The Story Frame Newsletter

The Story Frame

Short and funny personal stories and thoughts on how to write them.

Tags: storytelling

Showing 12 results:

The naïve desire most of us harbor that we can somehow connect and understand each other through reasoning is based on the wrong assumption that our rational ideas are the only rational ideas. In gentle parenting, there is a concept called “the right to oppose.” The principle states that it is ou...

by Carlos Garbiras — Jun 19, 2025 creativity productivity storytelling writing

The Royal Pains of Parenting No One Tells You About

Or, as my daughter says, "Off with my father's head." My daughter was pretending her animal figurines were lively dinosaurs roaring at each other. I sat beside her, and it felt contagious when I saw her enthusiastically roaring. I growled, and the sound surprised her and scared her. She screamed...

by Carlos Garbiras — Jun 18, 2025 culture parenting storytelling

Saving Face Has No Place in Art Making

The dangers of cutting deals that undermine our desires I wish I could tell you I'm familiar with Brad Paisley's work, and that's how I found the below quote rather than telling you the truth. "When you save face, but your heart breaks, well, you've cut the wrong deal!" The truth is I play a lot ...

by Carlos Garbiras — Jun 12, 2025 artmaking creativity mindset storytelling

Creating Art When You Are Busy Living

Don't feel bad about your erratic creative journey In Barranquilla, on Good Fridays, my mom wouldn’t let us do anything at all. She would say that anything we did, we were doing it to Jesus’ body. So when my friends asked if I could join them in the field to play soccer, I would ask my mom. She r...

by Carlos Garbiras — May 29, 2025 artmaking creativity productivity storytelling

Writing Without an Audience in Mind

Publishing platforms are not created to improve your writing Photo by Rahul Mishra on Unsplash Social media and content platforms create a problem for artists they didn’t need to deal with before. The same place where artists publish their work is also where they go to check for the wor...

by Carlos Garbiras — May 15, 2025 creativity productivity storytelling structure writing

Waking Up Early to Write Might Not Be for You

Ramit Sethi, the financial guru from I Will Teach You to Be Rich, is one of those writers I have been following for a long time. I first learned about him from the chapter he wrote for Tim Ferriss' book "The 4-Hour Workweek" in 2009. I bought my first course from him in 2012 and have continued to...

by Carlos Garbiras — May 07, 2025 creativity productivity routine storytelling writing

Transform Your Writing: Six Practices to Discover Endless Stories

“Si no viene hoy las musas, tendré que ir a verlas yo.” (If the muses don't come today, then I must go see them myself.) - Estopa, Un Rincon Del Mundo You do not feel motivated or inspired to write or do anything at all, really. And you are not alone. The last few years (decades) have been exhau...

by Carlos Garbiras — May 06, 2025 creativity editing productivity storytelling writing

You Don't Have Writer's Block. You Have the Opposite Problem.

Artificial constraints and mindset shifts to overcome story paralysis There are probably more than one million and one articles on how to overcome Writer's Block. Typically, the essays or listicles are a variation of "How can I overcome Writer's block? Oh, I know, write about Writer's Block...

by Carlos Garbiras — May 01, 2025 creativity editing productivity storytelling writing

My Family's Genetic Musical Gift Skipped Me

A Screaming Goat Wins Four Grammy Awards (2/3) What strikes me most about this story is how often it repeats itself and how some teachers who are supposed to encourage little ones make unsupportive comments about their students' pursuits. However, it is not only teachers who make these comments;...

by Carlos Garbiras — Apr 29, 2025 creativity education family relationships storytelling

I Know More About Shakira Than I Care to Admit

A Screaming Goat Wins Four Grammy Awards (1/3) I grew up one block away from Shakira. Okay, let me clarify this: Shakira didn't grow up there. But I grew up a block from where Shakira bought an entire apartment building for her parents. The building and the block it was on remained empty most of...

by Carlos Garbiras — Apr 28, 2025 creativity culture productivity society storytelling

Structures to Use All Anecdotes from Your Life to Write More Stories

Shortcuts to mine, discover and edit your stories The definitions below do not come from a textbook. They are the definitions of the types of stories I have developed for my craft. When I'm editing or even brainstorming, it helps me understand what kind of story I'm working with. Here are the f...

Apr 24, 2025 editing productivity storytelling writing

Don't Undermine Your Storytelling Authority With This Common Mistake

Note to readers: Last week, I sent you an email with a link to this blog post. The link was broken. Moving forward, I will send my blog posts inside the newsletter. You can still find them on my website, but I wanted to include the entire body of the message of the email so you don't have to c...

by Carlos Garbiras — Apr 17, 2025 editing persuasion productivity storytelling writing

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The Story Frame

Short and funny personal stories and thoughts on how to write them.

Tags: storytelling

The Story Frame

Short and funny personal stories and thoughts on how to write them.

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