Ask the Author: Lyssa deHart
Answered Questions (8)
Lyssa deHart
What a tough question! I love so many of the different places that books have led me. I am not sure that there is only one world I would want to "visit." Many of the places I have loved are at different times or places on Earth, let alone going off world.
One of the difficulties is that I enjoy being a witness/traveler, and not necessarily in the thick of the story. Example: The Martian, wow, it is a fantastic book. I would love to go to space, I would love to be a scientist on Mars, and yet I don't want to experience being left alone on Mars, having to science my way to survival. The Martian allowed me to travel to an experience and share it, rather than trapped by it.
The long and short of it is, I feel like I already travel regularly to book worlds. I want to continue to explore new stories and new lands. As to what I will do when I arrive in one of these new worlds? I will do what I always do with any book that captures my imagination, and be an observer, an explorer, and an appreciative reader of the stories that unfold.
One of the difficulties is that I enjoy being a witness/traveler, and not necessarily in the thick of the story. Example: The Martian, wow, it is a fantastic book. I would love to go to space, I would love to be a scientist on Mars, and yet I don't want to experience being left alone on Mars, having to science my way to survival. The Martian allowed me to travel to an experience and share it, rather than trapped by it.
The long and short of it is, I feel like I already travel regularly to book worlds. I want to continue to explore new stories and new lands. As to what I will do when I arrive in one of these new worlds? I will do what I always do with any book that captures my imagination, and be an observer, an explorer, and an appreciative reader of the stories that unfold.
Lyssa deHart
How did I get inspired to write, this is a complex question. There wasn't one or two things that sparked the idea. Writing a book had been silently riding shotgun with me for years. I had been playing with multiple titles. In fact, I came up with book titles all the time. I sat in the shoes of each title as an idea. Then I would take the shoes off and get on with my life. I wasn't making time, and I wasn't prioritizing the process. I had been playing with the idea of StoryJacking since 2014, based on my work with people and my own personal growth work. In 2014-2015 my mother-in-law was living with us. She was diagnosed with end-stage pancreatic cancer. Going through the end of life with someone invites you to get curious about how you want to think about yourself when your own time comes. Did I want to have this huge regret? Did I want to be annoyed with myself? I decided that, since none of us has an expiration date stamped on our behinds, I didn't have time to waste avoiding a dream that I felt was important. Since my book is a self-help book, people inspired me to write and so did thinking about how I wanted to think and feel about myself. I didn't need to come up with characters and be inspired to create a new world or summons a myriad of situations. What I needed was the inspiration of truth, ultimately sharing a truth from my unique perspective.
Lyssa deHart
Oh, my summer reading list is long. I have next to my table, Sea Trails, by Wendy Hinman; Playing Big, by Tara Mohr, and Everybody Lies, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. I love science fiction and I imagine something in that genre will show up to be enjoyed too.
Lyssa deHart
I have been working with people for over 20 years. Through those years I have thought of writing a book. I didn't take action, and the thoughts percolated in my mind, some I captured on paper, some became blog posts. Then in July 2016, the time was right, and I started to write the book. It had been in my mind, and I had played with ideas and mulled concepts over, I had a pretty clear picture of what I wanted to say and how I wanted to support people. As I was writing new ideas showed up, and I was able to incorporate new thinking into the book as well. The idea specifically for StoryJacking came out of a conversation I was having with my husband about our internal narratives and how to transform the stories that were not working. From that conversation, the threads of how I wanted the book to weave ideas together began to gel.
Lyssa deHart
I just published StoryJacking this month (May 2017). I am planning on getting back into writing my blog and working on my podcast.
Lyssa deHart
Write, write, then write more. I have dyslexia, so for many years, I avoided writing. It's the quickest way to communicate ideas to a lot of people. So I found friends, family, and many editors to support me. It was in college that I stopped avoiding writing and started getting editing help. I sought it out; I wanted to improve. If you have a message to share or a story to tell, what will you regret if you stay silent?
Lyssa deHart
I love the ability to play with ideas and words.
Lyssa deHart
Somewhere in the middle of the writing process, I froze. I had been writing easily, and then my fears popped up, and I worried that I had just written 20000 words of garbage. I called my writing coach in a mini meltdown. He told me, "That's normal, just push through it and keep writing. We can edit out the garbage." My "must be perfect" button had triggered, and it shut down my brain. When I acknowledged it and breathed through the fear, I was able to start writing again.
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