“Unwritten:” How Many Ways Are There to Tell a Story?

Five Fictional Works about Freedom Summer

I’ve been deliberating for a while now about how to tell the story for my second book.

If the number of possible ways is not infinite, it is at least daunting. And there is definitely an overwhelming array of decisions.

• Of all the people I’ve gotten to know while researching the era of school desegregation in Mississippi, who will I include? Leave out? How many of those included will be point-of-view characters?

• In what order will events be depicted? Where will the telling begin? Where will it end?

• To what extent will the story be biographical? Will the story be better served by being told as historical fiction? As creative nonfiction? As a documentary novel?

And on it goes. I’ve started several times, felt I was missing the mark, and sunk into overwhelm. But three experiences of late have given me a more hopeful outlook.

1.Perspective

As the fall school term and calendar year were drawing to a close, my friend and speaking partner Eric Porter and I engaged with students in an African American Studies class in Mississippi. We were there to talk about growing up under segregated Jim Crow in Meridian, Mississippi in the 1960s. But first, we needed to be sure these 11th-graders understood that our childhoods represent just two of so many varied perspectives on that time.

Eric was seven years old in 1964. He attended the Meridian Freedom School. Because his father Rev. Richard Porter Sr. was Pastor of First Union Baptist, where frequent civil rights activities occurred, and held multiple positions, including president, in the local NAACP, Eric grew up surrounded by civil rights activists from Meridian and beyond. As a Black child, he faced the daily restrictions and perils of life under Jim Crow segregation. He and four of his siblings elected Freedom of Choice to attend previously all-white schools.

I was twelve years old in 1964. As a white child, I grew up free from the restrictions and perils of life under Jim Crow that Eric experienced. There were two “Meridians” then. Living in white Meridian, I could ignore, even be unaware of, black Meridian and encounter few Black people. I was a high school senior in 1970 when federally mandated school desegregation finally came to Meridian.

Perspective is made up of so many other variables beyond race. Religion, economic status, and education to name a few. In turn, perspective is one of multiple storytelling elements that shape how a story is told.

Five Fictional Works about Freedom Summer

I could answer my title question—How many ways are there to tell a story?—by saying there are as many ways as there are stories. Or I could introduce theories about how most stories fall into a handful of categories. Instead, allow me to further explore perspective by considering five fictional works about Freedom Summer.

Volunteers singing “We Shall Overcome” before boarding bus for training in Ohio

Photographer Ted Polumbaum: more than 200,000 of his photos are part of Freedom Forum’s Newseum Collection

Perspective is the lens through which a story is told or heard, indeed through which we make sense of our world. See how five authors with differing perspectives tell five distinctive stories about Freedom Summer.

Freedom School, Yes!

A children’s picture book by Amy Littlesugar, illustrated by Floyd Cooper. It was first published January 15, 2001. It is historical fiction, suitable for grades 1-6.

There are two pivotal characters. Annie is a young white woman who has come to Mississippi to teach in a freedom school and is staying with Jolie’s family. Jolie is a young Black girl who attends the freedom school.

Amy Littlesugar is a Black author who was born in Bermuda and was ten in 1964. She interviewed teachers, volunteers, and folk singers to learn about this time in history.

Freshwater Road

An autobiographical coming-of-age debut novel by Denise Nicholas. It was first published in paperback September 5, 2006. It is historical fiction.

Main character Celeste Tyree is a sophomore at the University of Michigan who volunteers for Freedom Summer in Mississippi. She is assigned to help register voters.

Denise is a Black author who turned twenty years old during Freedom Summer while performing In White America with the Free Southern Theater throughout Mississippi. She was born in Detroit and, like her main character, attended the University of Michigan.

Long Division

This debut novel by Kiese Laymon is metafiction (a style in which characters know they’re part of a work of fiction). First published June 11, 2013, Long Division is historical fiction which visits Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and during Freedom Summer, and tackles our long racial divide.

Main character Black 14-year-old City Coldson time travels from 2013 post-Katrina to 1985 to 1964 and back.

Kiese is a Black author who was born—in 1974, ten years after Freedom Summer—and raised in Jackson, Mississippi.

Revolution

A documentary novel—which uses photos, primary source documents, and song lyrics to provide cultural context for the story—by Deborah Wiles. It was published May 27, 2014. It is historical fiction for young adults, grades 6 - 10, and is set in Greenwood, Mississippi.

There are two point-of-view characters. Sunny is a 12-year-old white girl preoccupied with a new stepmother and stepsiblings. Raymond is a Black boy eager for integration. His family is hosting one of the white Freedom Summer volunteers.

Deborah is a white author who was eleven years old in 1964. She was born in Mobile, Alabama and spent much of her childhood in Mississippi. As a member of an Air Force Family, she grew up around the world.

The Fog Machine

Debut novel by Susan Follett set in Mississippi and Chicago 1954 - 64. Published June 2, 2014. Adult historical fiction suitable for young adults.

There are three point-of-view characters. Joan Barnes: 12-year-old white Catholic girl whose parents are northerners. C.J. Evans: young Black Baptist woman who works for the Barnes family before moving to Chicago. Zach Bernstein: Chicago law student and Jewish Freedom Summer volunteer from New York City.

Susan is a white author who was twelve in 1964. She grew up in Meridian, MS, home of the largest freedom school. She interviewed Civil Rights Movement veterans, historians, religious leaders, and Mississippi residents to learn about this time in history.

2.Inspirational Lyrics

I’ve recently discovered the lyrics to “Unwritten.” Released nearly twenty years ago by Natasha Bedingfield, the song experienced a resurgence in 2024. The book the song refers to is a metaphor for life, not a literal book. And yet “Unwritten” speaks to me about my book. And the song inspires hopefulness.

Songwriters: Danielle A. Brisebois / Natasha Anne Bedingfield / Wayne Steven Jr Rodrigues

Unwritten lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

I am unwritten
Can't read my mind
I'm undefined
I'm just beginning
The pen's in my hand
Ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

Oh, oh, oh

I break tradition
Sometimes my tries are outside the lines
We've been conditioned to not make mistakes
But I can't live that way

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
The rest is still unwritten
The rest is still unwritten

Oh, yeah, yeah

3.Visualization

As the new year has dawned, so has a wellspring of creativity and hope for my next book.

I’d been allowing myself to be weighed down by worrying that I wouldn’t choose the best way to tell this new story. Or, worse yet, that I wouldn’t be able to find any way to effectively tell this story.

But taking a step back to define and answer the question underlying my fretting—How many ways are there to tell a story?—has freed me, giving me a new outlook. Mystically, the years of researching and interviewing have begun to shapeshift, from an amorphous mass to kaleidoscopic patterns.

A recent conversation with a friend reinforced my nascent change in thinking. She reminded me of the importance and value of visualization in achieving one’s goals. I see my way to starting anew. I’m experiencing apparitions. Not in the sense of hallucinations, but rather glimpses of possibilities, remarkable and unexpected.

Thinking about the diversity of stories about Freedom Summer, as illustrated above, feels encouraging rather than intimidating. Just as I did when I wrote The FOG MACHINE, I have my own perspective on telling this new story. It’s a perspective sharpened and enriched by gathering the multitude of stories so generously shared by those I’ve spoken with, come to know, and befriended over the years of researching and interviewing. My perspective is one of many. But it is mine. And I will realize it.

Today is where my book begins…