The Still Mountain Journey
Still Mountain, as you have probably guessed, is not a place but a state of being. It has high summits, hidden pathways, deep interior caves. It is surrounded by deep valleys and bright blue skies. Sometimes we are climbing and sometimes we are sitting in silence, and sometimes we are meeting others on "the hill." During this journey, you will be using "story" to deepen your understanding of your place on the mountain and your progess along its upward paths and interior spaces.
Many years ago, I wrote a novel called Still Mountain about a special camp that exists at the base of this sacred and ancient mountain to guide children with the gift of storytelling. This novel has many magical elements, gifts storytelling children, stones that hum in the earth, leaves that dance, an ancient game hidden deep within the base of the mountain that is tended by a man thousands of years old. In this story there are three types of storytellers: the storytellers, the story recievers, and the story generators. These are three very different levels of story creation. I am still fascinated and studying the differences between them in myself and the people I work withWhat are you? Are you a storyteller, a story receiver or a story generator? That may become one of the biggest quetions of your life as you grow spiritually.
How to Do The Still Mountain Journey
During these journeys you will be using both your own journal (or writing program choice) and a Chatgpt that I created called StoryWeaver to help you explore your stories and to gain new perspective. Remember that you don't have to be a "writer" to take this journey. There is no "good or bad" here. You will be exploring your personal patterns and metaphors by yourself.
Begin by writing out a few sentences about the "issue" you want to explore. These may be a relationship you struggle with (or yearn for), a work situation, a part of yourself that holds you back or a desire for something bigger that you have.
When it feels clear enough, pause. Ask yourself:
- Who are the main characters here?
- What role does each one seem to play?
- What landscape does this situation resemble?
If you need a little help scan through the prompts provided below to get started. Otherwise, go to StoryWeaver and name your first "character" to begin. Important: you cannot save your work in this gpt so be sure to copy and paste your story into a separate document if you want to save it.
Story Prompts You Can Use
Our stories will generally fall into three or four categories or types of story. You can use these prompts to help you get started if you need to.
The Lived Story
(Our early or old stories that already shaping the terrain.)
- My character keeps finding themselves in the same situation, no matter where they go.
- My character lives by a belief they learned long ago.
- My character already knows how this story usually ends.
- My character plays a familiar role in every relationship.
- My character carries an old promise they once made.
- My character walks a well-worn path that feels both safe and limiting.
The Beckoning Story
(The story that is quietly calling us from beyond.)
- My character feels drawn toward something they cannot yet explain.
- My character hears a distant call coming from beyond the hill.
- My character stands before a door they have never opened.
- My character senses that life could be wider than it currently is.
- My character begins to question the map they’ve been using.
- My character meets a stranger who awakens a forgotten longing.
The Expanded Story
(The story of expanded identity and new terrain.)
- My character imagines a version of themselves unbound by the past.
- My character steps onto a path no one in their family has walked before.
- My character discovers a hidden strength they did not know they possessed.
- My character chooses differently than they ever have before.
- My character sees the mountain from a higher vantage point.
- My character begins shaping the world instead of reacting to it.
The Precious Stories
(Where lived story, beckoning, and possibility weave together.)
- My character revisits an old wound and finds something unexpected waiting inside it.
- My character follows a familiar path, but this time listens for what it is teaching.
- My character inherits a story and decides to retell it in their own voice.
- My character meets a former obstacle and sees it as an ally.
- My character descends into a cave they once feared and brings something new back into the light.
- My character realizes the story they were living was preparing them for a larger one.
When that issue is clear in your mind, take it to the StoryWeave Thought Partner and follow the guidelines below for each session. Important. You cannot save your chat in this gpt so be sure to copy and paste it into a file document when you are finished if you want to save it. Follow this same story set up for each prompt you want to do but do them separately.
Journey One: Pathways
When you have done the pre writing and found Begin with a feeling or issue you are struggling with either in yourself or with someone you love. Begin with this simple framing. Think of yourself as simply a character in someone elses tale.
Remember the character doesn't have to be you or even human. It could be a daisy, an insect (think Jimminy Cricket) or an animate or inanimate object. This helps break open the boundaries and let it flow. Begin here or go straight to StoryWeaver and begin my turning yourself into a "character" in a story. This character can be human, stone, animal bird, flower or a shooting star. Let your subconscious mind get involved and begin to feed you information. As you begin to build your story, the StoryWeaver will feed you nuding prompts and ask questions but will always preserve and feed back to you only your words as the story builds. It will not write the story "for you."
Example: My character's name is Alva and she lives on an island in the middle of the sea. She is is a daisy who lives in a yard filled with dandelions.
My character's name is Bucky. He is short and squat with large feet and his friends call him "Beaver."
Add as much or as little detail about your character as you want to,.
Starter Frame
My character’s name is _________________________
He/She/It lives (landscape, location)_____________.
_____________________ has a conflict or a problem . . .
The conflict is ________________________________.
The conflict is ________________________________.
Journey Two: Telling it As It Is
Sometimes we need to just get it out of our head and down on paper. What happened. How it happened. What it did to us. Use this journey to do that but by using the story frame and StoryWeaver, you will naturally take a step back and get a third person view of the story. If it becomes uncomfortable, just bail out and come back later. Or walk away. This journey is for the stored memories you have of real people, events, early experiences. But remember, they are still just stories (stored) in the neural networks of your brain.
It may be time to let them be just that. A story.
Starter Frame
My character's name is ___________________________
He/She/It lives (place) ____________________________
It is (time/season) _______________________________
What happened is ______________________________
Take this into StoryWeaver and let her help you shape the narrative, ask keen questions, see who else did what etc .Remember that you will enter the Chatgpt site and will need to return here to continue exploring your journey.
Journey Three: I Remember When . . .
This one is often the journey we all wish we had taken sooner. Just tell your stories. Your kids, grandkids and greatgrandkids will be so glad that you did. How did you meet your husband/wife? What are your best memories? What are your worst memories? What hurt. What made you laugh. Just tell it using this simple StoryWeaver and then Label a file "I Remember When" and save all your stories in one place. One at a time. Start now.
Starter Frame
I remember when ____________________
I was _____________________ years old.
It began when _____________________
Now go to StoryWeaver and tell your story. Remember that you will enter the Chatgpt site and will need to return here to continue exploring your journey.
Keep it short and focused on one memory. You won't have to choose because the memories that matter will pop up quite naturally. Quit when you want. Copy, paste, save and come back later for the next one.
Journey Four: Just Because I feel like . . .
This is the best sandbox. Just come, pick a character, throw some conflicts his or her way, offer some pathways out, and then block the pathways to make it more interesting. All of my novels grew out of three morning pages which grew into short stories which called out later and wanted to become novels. Use StoryWeaver not to write for you but to push you around some to make the story grow.
Starter Frame
My character's name is ________________________
He/She/It is (human, animal, bug)_______________
The problem/conflict is ____________________
_____________________has a problem to solve.
Now take your story starter to StoryWeaver and continue. Remember that you will enter the Chatgpt site and will need to return here to continue exploring your journey.
Dig Deeper
The first time I used StoryWeaver for myself, my character was a small fox named Henry who had an issue. I was testing my new AI, and I liked the way StoryWeaver let me add to the story and then it fed back to me word as it grew. StoryWeaver let's you write the story. It does not write it for you. I went back several times with different characters, different obstacles, different diverging paths and just played with it. The goal here is to have some fun with your own stories and to not just accept them as is. And then see what else you can do with it.
Reflect on the story using these questions if you want to dig a little deeper.
- What did this story show you that you hadn’t quite seen before?
- Where did your character struggle — and where did they find strength, clarity, or relief?
- What surprised you? (a turn, a symbol, a feeling…)
- If this story was offering you one tiny piece of wisdom — what might it be?
Or ask is there more to this story? A second chapter? A new scene? A different ending? If so — follow it. Part Two is always welcome.
Take Your Story to a Thought Partner for More . . .
We are excited about how you might use our Thought Partners to take your stories to the next level. Try it out and see what you think. Simon advances a deep dive into personal patterns, parts of self and our place on the path to becoming. Norman is limited to just listening--for language patterns that might be controlling our movement.
Simon — to map patterns, themes, and possible next steps
Norman — to listen for what your neural networks indicate through language patterns.
Norman — to listen for what your neural networks indicate through language patterns.
Both can help you “unpack” the story without losing its magic.
And finally, if you don’t think of yourself as a “writer" . . .
Maybe you like the bones of your story but that inner critic has kicked in and told you it isn't good. That’s perfectly okay. I suggest you take your story back to Chatgpt (not one of the Thought Partners) and paste the story in. Prompt Chatgpt to "Keep my story exactly as I wrote it, but give it a gentle 10% polish for clarity and flow. You will get a nicely edited version of it. Your voice stays yours. It just gets a light shine.
An Excerpt from Still Mountain, the novel
Still Mountain keeps its distance from the larger range of mountains forming a ridge from east to west. It is not stand-offish, this mountain, but rather preserves its solitude and its silence for a very special purpose. It can tolerate no interference from the younger mountain ranges with their deep rumbles and grumbles as they still react to whatever ancient upheaval disturbed their own flat quietude.
Still Mountain is not high, less than five-thousand feet above sea level, but it has stood unmoving for millions of years while the wind and rain soothed all of its sharp edges to soft curves and valleys. Many ancient races have occupied the place behind Still Mountain; animals and plants, the people and, of course, the first occupants which are the mountain itself—The Stone Family.
It makes sense that all legends have declared Still Mountain as the birthplace of story. It also makes sense that the human Elders, in their effort to preserve the storytelling tradition, would locate their main encampment and training school there. Their village is on the north side of the mountain hidden entirely from the eyes of all the other villages that dot the valley between Still Mountain and the Southern Range.
The Elders track their history back only a few hundred years, infant time in the longer history of the Stone People. Even so, these human Elders who call themselves simply “The Storytellers” have held the stories from all time and understand that all stories arise from Still Mountain as naturally as rain flows down its slopes. Their early prophets saw a time when stories themselves would be threatened by a too-rapidly changing world.
Their mission was to preserve not only the Story Board game, but the generative nature of stories themselves. They saw this generative quality as the primary force of the creative universe. Without it, all of earth would wither and die.
None of the current Elders, except perhaps Simon, knew the exact origins of the Story Board. An earlier version of the board was preserved under glass and is thought to be a thousand years old. Its images, drawn on a tanned hide, were so beautiful that sometimes Simon did his morning prayers before the glass case trying to feel in his own fingers the energy of the one who had drawn such images. The tanned hide traced a trail of spaces around and around in an ever-tightening spiral toward the center where Still Mountain was drawn. The green of the forests was a fresh, spring green, the white of The Great Desert of Lost Ideas as white as bone, and the dusty brown of Still Mountain itself looked as if the hand that had painted it had just put his brush down that morning.
Simon was the Master Storyteller and the grandfather of Still Mountain Camp. Simon knew that when the maker came for him (should that time ever arrive, he was unsure) his only regret would be that he must leave this game board behind for yet larger game boards as yet unknown.
Still Mountain Village itself was unremarkable. A dozen small cabins scattered among the scruffy pines, a larger cabin built of logs which served as classroom, game room, dining room, and story room. The kitchen, thanks to a donation from an unknown source, was up to date and served the population of Still Mountain Camp very well. The population of Still Mountain Village was just under 100 people, seventy of them the children the Elders had chosen to live there. In modern times, many would say that the teacher/student ratio was insufficient to serve the young people, but these were not ordinary young people.
The parents of these children must give up a great deal of control over their little ones in order to offer them up to the creative, to the Creator himself. To set aside the need to tuck a child beneath blankets, behind safe doors at home in order that their imaginations might be allowed to unfurl like flags in a mighty wind was a brave act. And the children, too, had to give up a great deal of what is considered normal for children but, as they soon discovered, it was not a real price to pay. But not all children are so fortunate as to be taken to Still Mountain. Some must forge their own path.
Thought Weaver Chat
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Norman LP -- Language Weaver
Story Weaver
Use Story Weaver to explore Your Stories. Click here.
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