Humans start off as selfish creatures.
Think about it. A newborn baby thinks about nothing except food, sleep, and comfort. For some, the childish need for those basics never goes away.
But as we get older, we learn (hopefully) how to think outside ourselves. Even then, the basic need to think selfishly never truly goes away.
We cooperate with other people as long as it makes sense. In human terms, what makes sense means doing what’s doing what’s right for you and me.
Making sense means never losing out. Never taking a loss. Never letting the other person get ahead of you.
In a sense, what makes sense means anything and everything that’s mutually beneficial because selfishness lives at the core of the human animal.
We Live In A Society
Humans have evolved to become greater than the animals that share this Earth with us because we understand the 4th Dimension – Time.
We understand the past, partly to remember those we’ve loved and lost, partly to remember the lessons of history. We remember the victors and the villains, the rights and wrongs, the winners and losers.
We remember all these things through stories passed down through eons in the form of myths, legends, poems, and plays. The “moral of the story” is so ingrained in how we learn from the past that you can’t avoid it.
Of late, you might be feeling worse about our society, and you’re not alone.
Why?
Because the selfishness that marks us as children and no better than animals has somehow become acceptable through adulthood.
How can you learn from the past if you only think about your present?
How can you teach others in the present if you only think about yourself?
How can you help future generations if tomorrow is somebody else’s problem?
You can’t do any of those things unless you understand one uncompromising fact.
Good stories are a gift, and whether we realize it or not, every human is a storyteller.
Good storytellers learn from and pass on the lessons of the past.
Good storytellers teach their peers, friends, family, and loved ones all they know to find the truth of this world.
Good storytellers lay the foundation for future generations that won’t be born until long after we’re gone.
Bad storytellers can’t do any of these things.
Why?
Because bad storytellers are selfish. They don’t tell stories for any other reason than for what they can get out of them.
Bad storytellers are not more effective than animals and infants.
How Do Good Stories Work?
Time never stops, never sleeps, never falters. For us to learn through the neverending march of time, we use stories to capture moments that matter.
The Past
In the past, Aesop created fables to teach us to be kind, patient, and generous. The Fox & The Grapes taught us the foolishness of getting mad over something outside our control. The Lion & The Mouse taught us the power of kindness in the face of fear. The Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing taught us to be wise by looking beyond what’s skin deep.
Homer created epic poems that taught us about heroism through bravery, skill, and cleverness. In the Odyssey, Odysseus undertakes an epic journey in support of and opposition to the gods, showing that no challenge is too great for a man with the heart of a lion. In the Iliad, Achilles shows he is the greatest warrior among all warriors, but even greatness can be felled by a single weak spot.
History books teach us about wars, disasters, men and women who accomplish great things, and monumental acts that shape our lives.
The past teaches us lessons about bravery, honor, making mistakes, and the journeys that make us wise.
The Present
In the present, we learn from each other to function as a society through stories.
Every day, millions of people scroll through social media, flip through television channels, or watch videos on assorted streaming platforms to get information, and the way that information hits, sticks, and gets passed is presented in the form of a story.
We stay up to date about a favorite sports star or celebrity through stories. We decide who to vote for, who to hire to paint our house, and all the myriad number of decisions we make on a daily basis through the way we consume stories.
We learn who to trust by the stories people tell, and we learn who to mistrust by the stories people tell about us.
The present is where we function, collaborate, and cooperate through stories.
The Future
In the future, all things are possible. The capacity of the human mind to imagine what the future can be is limited only by our unwillingness to dream.
It’s no surprise that the dreams of the past are realized in our present, which is the past dreamer’s future.
Jules Verne dreamed about submarines exploring the oceans in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and explorers landing on the moon in From The Earth To The Moon a hundred years before it happened.
Star Trek made us believe in hand-held communicators, universal translators, and talking computers decades before the first smartphone.
We tell stories about fantastical inventions and exploring the unknown. With enough time and striving, the future dream becomes a reality.
The Science Is Settled
Why don’t we communicate through cold, hard facts? Because that’s not how humans learn effectively.
“Cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner suggests we are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it has been wrapped in a story. Why? Because stories are memorable. Stories help us grab the gist of an idea quickly.” (Forbes: A Good Presentation Is About Data And Story)
“Emotion has a substantial influence on the cognitive processes in humans, including perception, attention, learning, memory, reasoning, and problem-solving. Emotion has a particularly strong influence on attention…” (NIH/NLM: The Influences of Emotion on Learning and Memory)
“A compelling story makes us feel something. Shared human emotion connects us to stories and one another far more effectively than lists of facts and linear events. The emotion present in your story need not solely be happiness and celebration.” (PBS Wisconsin: 10 Elements Of A Great Story)
A Personal Bias
Readers who know me from my association with Comical Opinions and Weird Science know I’ve written a lot of comic book reviews.
How many? That depends on how you can’t the numbers, but the number is over 3,000 and counting.
That means I’ve read a LOT of stories in practically every genre, from superheroes to crime thrillers to fantasy and horror and comedy and everything in between.
Plus, I’ve written my own short stories and have at least one novel in the works.
This isn’t a humble brag. I’m letting you know I’ve been exposed to more stories than most and have had to synthesize and articulate when those stories go right and when they go very, very wrong.
Without exception, the stories that go right, the ones that stick, are the ones that make you feel something.
As long as a story doesn’t make you feel angry because it sucks, a story that generates emotion in the reader is a story that will be remembered.
I’m not the only one who feels (*heh*) this way.
“To make your reader feel the way you want him to feel is your story’s whole and total function.” (Dwight Swain, Techniques Of The Selling Weiter)
Stories Touch Everything
Stories capture the important moments and imagining before they’re lost to the sands of time.
They teach us about the wisdom and mistakes of the past so we can learn to be better than those who came before.
They show us how to communicate and teach each other more effectively in the present through our news, entertainment, and day-to-day interactions.
They create the visions of our future for the generations to come when we imagine what’s possible, and the evolution of science and technology catches up to those dreams.
Humans have evolved beyond our own childishness and the animals to overcome our built-in selfishness, and we do it with stories.
How Do We Tell Better Stories?
We tell better stories by consuming better stories with intention and passing them on.
Read, read, and read some more.
Create stories and pass them around for feedback.
Analyze and dissect the stories you’re given to search for the truth and meaning in all of them.
Above all else, always remember that good stories are a gift you give and receive.
Humans of the past created myths and legends to teach you about right from wrong.
Good people give you the gift of knowledge expressed in stories to teach you how to navigate the world.
Futurists and fiction writers imagine the future you and your generations will live in.
Treat stories as the gift they are, and return that gift every chance you get.
If you found this newsletter interesting, subscribe for more insights like this one each week as I explore what makes stories tick, how to create and edit them for maximum effectiveness, how to use them to navigate this crazy world, and how to imagine new ones to shape our futures.