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Story Work: Field Notes on Self-Discovery and Reclaiming Your Narrative
A guide to understanding the stories we tell ourselves and the actions needed to reclaim power over our narrative.
Stories are how all of us absorb and understand the world around us. They are how we make sense of our surroundings, our communities, and ourselves. There's often truth and validity in these stories. But the stories we tell ourselves are not a be-all and end-all. Instead, they're part of a larger, ongoing, unfinished narrative--one that we must continually refresh, expand, and contemplate to stay soft and open-hearted.
That's where Story Work comes in. Through essays and prompting questions, GG Renee Hill pens the raw material of her own an upbringing raised by a mother with schizophrenia, and a lifetime of authorities trying to minimize that impact.
It was a long, old, heavy story Hill carried with her--the powerless girl whose mom would never change--until Hill began to change the meaning she'd assigned to her experiences. And she doesn't stop there. Hill invites readers to the transformative practice of creative self-discovery, storytelling, and treating our life experiences as creative material that we have the power to shape. For the person searching, Story Work is the answer that enables us to live with an open-hearted curiosity--one that both guides and grounds us.
Stories are how all of us absorb and understand the world around us. They are how we make sense of our surroundings, our communities, and ourselves. There's often truth and validity in these stories. But the stories we tell ourselves are not a be-all and end-all. Instead, they're part of a larger, ongoing, unfinished narrative--one that we must continually refresh, expand, and contemplate to stay soft and open-hearted.
That's where Story Work comes in. Through essays and prompting questions, GG Renee Hill pens the raw material of her own an upbringing raised by a mother with schizophrenia, and a lifetime of authorities trying to minimize that impact.
It was a long, old, heavy story Hill carried with her--the powerless girl whose mom would never change--until Hill began to change the meaning she'd assigned to her experiences. And she doesn't stop there. Hill invites readers to the transformative practice of creative self-discovery, storytelling, and treating our life experiences as creative material that we have the power to shape. For the person searching, Story Work is the answer that enables us to live with an open-hearted curiosity--one that both guides and grounds us.
227 pages, Paperback
Published November 4, 2025
6 people are currently reading
1937 people want to read
About the author
GG Renee Hill
7 books62 followersGG Renee Hill is the author of Self-Care Check-In: A Guided Journal to Build Healthy Habits and Devote Time to You (Rockridge, 2020) and A Year of Self-Reflection Journal: 365 Days of Guided Prompts to Slow Down, Tune In, and Grow (Rockridge, 2021).
Her debut book of essays, Story Work: Field Notes on Self-Discovery and Reclaiming Your Narrative is forthcoming from Broadleaf Books in fall 2025. Her books center writing as a tool for healing, self-discovery, and creative courage.
GG is also a creative coach, facilitator, and speaker who helps people in transition reconnect with their voice, reshape their stories, and realign their lives with their values. Through reflective writing practices, personalized coaching, and transformative workshops, she guides clients through burnout, blocks, and self-doubt into clarity, creative flow, and authentic self-expression.
She graduated from Morgan State University and lives in Maryland with her family.
Her debut book of essays, Story Work: Field Notes on Self-Discovery and Reclaiming Your Narrative is forthcoming from Broadleaf Books in fall 2025. Her books center writing as a tool for healing, self-discovery, and creative courage.
GG is also a creative coach, facilitator, and speaker who helps people in transition reconnect with their voice, reshape their stories, and realign their lives with their values. Through reflective writing practices, personalized coaching, and transformative workshops, she guides clients through burnout, blocks, and self-doubt into clarity, creative flow, and authentic self-expression.
She graduated from Morgan State University and lives in Maryland with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 27, 2025
This book is about re-writing the story of your life; not being defined by what has happened to you, but taking ownership of the story to write & create a different ending. Hill is a coach who runs writing workshops & believes that writing, along with mindfulness, is a powerful tool for healing. She discusses the boxes we’ve been put in, our tendency to people please, what we view as our fatal flaws (that might not be), and ways to become the narrator of our own story and turn our perceived weaknesses into strengths. Lastly, she discusses values & self-care as a foundational piece of the work. The exercises are really great and Hill offers excellent insights.
October 1, 2025
I am very partial to books that combine self-help with personal experience. Story Work: Field Notes on Self-Discovery and Reclaiming Your Narrative by GG Renee Hill does this beautifully.
Hill courageously shares her life with the reader: her traumas and struggles and the way she has worked to heal and find meaning in her experiences. She is searingly honest in both her past pain and limitations as well as the ways in which she continues to struggle and heal.
Her focus in on the process of healing and identification of what we have suffered, the limitations we have placed on ourselves and the the tools she has used to recover and thrive, to take ownership of her feelings and the choices she makes.
She believes that starting in childhood, we create narratives that define us in our own eyes and which can lead to either positive, growth outcomes or (and of course this is the group she is addressing) limit and demean us. She says—and shows how-- we can discard those narratives that are self-defeating leaving us feeling like victims and/or that our lives are meaningless. We can reframe our lives—even our worst experiences—to see the ways they have, or can, yield something positive, even if it only shows our strength, or maybe made us more compassionate toward other people.
Her stories prompted me to remember many of my own experiences. Although her story is her own, in many ways very different from mine, I identified with the kind of hurts she suffered and how they effected her view of herself and her progress in life. It is interesting that her specificity did not magnify our differences but seemed to trigger my own identifications with the kinds of hurts even loving parents can inflict (particularly when they suffer from mental illness).
I believe strongly in the power of personal narratives. Human beings love stories and we write them all the time, even when we’re not aware of them. I also believe that we all can find meaning in our experiences and our lives. Recovery groups often use the power of looking at our life and sharing it with others in the form of our “story” to promote healing from all kinds of trauma. Making meaning and sharing it with others is healing and gives us agency and joy. We need both personal health and connection with others to live fulfilling lives.
I have done a lot of work in the area of healing but these exercises were fascinating and even at times exciting, although also challenging and sometimes painful.
A lovely book that is both companion and guide.
I thank the publisher, the author, and NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Story Work: Field Notes on Self-Discovery and Reclaiming Your Narrative by GG Renee Hill will be published by Broadleaf books on November 4, 2025.
Hill courageously shares her life with the reader: her traumas and struggles and the way she has worked to heal and find meaning in her experiences. She is searingly honest in both her past pain and limitations as well as the ways in which she continues to struggle and heal.
Her focus in on the process of healing and identification of what we have suffered, the limitations we have placed on ourselves and the the tools she has used to recover and thrive, to take ownership of her feelings and the choices she makes.
She believes that starting in childhood, we create narratives that define us in our own eyes and which can lead to either positive, growth outcomes or (and of course this is the group she is addressing) limit and demean us. She says—and shows how-- we can discard those narratives that are self-defeating leaving us feeling like victims and/or that our lives are meaningless. We can reframe our lives—even our worst experiences—to see the ways they have, or can, yield something positive, even if it only shows our strength, or maybe made us more compassionate toward other people.
Her stories prompted me to remember many of my own experiences. Although her story is her own, in many ways very different from mine, I identified with the kind of hurts she suffered and how they effected her view of herself and her progress in life. It is interesting that her specificity did not magnify our differences but seemed to trigger my own identifications with the kinds of hurts even loving parents can inflict (particularly when they suffer from mental illness).
I believe strongly in the power of personal narratives. Human beings love stories and we write them all the time, even when we’re not aware of them. I also believe that we all can find meaning in our experiences and our lives. Recovery groups often use the power of looking at our life and sharing it with others in the form of our “story” to promote healing from all kinds of trauma. Making meaning and sharing it with others is healing and gives us agency and joy. We need both personal health and connection with others to live fulfilling lives.
I have done a lot of work in the area of healing but these exercises were fascinating and even at times exciting, although also challenging and sometimes painful.
A lovely book that is both companion and guide.
I thank the publisher, the author, and NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Story Work: Field Notes on Self-Discovery and Reclaiming Your Narrative by GG Renee Hill will be published by Broadleaf books on November 4, 2025.
January 7, 2026
Story Work is a compassionate, grounded, and quietly powerful guide to understanding how the narratives we carry shape our live and how we can begin to reclaim authorship over them. GG Renee Hill approaches self discovery not as a quick fix, but as an ongoing, creative, and deeply human practice.
Blending personal essays with thoughtful prompts, Hill invites readers to examine the stories they’ve inherited, internalized, and repeated especially those formed in moments of pain or powerlessness. Her reflections on growing up with a mother living with schizophrenia are offered with honesty and care, never reduced to trauma as spectacle, but honored as formative material that shaped her understanding of self, resilience, and meaning.
What sets Story Work apart is its gentleness. Hill does not ask readers to erase their pasts or bypass their pain. Instead, she encourages curiosity: What meanings have we assigned to our experiences? Which stories no longer serve us? And how might we revise them with greater compassion and agency? The book treats lived experience as creative material something we can revisit, reinterpret, and expand rather than remain trapped within.
The prompts are inviting rather than prescriptive, making the book accessible to readers at many stages of healing and self-reflection. Hill’s voice is steady, open-hearted, and affirming, creating a sense of trust that allows readers to move at their own pace.
Story Work is not about fixing oneself, but about softening into a larger, more spacious understanding of who we are and who we might become. It’s a valuable companion for anyone seeking clarity, healing, and a renewed sense of authorship over their own life narrative.
Blending personal essays with thoughtful prompts, Hill invites readers to examine the stories they’ve inherited, internalized, and repeated especially those formed in moments of pain or powerlessness. Her reflections on growing up with a mother living with schizophrenia are offered with honesty and care, never reduced to trauma as spectacle, but honored as formative material that shaped her understanding of self, resilience, and meaning.
What sets Story Work apart is its gentleness. Hill does not ask readers to erase their pasts or bypass their pain. Instead, she encourages curiosity: What meanings have we assigned to our experiences? Which stories no longer serve us? And how might we revise them with greater compassion and agency? The book treats lived experience as creative material something we can revisit, reinterpret, and expand rather than remain trapped within.
The prompts are inviting rather than prescriptive, making the book accessible to readers at many stages of healing and self-reflection. Hill’s voice is steady, open-hearted, and affirming, creating a sense of trust that allows readers to move at their own pace.
Story Work is not about fixing oneself, but about softening into a larger, more spacious understanding of who we are and who we might become. It’s a valuable companion for anyone seeking clarity, healing, and a renewed sense of authorship over their own life narrative.
August 14, 2025
As a therapist who works at the intersection of narrative therapy and bibliotherapy, Story Work moved me deeply. GG Renee Hill invites readers to examine both the life events that have shaped us and the meanings we’ve attached to them. She demonstrates with care and compassion how those meanings shape who we believe ourselves to be or not be. Part memoir, part guide, this book weaves her powerful personal history, including being raised by a mother later diagnosed with schizophrenia with reflective prompts that encourage readers to reconstruct their own stories with main character energy and intention.
For me, it was both a professional and personal read. I deeply relate with Hill’s story as someone who also turned to storytelling as a young girl to navigate the disorientation of being cared for by a loved one with schizophrenia. This book offers a creative approach to living, feeling, grieving, and reclaiming agency.
This book is an accessible, structured bibiotherapeutic tool to help readers become the most reliable narrator of their own life. So many of us struggle to unmask and get honest with self about our deepest needs and desires. GG Renee Hill provides us with deep insight on how reauthoring works as we heal and move forward through life's phases and stages.
I love this quote: “We need to give ourselves space to reconstruct meaning in our lives… with our losses lovingly included and honored in our identities.”
Hill’s work is a gift for anyone ready to step into the role of author in their own story.
For me, it was both a professional and personal read. I deeply relate with Hill’s story as someone who also turned to storytelling as a young girl to navigate the disorientation of being cared for by a loved one with schizophrenia. This book offers a creative approach to living, feeling, grieving, and reclaiming agency.
This book is an accessible, structured bibiotherapeutic tool to help readers become the most reliable narrator of their own life. So many of us struggle to unmask and get honest with self about our deepest needs and desires. GG Renee Hill provides us with deep insight on how reauthoring works as we heal and move forward through life's phases and stages.
I love this quote: “We need to give ourselves space to reconstruct meaning in our lives… with our losses lovingly included and honored in our identities.”
Hill’s work is a gift for anyone ready to step into the role of author in their own story.
Read
October 28, 2025I received a copy of Story Work as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. In addition, I have taken two writing workshops with GG Renee Hill, and really enjoyed these. Hill has a gift for creating a safe and welcoming environment for writers and for addressing head-on some of the most common psychological challenges around writing about one’s life. Her workshops are listed on her website: www.allthemanylayers.com.
In my view, Hill’s workshops are more successful than Story Work, which sits at the intersection of writing and self-help healing literature. If you are seeking guidance on how to write memoir, then this book will fall short because it does not look at writing from the point of view of craft. The memoir-like aspects of the book, e.g., the author’s recovery from childhood trauma having been parented by a mentally ill mother, are not as vivid and crafted as they could be if this were a full-blown memoir.
If the reader is seeking emotional healing, there may be examples of overcoming self-limiting narratives that could be helpful, but overall because Hill is not (and does not claim to be) a psychologist or mental health researcher, there is not much new here than isn’t covered in much greater depth in other works such as The Body Knows the Score. Nonetheless, there is a lot of vulnerability in this book as Hill shares examples from her own life as she wrestled with self-limiting beliefs about herself. This is clearly a book written in love and gratitude for her journey.
In my view, Hill’s workshops are more successful than Story Work, which sits at the intersection of writing and self-help healing literature. If you are seeking guidance on how to write memoir, then this book will fall short because it does not look at writing from the point of view of craft. The memoir-like aspects of the book, e.g., the author’s recovery from childhood trauma having been parented by a mentally ill mother, are not as vivid and crafted as they could be if this were a full-blown memoir.
If the reader is seeking emotional healing, there may be examples of overcoming self-limiting narratives that could be helpful, but overall because Hill is not (and does not claim to be) a psychologist or mental health researcher, there is not much new here than isn’t covered in much greater depth in other works such as The Body Knows the Score. Nonetheless, there is a lot of vulnerability in this book as Hill shares examples from her own life as she wrestled with self-limiting beliefs about herself. This is clearly a book written in love and gratitude for her journey.
September 27, 2025
I have been someone who always loved her writing, her guided journals, and anything she does with her workshops for a long time. When she announced that “Story Work” was coming out, this was something I could not miss. One topic that she helped me with was being vulnerable through my writing. This book is different for me. Combining her story with reflections to help others write, it is brilliant and can be helpful to those who want to journal. The way it was sectioned, I knew this was something…even I had to deeply prepare myself to read.
Throughout reading this, there were times I had to step away from the book because there were wounds I wasn’t ready to confront. However, being a writer myself, I had to take deep breaths and continue reading. By the end, I was using the reflection question to turn them into private pieces and journal entries I would never reveal. If you want to be more vulnerable and are willing to open up yourself to expressive writing, this is the book for you. GG, you did it again!
Throughout reading this, there were times I had to step away from the book because there were wounds I wasn’t ready to confront. However, being a writer myself, I had to take deep breaths and continue reading. By the end, I was using the reflection question to turn them into private pieces and journal entries I would never reveal. If you want to be more vulnerable and are willing to open up yourself to expressive writing, this is the book for you. GG, you did it again!
September 23, 2025
Story Work is the writing guide that inspires by example. The writing prompts are added to inspire the creative process. This was helpful in reaching a difficult part in expanding my own memoir manuscript. We must think about all the ways to tell our stories truthfully in a memoir context. The creative aspect of it is how we choose to tell our lore.
The pieces of us come from family, environment, reactions to experiences, and how we overcome those things. This is the writer’s way to process our life creativity with introspection. I recommend following through on the prompts and really soak in the material here. Hill truly encapsulates what it means to write about the self introspectively with the soul! Take the time to read it through to the end – like we do our own lore!
Visit my blog to read more reviews and arc impressions here https://brujerialibrary.wordpress.com
The pieces of us come from family, environment, reactions to experiences, and how we overcome those things. This is the writer’s way to process our life creativity with introspection. I recommend following through on the prompts and really soak in the material here. Hill truly encapsulates what it means to write about the self introspectively with the soul! Take the time to read it through to the end – like we do our own lore!
Visit my blog to read more reviews and arc impressions here https://brujerialibrary.wordpress.com
January 13, 2026
I could not wait to dive into Story Work and once I started, I had a hard time disconnecting and putting it down to go about life responsibilities.
As a student of GG’s for years it’s awe inspiring seeing her apply her same coaching techniques to her own writing and tell her story.
I see what she sees, feel the emotions behind her thoughts and words, relateable and eye-opening experiences being mothered, as a mother, and as a person with a mental illness.
GG is a master at asking the right questions and prompting the right thoughts to discover answers to questions you’ve long had about yourself. I had the pleasure of reading it while working on my own writing and I found myself stopping to answer reflection questions to help move forward in that work.
Story Work is a wonderful addition to the Self-Discovery conversation and toolkit. I look forward to revisiting many times over the years.
As a student of GG’s for years it’s awe inspiring seeing her apply her same coaching techniques to her own writing and tell her story.
I see what she sees, feel the emotions behind her thoughts and words, relateable and eye-opening experiences being mothered, as a mother, and as a person with a mental illness.
GG is a master at asking the right questions and prompting the right thoughts to discover answers to questions you’ve long had about yourself. I had the pleasure of reading it while working on my own writing and I found myself stopping to answer reflection questions to help move forward in that work.
Story Work is a wonderful addition to the Self-Discovery conversation and toolkit. I look forward to revisiting many times over the years.
November 4, 2025
I love books about writing. I love memoir and stories about personal journeys. And I love explorations of how we, as humans, experience and navigate this messy world. So it's probably no surprise that I loved this book. It combines some of my favorite topics and mediums into one package in a way that is both enjoyable and engaging while also offering up opportunities for practice and growth that are accessible and inviting. I have been following GG's work for some time, and I am so grateful to now have this book as a resource to return to time and again as I continue on my own journey. It's currently sitting on my shelf next to the works of Anne Lamott, Natalie Goldberg, Julia Cameron, and Louise DeSalvo. (I've even ordered several copies as gifts for friends who are similarly inquisitive, writerly people. I know they will love it as much as I have.)
November 13, 2025
I was really moved by the author’s life story and how she used writing to heal from childhood pain, trauma, and adult hardships. In this book, she describes not only her own life story and healing process, but also offers writing prompts to guide readers through their own deep self-exploration.
While it may be true that life can have its challenges, this book is a powerful testament to how healing is possible.
While it may be true that life can have its challenges, this book is a powerful testament to how healing is possible.
November 25, 2025
I went into this, after reading the introduction, thinking it was going to be formatted like a workbook. It isn't. Therefore I think a lot of my review was tainted by that unmet expectation.
The book is mostly a memoir. It's not really a self help journal or even something for personal growth. Readers who approach this text understanding you're basically reading someone's memoir I think may get things out of the book. For me, I didn't find it engaging.
I also was personally not a fan of the layout of the book. Visually things weren't laid out in a way that worked well.
The book is mostly a memoir. It's not really a self help journal or even something for personal growth. Readers who approach this text understanding you're basically reading someone's memoir I think may get things out of the book. For me, I didn't find it engaging.
I also was personally not a fan of the layout of the book. Visually things weren't laid out in a way that worked well.
November 19, 2025
Part memoir, part guidebook. A touching field journal on writing the narrative of the self. Such a rich work!! Thank you, GG!!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews