Recently, I was asked in a job interview to talk about something I am passionate about. And, perhaps it comes as no surprise that as a writer and someone who writes novels from a Plotting Shed that thing for me happens to be STORIES.
But the more I delved into why stories are so significant for me, the more I had to acknowledge the central role stories play in our lives every single day – whether we notice it or not. So I thought I’d share my musings on stories, and why I hope after reading this, you’ll start to see what I mean.
For a start, if you are reading this, my guess is that you love reading – after all, why else would you be reading the blog of a writer? Maybe you like big thick books, or short stories, or graphic novels. You could also be a movie fan (unless there’s a book version first, in which case we generally hate the movie adaptations). And, there’s possibly a few gamers in my audience – or at the very least some readers who understand what it means to be a gaming-widow!
The question is, though, why do we enjoy these so much that it’s impossible to consider life without these forms of ‘entertainment’?
Yes, you’ve guessed it: STORIES.
As human beings we are programmed to find relatable and meaningful stories in everything that we do. That’s why we get so involved in our books, and TV, and movies, and games – because they make us CARE about something. A character – a ‘what happens next’ moment – a mission – a PURPOSE.
And that purpose is woven through our lives.
In school, teachers want us to write essays that explain or argue certain points and we use stories to do this: taking the reader with us as we make our thoughts known, demonstrating WHY our way of thinking is correct. It’s how journalism works too: I mean, they’re called news stories for a reason.
Of course, it’s not just here stories play a huge role, they appear in science too – because we use them to explore how we can prove a hypothesis. Let’s not forget that once upon a time science told people that the world was flat, and that the atom was the smallest thing in the universe – but there were people who didn’t believe these stories, who asked the questions and dug deeper and created new stories for us to better understand the world we live in.
Because, in order to push through the boundaries of science – of what is possible – you first have to create the STORY that will allow you to do it; your new hypothesis. You can’t just put men on the moon: you have to imagine it, visualise the mission and what will have to happen in order to make it true.
This is how it’s used in sports too. Top athletes are trained to tell the story of their success. They imagine winning, they create the story in their mind that they can break the world record.
And you know what happens? The story comes true. They win.
WHY?
Because the brain – your brain, and mine – cannot tell the difference between what you imagine to be real, and what is actually real. Science has demonstrated that our imaginations have the capacity to fool our brain into thinking that the stories we tell it are TRUE.
And we tell stories all the time – whether that’s to our friends about something we did at the weekend, or to our boss explaining why we haven’t done that piece of work. We also construct stories about other people and their experiences – not just through fiction, but also consider all that celebrity gossip that’s out there, the rumours that fly about and how eager we are to lap them up.
Perhaps most important of all though, are the stories we tell about ourselves. Whether that’s introducing ourselves by what we do – Hi I’m Cat, and I’m a writer – to who we think we are, or want to be, in private (anyone ever kept a journal?).
Remember, stories are powerful because our brains can’t tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. That’s why we cry when our favourite character dies in the book or show, it’s why we scream at the screen when some monster kills us in our game, it’s because we CARE. Even though these things are made-up fictions our brain makes us care about them as if they are real.
And when these stories are real, they can pack a serious punch. It’s why seeing people like ourselves in positions of power, or represented in places like fashion, movies, or government is so important – because just by seeing this our mind tells us the story that it’s possible.
But if we don’t see it, sometimes our brain doesn’t believe it can happen and so it takes a stronger, inspirational story about an individual for us to start recognising this story as truth.
This is why the stories we are told, and the stories that we tell ourselves are the most important ones of all.
Because if your brain can’t tell the difference between what you imagine and what is real: which stories are really TRUE?
Answer: THE ONES THAT YOU BELIEVE.
Stories frame how we see and experience the world around us – and that is why I love them. That’s why I love being a writer – because my imagined stories become words that other people read, and what I made up in my head becomes real in theirs. And that, to me, is the magic of stories.
So look out for stories in your life – and you’ll start to recognise them. And once you do, just check in about what stories your mind is telling you and ask yourself is it TRUE?
Are you really such a terrible writer? Is the assertion that you ‘never’ write the objective truth? And is the dream of becoming a best-seller so impossible when you’ve seen others can do it?
Or do you just BELIEVE it’s true because that’s the story you’re telling?
