I have always been captivated by the prowess of a gifted story teller. These people are able to lead others through unfolding events in a way that builds tension and engagement. But there is someone who impresses me more than the person who commands an audience with tails of their own lives. I call these folks story collectors. These people do not just recount their own adventures, but they pull you into the lives and stories of others. They make a set of facts come alive and often find connections to things that other people had left unconnected. They find meaning and principles in the triumphs, struggles, and failures of those that have come before and are all around us.
So how do they do it? Or maybe you're still wondering why you would even want to, so let's start there.
Story Connects
We are story driven creatures. We process and understand the world around us in narrative much more than we do in raw sensory data. It is true that we can learn and commit to memory a set of facts or a string of numbers. Yes, we often do communicate in non-story driven language, but rarely does that kind of communication deeply connect with us or others. Charlie Wetzel is a prolific writer. You probably don't know his name because he is actually a ghostwriter for the author and speaker John Maxwell. John has published dozens of books--probably the most notable of which is The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. As a ghostwriter for John, Charlie has written over 80 books! They have covered a range of topics, but a bulk of them are on leadership. But what they all have in common is their heavy reliance on story-driven narrative. A few years ago Charlie calculated the number of discrete stories that he had researched, developed, and written for these books. He found that he had written and astounding 500+ stories.
Why does Charlie include so many stories in books that are all non-fiction? Because it works. Because it connects with his audience. It pulls them in and keeps them engaged. Because it sells millions of copies. It speaks to his audience in a way that simply stating the point, the principle, or the rule wouldn't be able to. So he continues to include stories. I imagine some of them were lived personally by him or John. Some of them have come from the books or media that they read. And some of them have been developed by doing research. It takes some work, but if you want to connect with your audience, then consider the importance of story.
Story Lasts
Why do mnemonic devices work? We have a set of words or even numbers that we need to remember, but struggle to keep them straight in our heads. But for some reason, when we attach some additional meaning to them in an order or system, it clicks. Imagine that, we actually ADD more information in order to remember it. Sounds counter intuitive. But it works. It works because the thing that you add to a raw set of data is a story. Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. Perhaps you had a math teacher who used that mnemonic to help you remember the order of operations (parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction). Maybe you're a math wiz and would have remember that either way, but for many, this was a game changer on test day.
Consider the teachings of Jesus Christ (or most religious teachers for that matter). All throughout the accounts of Jesus' life he is seen talking to people in stories--the Bible calls them parables. People would come and ask him a question. If he did not just fire back with his own questions, he would most likely dive right into a story. That's what he left people with. Sometimes he would tie it together for the audience, but his lessons were almost always fundamentally rooted in narrative. And these stories have lasted. These stories were not only preserved and transcribed into written form (and yes, I am assuming here that they were accurately preserved), but they have been retold and thought about millions of times over for a couple thousand years.
Story Heals
While it is nice to have something that draws people in and stays with them, there is a still a deeper power to the method of storytelling. Part of what it means to be human is to feel the lives and stories of those around us. The capacity for empathy is innate, but it actually takes a lot of practice to master this skill. But the really magical part of empathy is what it does to us. Amazingly, the more that we are able to reach outside of ourselves and feel the stories of others, the deeper we are able to reach into our own depths.
The ancient Greeks got this. Greek people took their plays very seriously. Even their comedies and satry (similar to satire) were more than mere entertainment. They were opportunities to hone in on and live out different aspects of the human experience. But more important that humorous plays were the tragedies. Aristotle (the ancient Greek one) said that these tragic stories performed katharsis on the hearts of the audience. This word, from which we obviously derive "catharsis," is often giving the meaning to clean up and cleanse, or to purify. Alternatively, some modern authors, like Martha Nussbaum, have argued that it is closer to the act of clearing up and clarifying our emotions. It is a verb that entails reaching our trapped emotions and doing healing work on them.
Are you catching this? The people of ancient Greece regularly set aside time, and probably money, to sit in a theater and cry over the characters in tragic plays because they understood that doing so helped them clear up and connect with their own experiences and emotions. That's powerful. Now I am fully in favor of talk therapy to help us sort things out, but I also believe that there is a level of pain and wounding that is not easily worked out through intellectualism. By connecting with the stories of others, even fictional others, we are able to better understand parts of ourselves and write new chapters in our own stories. From there, you can take it one step further and incorporate your own story and the stories of others into your art to connect with and bring healing to your audience.
Since you've hung in this long, your probably thinking to yourself:
Okay, great. Sounds good and all, but I'm no story teller. How can this help me?
I'm glad you asked, because I myself am still a baby story collector. We can travel this path together. Here are four things that have helped me a lot.
Consume Intentionally
It is probably obvious, but cannot be over stated: to be a story collector you need to always be on the look out for valuable stories. Setting up a diverse reading list is probably a good place to start, but you will want to go further still. Start seeing the world around you as pieces of stories. Your toaster is evidence of a tale of some kind. The person walking swifter than normal down the street has a story driving their noticeable break-out from the crowd. The couple you got assigned to sit next to at a friend's wedding has laughed and cried and gasped many times over. Maybe you'll never know these stories. Or perhaps the stories are not all that compelling or remarkable. But if you position yourself to see the potential for story all around you, if you make the decision to ask the interesting questions, or discover the history, then you will start to take in some magnificent adventures.
Save Systematically
Every single one of us has heard, seen, or thought something fascinating that we chose not to record because we just knew we would remember it. How could we forget something as awesome as that?! A year later it has all but completely faded from our minds. As much as story has lasting power, it is not immune to the vulnerabilities of human memory. If you do not integrate it somehow, it will leave your conscious brain. So write that shit down.
Sometime in high school, I came across the idea of keeping a "box of everything." The concept is to keep a shoe-box size container full of organized 3x5 note cards with all of the noteworthy things you want to remember. You could color-coat them or use tabs. I don't know exactly because it never worked for me. This was before the expansion of smartphones and other useful recording technology. I have had some success with keeping pocket notebooks or running word documents that contain quotes and stories that I come across. But I have struggled to keep it organized and I found it cumbersome to actually retrieve my notes at a later date.
Evernote has dramatically changed that for me. I've only recently started to use this powerful application, but it has already made a difference. From any device, I can jot down some notes, or save a story I come across on the internet into an organization framework that provides a lot of flexibility. Plus, I can then search for key words or tags when I want to go back. I know there are other apps that have similar tools. You should take the time to find one that works for you.
Utilize Often
Do not let your stories grow stale. You need to practice this muscle. You can obviously try to weave stories into your writing, vlogging, or other creative expressions. But you should also try to make story telling part of your everyday encounters. I am not suggesting you accost your barista with the story of how Uncle Jim accidentally threw away grandma's fake leg during Christmas 10 years ago. It sounds like an awesome story, but make sure you're respecting the position and time of those you're trying to engage. Trust me, if you stay mindful, then you will see opportunities to take a conversation past the level of weather forecasting and sportsball recaps.
I should clarify here that a story does not need to be of any certain length. Especially if you are just keeping your inventory fresh and dusted. You don't need a microphone and a spotlight. You could insert a 1-2 sentence detour about this interesting article you read the other day and how it relates to what was just said. The people you tell a story to should not feel like they are being experimented on, and when it doubt, start with loved ones who will interrupt you if you're being obnoxious.
Synthesize Creatively
Often the best view is only captured by taking a few steps back. Some of the best use of story that I have ever seen happens when an artist is able to take several stories, that are otherwise unconnected, and draw a theme or lesson from this combination that was not evident from the discrete stories themselves. The revelation might be in a similarity that is revealed, or it may be the stark contrast of the different stories. Whatever it is, I believe stories are not meant to live in silos.
You should make it part of your practice to layer stories on to each other. Look outside of a particular theme or topic to see how some other distant thing may be intimately connected in a surprising way. If you want an example of someone who does this really well, go check out Seth Godin's work. His writing and podcasts are chock-full of stories from history, business, fiction, and his own life. He very regularly pairs stories that you would not ordinary put together to make a point. Don't let the nature of a good story limit it's potential use.
Well there you have it folks. I'd love to hear your thoughts and how you use story in your art, so drop me some of your wisdom in the comments!
Until next time, be blessed.
Sam
Image Sources: Stumped
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