In order to harness the power of storytelling in your own work, you need to fully understand the unique nature of this form of human expression and what gives it such force in our lives. This chapter provides this background and should prepare you to take full advantage of the more practical guidance found in later chapters. Specifically, it addresses four critical aspects of story:
The Ubiquity of Story
Stories surround us, from cradle to grave. We embody storiesāour own, our experiences, our memories, all the stories weāve heard throughout our lives, all the stories weāve ever told, all the stories we want to tell but havenāt yet been able to share.
Story is a quintessential, and probably unique, characteristic of humanity that defines us as a species. And ironically, while stories almost always emerge within a given society, they also form one of the few links that bind all of humanity together.
Story, in fact, is one of the most powerful forms of human communication. At its most basic level, it entertains, often by evoking various emotionsāamusement, surprise, sorrow, anger, indignation, piety, etc. It also serves as an essential teaching tool, guiding students by seemingly āreal-lifeā examples.
Story certainly serves as a means of informingāthe fundamental task of the journalist and the historian. And story plays a vital role in persuasionāagain, often citing āreal-lifeā (or modified or totally invented) incidents to convince an audience.
The Compulsion to Explain
Many stories emerged as attempts to āexplain.ā Most basically, creation myths arose as humans struggled to understand how the world came into being. Attempts to explain natural forces, the sources of the human condition, why things happen or donāt happen, and what powers really control the world and our destiny produced other myths.
Stories also provided behavioral guidanceāwith tales of deities and their interactions with mankind providing direction as to what was expected of us, as well as fables contrived to teach us the proper way to behave.
Stories Everywhere
The range of narratives that fall under the story rubric is huge, from simple childrenās books and fairy tales to folk tales, short stories, novels, and sagas, as well as diaries, news and magazine articles, and histories. We tend to divide narratives between two distinct groups:
- Those that accurately relate events that really happened, such as history, biography, and journalism, that we call non-fiction.
- Those that make no such claim, what we call fiction.
But there are numerous gray areas in between, such as historical fiction, that blend real events with those that are purely the invention of the author. And many other depictions of real events often need to āflesh outā the historical record with dialogue, possible encounters between characters, and frequently the imagined thoughts of historical figures.
Fables and the like provide another type of hybrid form that combines clearly fictional elements but are intended to communicate an underlying truth. Aesopās fables conjure up talking animals, but the moral at the end is intended to teach something truthful about morality, human nature, or life in general.
The parables of Jesus serve the same purpose. Did the prodigal son really exist? It hardly matters; the story is simply a means to reveal a moral principle.
Even communications that are not strictly narratives, such as textbooks or volumes devoted to the sciences, often weave in stories to get a point across. For example, a brief history of how a certain principle was discovered (such as Newton and the apple) may be cited in the context of presenting the principle of gravity.1
In addition, case studies are standard fare in law, business, economics, and the sciences. And exercises and problems, even in the pure realm of mathematics, often take the form of stories:
- āBetty has seven eggs, and she plans to sell them for 12 cents apieceā¦ā
- āTwo trains 100 miles apart start heading toward each other on parallel tracks. One is going 40 miles per hour, the second 60 miles per hourā¦ā
This same approach applies to many other forms of communication, including sermons and political speeches aimed at influencing opinion and shaping behavior. The late George P. Schultz, a former U.S. Secretary of State, recently wrote that President Reagan advised him that when writing a speech, adding a relevant story allows you to appeal to the audienceās emotions as well as their minds. āTelling a story, he made me understand, helps make your case in a way that no abstraction can: A story builds an emotional bond, and emotional bonds build trust.ā2
Story = Sharing
At its foundation, story is a form of sharing, of one person or a group imparting information, ideas, experiences, values, or real or imaginary happenings to an audience. By its very nature, story is a bonding experience that can transcend not only cultures but also centuries because they touch the primal nature of our humanity.
It is often said that a story can ātransportā us to a distant time and place, and enable us to respond emotionally:
- We can still respond in horror at the deceit of Agamemnon tricking his wife into sending their daughter to her death.3
- We can laugh at the foibles portrayed in Roman comedies, and in Shakespeareās, as much as in Neil Simonās.
- We are entertained as we move through the Arabian nights, and share the joys and agonies that fill novels from Cervantes to the present dayā¦
- ā¦ Even though the societies shaping the stories, such as Edith Whartonās New York, and even the situations themselves, no longer exist.
Many Arts Tell Stories
Stories Set in Music
Stories are not just told or written down to be readāthey can be communicated through many other art forms as well. Musical stories can be found in many vocal genres, from folk and art songs to oratorios and opera.
- Even purely instrumental music can suggest a story in the form of program music, such as Vivaldiās Four Seasons, Berliozā Symphonie Fantastique, and Smetanaās Moldeau.
- In these orchestral works, the composer provides a rough outline of a sequence of events and leaves the listener to imagine the scenes the music evokes.
Paintings: Stories Frozen in Time
Paintings often portray a moment in what is meant to be an ongoing story. Even the earliest cave paintings appear to suggest dramatic scenes that are not intended to be static images, but depict galloping herds or hunts where humans and animals interact.
- Many later paintings can be experienced as frozen images of a moment in time for which there is clearly a before and an after.
- Much the same can be said of many sculptures.
Even fairly static images, such as portraits, still lifes, or outdoor scenes, can evoke a sense that there is a story lurking behind or beyond the canvas. A Renaissance portrait might lead you to ask:
- This self-possessed young man, what is he really like? How does he live and act? What does his expression, his clothes, and his few possessions shown tell us?
- Our minds are tempted to imagine the answers and fill in the unstated gaps.
- (If you donāt have a traditional portrait in mind or on hand, you might check this one out: Circle of Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) (1483ā1520), Portrait of a Young Man in Red, c 1505.) Here is the link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Circle_of_Raphael_(Raffaello_Sanzio)_-_Portrait_of_a_Young_Man_in_Red_-_78.PB.364_-_J._Paul_Getty_Museum.jpg
Similarly, consider a traditional eighteenth- or nineteenth-century pastoral scene:
- That beautiful landscapeāperhaps we can see ourselves walking across the fields, or it reminds us of past experiences when we basked in the bright sunshine in just such a meadow.
- (Again, if you need inspiration, hereās one that might work for you: John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816.) You can view it here: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/wivenhoe-park-ssex/vAG0ovJU1U65Rw?hl=en
Other Art Forms
Much of what applies to painting can be applied to photography as well, which historically was a medium for capturing real people, either in formal postures or in their daily lives, as well as the inherent beauty of natural phenomena.
Stories can also be shared through dance performances, sometimes explicitly, such as in a formal ballet like Swan Lake, or in the motions of various popular dances. Many of these present stylized situations whose explanation requires no spoken narrative, such as those in which a couple acts out a flirtation.
Drama brings story to life, as real people pretend to be characters in a story. Film, of course, can be seen as the ultimate medium for storytelling. From its inception, it was able to provide the ābeforeā and āafterā to the photographic scene, at the same time enabling drama to be captured and shared around the world.
Your Turn
Take a few moments to consider your own immersion in stories. In many cases, these may be so imbedded in your experience that you are hardly conscious of them. Here are a few ways you can become more aware of how stories have impacted your life:
- Try to remember some of the earliest stories that were read or told to you as a child.
- What aspects can you still recall?
- What about these particular tales give them their āstickingā power so many years later?
- Can you remember anything about what you felt as you heard these stories?
- Remember explaining something to someone, and using an example to get a point across; for example, how a process works, what a law means, or a scientific principle.
- Why do you think you went from the general (what you were explaining) to the specific (an example)?
- How did you come up with the example you used?
- Did citing an example make it easier for the person to understand what you were explaining?
