Barbosa Eliana - Be the Hero of Your Story: Understand your story, rewrite it & change your life!

Be the Hero of Your Story

Understand Your Story, Rewrite It, And Change Your Life

RICHARD KREVOLIN
& ELIANA BARBOSA

Power Story Publishing

Los Angeles

Copyright 2012 by Richard Krevolin and Eliana Barbosa. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States of America Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Krevolin, Richard; Barbosa, Eliana

Be the hero of your story: how to rewrite your story and change your life / by Richard Krevolin and Eliana Barbosa.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-615-61025-2 (print)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012905147

Cover illustration by Ado Ceric

Cover design and interior (print) design by Ana C. R. Magno

Ebook formatting by Polgarus Studio

Power Story Publishing

www.powerstorypublishing.com

This book is dedicated to Elianas father, Elias Barbosa (19342011), who fostered her love of stories.

And to Richards father, Sherman Krevolin, who was his first editor and taught him to write well.

And to Richards mother, Evelyn Krevolin, who gave him her blessing to go forth and battle the darkness of the world with the light of his stories.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Even though only two names appear on the cover of this book, by its very nature every book is a collaboration of many souls, and thus special thanks are in order to the following:

Marcelo Aldrighi

Dr. Jason Barnhart

Sergio Mena Barreto

Nani Bergman

Ado Ceric

Fernando Ferreira Filho

Tanya Lundborg

Sherman and Evelyn Krevolin

Ana C. R. Magno

James McSill

Paula Munier

Robert (Coach Bob) Orgovan

Anna Rose Paul

Al Pirozzoli

Andre Schuck Paim

Ricardo Abrazzo Ragazzo

Colleen Sell

Foreword

Your Story, Your Life

First and foremost, it is an honor and, I must say, a surprise to have been invited by Richard and Eliana to write the foreword of their book, Be the Hero of Your Story . They are both so well established in their respective fields and have an extensive circle of experts in the industry, any of whose endorsement would help them sell this book more than I could ever do. The invitation came back in 2011, on a freezing cold morning outside a bed-and-breakfast inn in Canela, up in the mountains of southern Brazil, where Rich and I were teaching a seminar to a group of Brazilian writers, and I figured I could get warmer sooner if I didnt argue and agreed to do it. So here it is:

I admire both Richard and Eliana tremendously for their individual accomplishments; both are masters of their craft and have excelled in different fields. Amongst Richards many books is Screenwriting in the Land of Oz , of which I am a big fan and have been religiously using as part and parcel of my workshops with authors in Brazil, Portugal, and Spain. Eliana is the only author whose print book Acordando para a vida , which in English roughly translates as Waking Up to Life , I carry with me in my rucksack at all times, wherever I go. That book and its author have been an inspiration to me.

I am delighted that this book will mark Richards first work to be published in Portuguese for the Brazilian market and the first of Elianas to be published in English for the world market, with its launch in the United States. I first encountered Rich at a writers conference in Atlanta, where both of us were teaching, and I met Eliana in Brazil at one of my seminars. I consider them both dear friends as well as highly respected colleagues. I, therefore, celebrate with them the realization of their endeavor. Its been a long journey, and the book is finally here.

Above all, I am deeply honored to have been part of their project, having worked with them both for over a year. As their manuscript flew back and forth from California to So Paulo, it found its way to my studio in England for ideas, rough translations, comments, and basically whatever else they needed, so that, despite the language barriers, the project would go on.

This book, which transcends continents and cultures, is about storiesElianas and Richs own stories, stories of people they know or have worked with, and stories told by friends and acquaintances. These stories, the essence of human experience, touched Richard and Eliana, and they touched me, even when my role in dealing with them was merely technical. I am sure the stories in these pages will touch you, the reader, at least as much, if not more, than they touched me.

Stories give us context, and context gives us greater understanding. With greater understanding comes the potential for growth and the deepening of love in the world.

James McSill

York, England

January 1, 2012

Introduction

What personal stories do you live by, and what internal scripts rule your life? What stories were you told as a child that still affect you? Which of these stories and scripts have helped you and which are hindering you? And how can understanding narrative structure also help you?

This book will empower you to re-imagine yourself as the protagonist, the hero, of your own life storya story in which you are the author of your own destiny. With expert advice and inspiring anecdotal examples, this book helps you to identify the personal stories and internal scripts that are impacting your life. Then it helps you to alter the negative ones and adapt the positive ones to create the happily-ever-after you were born to live!

You see, stories are not just in books and movies; they are everywhereand they are inside of you, whether you are conscious of them or not. The stories of your life and the scripts you create in your head dictate how you think, feel, and behave. They control your happiness and your success. So, if you can recognize the stories and scripts inside of you and understand how theyre affecting you, you can rewrite them, and write new ones, and take control of your happiness and success.

But what exactly do we mean by stories and scripts?

In his book, Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence , Roger Shank defines a script as a set of expectations about a given situation. It is an ingrained thought pattern created in your brain using information from past experiences with a certain situation, in order to make mental processing faster and easier, almost automatic, in a similar situation. If you think about it, you have thousands of scripts in your head directing your actions and reactions in all aspects of your daily life.

Stories are constructs that give meaning to all the experiences you go through. Without thinking about it, you naturally turn the information and events of your life into stories. So, when someone asks you how your weekend was, you inevitably reply by telling a tale of an event or series of events that occurred over the course of Saturday or Sunday.

Becoming more conscious of the scripts that are sort of programmed inside of us and of the stories we tell others and ourselves every day is an important way to gain control of our lives. This book uses stories from my life, the life of the co-author, Eliana Barbosa, and many wonderful anecdotes and tales that weve heard over the years to illustrate this important concept of revising your story and changing your scripts to improve your life.