Life Purpose in Storytelling

[Siddartha]

Greetings everyone,

My name is Sid, I'm 25 years old and currently living in Canada!
I apologize in advance for my bad grammar or syntax as English is my second language. 
This is my first ever post on this forum.
However I have been a lurker for quite a few years and I've been following Leo's work for an even longer time.

About 6 months ago I have finished the Life Purpose Course. 
The insights it has given me on both my specific career path and my life in general are easily worth many times the price I paid for it.
Anyway, I have known for quite some time what my general Life Purpose path is and now its been a couple of months of applying the teachings, learning about my field. I am very much still into clarifying my exact vision however and I wanted to share my plans to like-minded individuals here on the forum for some discussion and advice on how I can maybe simplify and clarify further.

Here is my disjointed and half-crafted Life Purpose plan that exists for the moment:

1. Storytelling

Ever since I was a very young child, I have been imagining worlds, characters and scenarios in my head. I think I have a very fertile imagination and a sharp ''Mind's Eye'' when it comes to creating scenes. Very visually so. I would naturally dress in costumes, wield toy weapons and let myself act through made-up scenes for hours on end every single week. It was for me extremely entertaining and I felt rejuvenated after such a play session.

A key realization of the course was understanding that Storytelling is (to me) the greatest of Art forms. 
Good Storytelling speaks to humans through their very DNA. It communicates, teaches and highlights parts of Reality in an almost mystical and transcendent way. 
Parts of my life where I am most enthralled, emotional and ''in flow'' is by experiencing excellent fiction, the philosophy at their core and the themes they convey.
Here is a few of my favorite works of fiction: Berserk, Evangelion, A Song of Ice and Fire, Attack on Titan, Final Fantasy series, Breaking Bad, Morrowind, etc.

I truly believe that Storytelling is one of the greatest ways to influence another human's heart and truly mark them with a lesson or philosophy that will emotionally resonate and follow them in their life. 
An author creates a life, a journey that his readers will vicariously live as if they were the ones experiencing the story's world and events.

Thus I believe that giving myself completely to the craft of Storytelling is the greatest Art I could bestow the World. A reflection of my inner world, my Soul, my philosophy, life experiences and much more can shine through the pages or scripts. 
I want to impact the world through my creations. Bring my readers through an experience that will change their views of Reality. 
''Can a work of fiction change the world ?'' is one of the top questions I wish to answer with my life's work.

To me, Storytelling is amazingly beautiful. There is but one higher love I have in my whole existence. We'll get to it soon.

2. Visual Arts

Choosing the medium in which to conduct Storytelling is another crucial decision to make in this field. 
Books, Movies, Animation, Graphic Novels, Video Games and many more mediums exist. Each with various pros and cons. 

Graphic Novels is the medium that resonates the most with me.

Creating panels of Art Work is both a beautiful but daunting prospect of my work.
It would be easier for me and my current skillset to stick only to working on my writing and create books. 
However if I consult my intuition, it tells me I NEED to represent my stories visually in order to give them the gravitas and customization they require to fully actualize them. Creating the visual world and illustrating the characters and big moments is crucial to me. I would feel like betraying the potential of my fictional works not to.
The best example I can point to is the Manga ''Berserk''. Miura's illustrations makes the entire story feel somewhat non-human to me. If feels like this work has been created and sent down by the heavens. (pardon the massive fanboy-ism)

I consider this to be the hardest part of my plan by far, as I do not have excellent visual arts skills yet and I was not a particularly gifted child in this discipline.
I have been practicing every single day for multiple months now by drawing in a sketchbook, drawing digitally and even dabbling a bit in A.I. Art. 

3. Philosophy and Metaphysics

One of my top 3 values and a key interest of my life has always been the Metaphysics and understanding of Reality/Existence.
This is also the reason why I'm following Leo's Work.

In order for my storytelling to reach my Vision, a key part of their worldbuilding and plot would have to integrate such ''High-Consciousness teachings''.
I wish to integrate such concepts into my fictional works: The pursuit of God, Consciousness, Psychedelic Trips and Insights, Zen Devilry, Non-Dualism, The Mechanics of Ego, and many more.

The learning, contemplation and overall development I am getting by listening to Leo's videos and reading this forum has catapulted my story ideas in this direction.
Furthermore, my experiences on psychedelics are offering me a lot of insights into my storytelling craft to hopefully bring it into the next philosophical level.
Both in ideas for Story beats + character creation and for visual panels ideas.

I believe this pursuit of metaphysical understanding and growing inner-work puts a person in a very good position to create any artistic endeavor that will inevitably color itself with High-Consciousness resonance and Truth.

4. The Contribution of my LP: The Conservation of Biodiversity

Here is where the water gets muddy in my Life Purpose plan.
My top value and biggest love in Reality is Nature, more precisely Biodiversity and Animals. 

When it comes to asking myself what Cause my entire work here on Earth should contribute to, my absolute answer is Nature, Biodiversity conservation and the well-being of animals as a whole.
When I ask myself how the world could be better, how I would like to impact existence positively, my immediate answer is ALWAYS to improve Animal Conservation.

For a long time it was difficult to marry these two opposing loves of my life: Storytelling and Helping Animal Species. They seemed to be at odds but I think I found a way to integrate them both in the same Life Purpose Plan. 
To state it simply, I wish the core messages, the themes of my stories, the specific impact it has on humanity to be a shift of mankind's hearts towards a love of nature and animal species' conservation. 

I have considered many different life purposes in relation to this Contribution such as shooting educational content on biodiversity conservation, becoming a park ranger, work in a sanctuary, Use all my storytelling money to fund and build animal sanctuaries, fund extinction research, etc. 
None of them seem to have the necessary impact I wish my work to have on the world. 
I think the betterment of biodiversity, nature and animals come primarily by changing Humanity's views on those subjects. 
As such, I believe my innate talents and passion for Storytelling can work in an effort to save animals way better than other career pursuits as this is an area I truly believe I have a shot at proving myself and truly create massive value for the world.
Creating grand works of fiction that deeply resonate with my fellow humans and truly make a positive change in their beliefs towards the natural world is my best bet on truly changing the world in this specific way. 

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I'm sorry that my post is both so long and all over the place in its ideas and focus.
Like I said previously, I still am working on clarifying my Life's Vision. 
It's still a Fog in front of me, but I am convinced all this time spent into shaping it will be worth its while. 
Its shape is ever-changing and transforming, but this is the base(s) of my Life Purpose right now.

Life Purpose in a nutshell: Creating High-Consciousness Storytelling Myths to shift Mankind’s Heart towards a World Narrative of Nature Expansion and Animal Conservation.

In the meantime, I have been hard at work at contemplating, visualizing, practicing my art skills, learning about Storytelling theory, building story scripts and vision boards, etc. 
I am comfortable with the Truth that this planned Life Purpose is grueling hard work. Graphic novel authors and mangakas are notoriously overworked throughout their entire lives however my love for the craft, at least right now, is more powerful than any deterrent.

I want to end this long-winded posts with a couple of questions for all of you:

-In which areas am I kidding myself in your opinion ? Be honest. I want the fire of Reality to burn my ideas to the ground if they are not realistic.

-What resources should I use to pursue my learnings of both the Storytelling craft and Visual Arts (graphic novel applications) ?
I already am following various resources to teach myself this field but any recommendation would be highly appreciated.

-Do you see any problems in my Life Purpose planning ? What changes should I consider ?

-Storytelling is a difficult field to make money in before you ''break out''. As such, I have been considering many small business opportunities that will provide me with enough funds and especially Time to work on my LP. 

Thank you to the bottom of my heart to anyone who has read up until this point. 
I am eternally grateful to share this beautiful Reality with you <3 

Until next time! 

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by Siddartha
Better Title

[Nilsi]

Sounds like a great place to start from!

Things will become more complex as you start putting this into practice - but you won't know that before you start anyways, so just put one foot in front of the other.

[Siddartha]

Thank you for your advice Nilsi! 

[universe]

Sounds good!

You could look into James Cameron's Avatar. He has a similar LP I think.

What first came to mind reading your post is that, if visual arts is not something you enjoy you can always partner up with someone who does. So you could focus on writing and building a team.

If you want to earn money in the beginning instead of working at, let's say, a restaurant. You could find ways to sell your services to industries like animal shelters, permanent culture, plant based food etc. There are may businesses who work with animals in some way who could benefit from strong storytelling in their marketing.

And also make sure your LP doesn't rely only on ending suffering for others. Find something that is inherently meaningful to you, that doesn't rely on outside motivation.

[Loving Radiance]

You will be an awesome writer. I am looking forward to see the powerful stories you will create.

[Guest]

Sounds great, but if I were you I'll make that LP statement a lot more concise. It also doesn't mention your medium which I think in your case means your zone of genius is a bit nebulous.

It could maybe  be something like: Writing graphic novels that inspire people towards harmony with nature.

Just a suggestion.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Stretch

[Siddartha]

@Loving Radiance Thank you very much, Loving Radiance

@Stretch Hey Stretch! You're spot on with the sense that my LP statement is way too long. Whenever I do affirmation sessions about it, I've always thought it was quite a mouthful to repeat (even in my Thoughts.) 
I think a reason why I did not include my medium of choice in the LP Statement is that, a storyteller ultimately can work on multiple different mediums, so I did not want to limit myself absolutely to only one. 
However for the sake of focus I think a few modifications are required! 

@universe Thank you for your detailed reply Universe ! 
Indeed after listening to many talks with James Cameron and of course analyzing the themes of Avatar, it seems that his purpose is very much aligned with my own. However if I may criticize a bit, I feel his work (Avatar 1 & 2 that is) are very much surface-level in storytelling and lack the kind of depth I desire to inspire. The movies look pretty and have a great message, but you can't really dig into the plot, characters or events very much. 

I do enjoy Visual Arts! It's just a massive learning process with tons of practice hours because it's not something I organically grew up practicing.
I have long thought about instead collaborating with an illustrator, however I really believe that the freedom to design my own world, characters, moments, panels, etc. is simply invaluable. Something would always be lost in translation if I let another person illustrate my life's work. I believe this autonomy and creative freedom it's worth all the practice hours I put into raising my art skills.

I'm currently enrolled in a job working in Animal Conservation in nature! Your suggestion of bringing my storytelling for business and marketing of Conservation organizations is very interesting... I have not given it much thought, however I can really see the value. I guess its a very different kind of storytelling as lets say creating a tv series or a long-running manga. I'll look more into short, marketable storytelling skills. 
Your reply has greatly helped stimulate my brain on my LP, thank you once again. 

[Loving Radiance]

12 hours ago, Siddartha said:

I feel his work (Avatar 1 & 2 that is) are very much surface-level in storytelling and lack the kind of depth I desire to inspire. The movies look pretty and have a great message, but you can't really dig into the plot, characters or events very much. 

I agree and I also would like you aware of the value of visual story telling: