on your stories as part of that process, so if you want to wait for feedback on your Hero Story until then, that’s fine.