Stories

Stories have been around since humanity first figured out how to communicate. The learned person in the cave was good at story telling. Story telling is by far the easiest way to exchange ideas and information. Explaining an abstract concept becomes easy when the concept is wrapped around within a story. Stories also helped record events that came to pass. Over time as humanity developed writing stories were given a defined form and were then less susceptible to changes every time that they were narrated. The verbal stories of events in the past that had mutated into folklore and myth were finally given their shape and narrative that we identify them with today. Events could be recorded for posterity (unfortunately events were and are recorded only from a certain point of view- more on this in a future post). 

There is a narrative that is captivating in all good stories. The narrative is captivating because it seeks out our attention. The really good stories paint a picture in your mind and you can feel a part of the event (real or fictional). This narrative may also seek to inspire and motivate. Almost all stories can be classified into some groups. One could classify them as 7 plots as explained by Christopher Booker or 20 plots as explained by Ronald Tobias or in 36 plots as proposed by Georges Polti. Good story writing and storytelling will always fall into one of these classifications. 

News is a form of storytelling and I often feel that news editors of late have forgotten the basics of storytelling. What we now get is more often than not a constant stream of noise. The story and the characters are forgotten and all you are allowed to hear is an inflated opinion. We also see stories of events being planted and people believing in them. Even stories about stories being fake are planted. The interesting bit here is that the planted stories or the inflated opinions will still create a narrative that is captivating for a certain audience. 

I long for good narratives and find myself finding that only in the written word or the rare TV series. What is your story about stories ? 

C