What’s the point in writing stories?

Slow Story Club - November 2023

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

The world is burning and flooding and quaking; beautiful creatures are going extinct every year; wars are raging; hundreds of thousands of people all over the world sleep on the streets every night; and the financial sector we all rely on to keep our hard-earned money safe and our businesses running, lurches from one crisis to another. Everything feels so precarious and unpredictable. So out of balance. It feels like we’re teetering on a cliff edge above a canyon of complete chaos.

With all of this going on, isn’t it trivial to invest our time and energy in creating stories and caring so much about characters we’ve made up? Isn’t it pointless to keep creating stories in a world where we’re told fewer and fewer people are reading fiction? Shouldn’t we be doing something more helpful and worthy with our time?

I think you can probably guess what I’m going to say now.

Storytelling is vital.

It’s intrinsic to who we are as humans. Not only in the fictional stories us writers put down on paper and on movie screens, but in everything we do in our lives. We tell ourselves the story of us every day. We tell it to our loved ones, our colleagues, the new people we meet. And they all tell us theirs too. We tell the stories of our past and our imagined futures. Of the things that we see and feel as we go about our day. Of our dreams, our hopes, our fears, and our nightmares.

We’re told stories from the moment we’re born and over the years the stories we’ve been told about what being human is and means, have made us forget how amazing we are. How connected we all are. That the differences and divisions created between us are all illusions. That we’re strong and smart and resourceful — especially when we work together. And because we’ve forgotten all of that, we’ve also forgotten how to love ourselves and each other and our planet and all of the creatures and trees and plants we share it with.

So I think now, as we face some of the most challenging times of our lives, telling stories that make us remember those things, that bring us together and lift us up, is one of the most important things we can do. Humans will always want stories, need stories, so let’s make sure the ones we give them are those that put love, kindness, community and collaboration out into the universe. Let’s use our stories to try and change the world into the one we all want to see.

Writing Exercise

Spend 10 minutes or so writing down what kind of world you want. What kind of stories you think can bring more connection, more love, more reverence for ourselves and everyone and everything around us.

Which writers do you feel are already creating these kinds of stories? Do let me know in the comments (open to paid subscribers only).

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Story Readings

This month, I’m recommending some longer reads that are doing what I’ve been talking about here. They’re a mix of novels, novellas and short stories. I recommend you seek them out and read as many of them as you can.

• A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

• This is Happiness by Niall Williams

• The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

• The Most Beautiful Thing by Satya Robyn

• The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang

• The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu

Do let me know what you think of them when you’ve read them and please do recommend any you have enjoyed.

Writing Prompt

Write a story inspired by the writing exercise above that comes from a place of love and connection that reminds us all how amazing it is to be here having this human experience together. Write from the heart and don’t think about what anyone else is going to think about your story. Just let it flow from the place inside you that already knows and wants us all to remember what it really means to be human.

I’ll create a private chat thread for paid subscribers to share their stories whenever they’re ready. I really look forward to reading them.

With love,

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