The Power of Story

My dear friend,

I hope all is well with you and yours,

I’ve been meaning to write you for a while now, but you know how life gets- you blink and suddenly months upon months have passed. This past year especially has been so full of activity: going here and there, participating a local concert band, the horses, and of course, trying to get better at writing stories.

I’ve been trying to develop my voice as a writer, so I’ve been watching lectures online to better understand how stories ‘work’. You know, how they interact with readers to create the desired effect, ideas about structure, and, really, how to create emotional effects. I wish I could say I have a good grasp of how all that works after a year of thinking about it, but I don’t. It’s more like I know the principles but can’t quite find the application.

It doesn’t help that I get distracted. I‘ll start thinking about a story and get lost in the idea of it all, the logistics of the world, or, especially lately, I get lost in the idea that life itself is a story.

Which is, in all reality, the real reason I wanted to write you: to share this idea and get your thoughts.

The basic theory is that our world is a story is made of two things: the larger narrative of history, which is the various family, cultural, and regional events set into motion long before we were born and how they have shaped the world we live in; and the personal narrative which is how we describe ourselves in the larger contexts.

Think of the election cycle this year. It’s one large story set in a context of American history, and the goal of the political campaign is to create story that best appeals to the untold mass of personal narratives.

Which means how we as individuals think of ourselves in this larger story will determine how we think of the candidates, politics in general, and the overarching goal of government. That is to say, the political narrative allows us to write ourselves into the story in virtually any role we want. Though, usually, I think our default setting is to make ourselves legends in our own minds.

Politics aside, I think ‘the world as story,’ relates to the idea of ‘self-talk’- which is this idea that we how we think to ourselves about ourselves has a major impact on our mental health. Negative self-talk for example, is when you berate and belittle yourself if you make a mistake. Saying something like “You know better,” “You dummy” etc. so the idea is that reframing the self-talk to something more constructive can lead to better outcomes. That is, talk to yourself like you would your friends or children if they made a mistake: with a goal to correct but to encourage.

I take this to mean that our self-talk is really our personal narrative. Our self-talk functions within our self-image, and our self-image is really just our self-story canon which defines our role in the story of the world.

I think it’s interesting, because it seems to make sense of human action. When someone gets angry for some slight or insult, it’s because the insult threatens their personal narrative of their role in the story. It also creates the moments of self-realization when the reality of the ‘real self’ conflicts with the personal narrative. It’s a fun thought, because it means we can actually start reading ourselves as characters in a book.

So, when I get defensive or cranky or whatever, it allows me to take a step back and question the reaction. The thought process is something like, “In a story, human action comes from somewhere, so my reaction must come from some place whether rational or emotional.” I’ve found it quite helpful over the past year, and it’s a nice reminder also when thinking about writing characters.

I think, though, that we can only write what we know, which makes me aware of how important it is to ingest and interact with good stories as well.

It’s like the One Piece Fan Letter (Oct 22, 2024), a filler episode in the One Piece Anime, which follows the adventure of a young girl as she tries to deliver a letter to the pirate Nami.

The girl was born into the Great Age of Piracy, but doesn’t have any great ambition for wealth, fame or power; she just wants to live freely. But, as she tells a soldier, “I thought in this age where power is everything, a powerless girl like me could never live freely.”

We see how the larger narrative interacts with her personal story. It’s a story where the simple people like her have to fulfill their NPC roles. But then, she encounters the story of Nami. Nami is a pirate, but she’s different because Nami doesn’t have any special power or overwhelming strength; she’s a navigator and cat burglar, who outsmarts those with power with her “wits and resourcefulness”

By encountering Nami’s story, the girl was able to accept her own powerlessness and reassess what role she could play in the world. The girl says it best, “Nami is precious to me because she makes me think I can have adventures too.”

My point is, a good story can change our perspective; our personal narrative.

That said, I feel myself losing this thread of thought, and I’ve probably rambled enough for one letter. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, your retorts or improvements. Until then, remember to read your own story from time to time: Assess what kind of character you think you are and check it against reality; would you friends, spouse, or kids agree with you? Keep interacting with stories, learn from the characters and find inspiration to persist and grow.

I know I’m aiming to do the same. I want to grow as a person and a writer, so I’ll continue writing even if I’m not being read, and I’ll continue competing even when I lose. To paraphrase that little girl again from One Piece, “even I get hurt and trampled on, I still want to struggle, run, and live as freely as I can.”

Until the next time,

- Judah