What Is Wrong With Telling A Whopping Good Story?

Sweeties, I don't understand. I simply do .not. understand. I don't quite think I am demented (yet), although my body constantly reminds me of every minute of the 67 years I have spent in this incarnation. I am very aware of how resistant to change we old-timers can be as technology and social trends blow by faster than a fart in a whirlwind. Don't people tell stories anymore? Does everything have to be strictly literal? Or all about self-improvement? Or lists with titles containing dramatic words proven to produce the most clicks? Where has whimsy and humor, fantasy and invention gone?

I am an avid reader and a life-long bookworm. I had the great fortune to grow up in a family that worshiped the printed word in all forms and played word games at the dinner table. I was reading high-school level in the 3rd grade.

My first computer had a 500MB hard drive and ran Win 3.11. I have been an on and off blogger for longer than some of you have been alive. I was on forums and message boards before someone came up with the idea of blogging. (Of course, this was after I had to walk to school both ways in the snow uphill and barefoot after milking the cows.)

That doesn't mean that I know everything. I don't claim to be an expert in anything at all. I do believe that constant curiosity has so far prevented me from turning into a drooling zombie despite having parts that no longer work like they used to. I admit to having a memory that sometimes is only 3 seconds long.

Whatever happened to simply telling a good tale? I look around various social media sites meant to encourage writers, and most of what I see are self-help articles, SEO clickbait lists, or dramatic morality stories. Am I looking in the wrong places?

A tale well told can take the reader out of their own head into worlds and situations that could provide insight or inspiration applicable to the reader's life. All fiction has some basis in reality. Charles Dickens illuminated the living conditions of the working poor in London. Arthur C Clark and other hard science fiction writers predicted much of the technology we use today. I could blather on about this for hours.

Identification with a fictional character can lead to emotional insight and, maybe, catharsis. And, of course, there is neurotransmitter stimulation. A good horror story can provide a huge dopamine release. Why do you think soft-porn romances are so popular with women? (Hint: It ain't because of the character development.)

We all know how the simple act of putting words together can help us clarify our emotions and circumstances. It is very much the reason why some writers begin writing. Often it starts as a daily diary entry or post-therapy musing. How much history have we learned due to journal entries left behind? What if Anne Frank had never kept her diary? Marco Polo? Leonardo Da Vinci? Winston Churchill?

Escapism comes in all forms, and entertainment changes as technology changes. I resent television for hijacking my internal visualizations. When I am absorbed in a good read, I generate my own images of the setting and the characters' appearances. When people complain about movies not being as good as the book they were based on, it is most likely due to differences in internal visualization vs. presentation, as well as rewriting the original story.

I love my Kindle, and it is never far from me. The screen is very much like a print book, however. Black words on a light background. No color, no moving pictures. No sound unless I want it. The pictures in my head are all mine generated by my responses to the words on the page. It is more portable than a paperback. My electronic library consists of 164 pages on my Kindle. So, there are some advantages to electronic screens. I can't fit that many books into my purse.

Have electronics made us lazy? Do we depend too much on noise and movement from a constantly shifting screen to stimulate neurotransmitter production? Have algorithms and computer programs deprived us of imagination and critical thinking? Lately, I have been meeting more people who are not familiar with internal visualization, "movies in your head," or whatever else it may be called. My therapist tells me that the inability to visualize is more common than it seems. Have we lost something with our dependence on bright screens with colorful images? I wonder if this is a teachable skill? He did not think so, but I just found directions online. They are on a blog about mental strength and physical development. Unfortunately, it is all about learning the skill to get ahead in the world and achieve your goals, nothing about creativity or insight, just another take on the popular idea that we can create our dreams with proper mental gymnastics.

Have we learned to depend too much on formula? Pick a plot and some standard characters, toss in a few adjectives and verbs, but don't make them very complicated or unfamiliar. (Heaven forbid that your readers have to think.) The more emotional drama, the better! Short sentences! and no more than 3 sentences per paragraph! Make sure your Search Engine Optimization game is on for the title. If it must have a cover, lurid is better. Sex always sells, so toss it in, real or implied, depending upon your target audience. If you don't believe me, look up some of the most popular contemporary authors on KindleUnlimited. There are reasons why the books are free.

Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with brain candy or mindless reading. We all need a break from the angst of our lives once in a while. But, please, sweet people, don't let that be all there is.

This leads me to another chapter in this rant, commercialization. In perusing various platforms such as this for writers, I keep finding titles such as "How I Made $##### Writing for XXXXX" and "10 Ways to Monetize your Blog,", etc. ad nauseum. Yes, copywriting and marketing have their uses. Both seem manipulative and soulless to me when applied to what I understand is a creative process.

An aspiring copywriter asked me to help produce copy for an RV-rental company that had an office on one of the country's most physically dangerous and environmentally toxic areas. The goal was to entice people to visit the area. I asked if he knew anything at all about the area he asked me to write about. He did not. He said I could look up the city online and use the best parts of what I found, but to make sure to reword it enough that it wasn't considered plagiarism.

I needed a recipe for lemon pie, so I searched online. I didn't like the first one that came up, and I kept scrolling. Each link featured the same recipe under a different name, on a different blog, with different images. 4 pages later I finally found a recipe I liked. It was due to the ingredient list and directions, not the expert photography or the cute page template.

Another aspiring young writer recently told me about managing a blog for a particular public figure. She said she disagreed with his politics, but she had to do what she had to do. IMHO, she would have been doing more honest work in a strip club.

It has been said that there are only 7 basic plots in the world of storytelling, and the fun comes with creating the variations on them. Anything I have ever read about writing written by successful writers (meaning writers whose work makes an impact on more than their wallet) talks about writing because they have the urge to, not because they set out to make money. Some have offered personal stories about the reasons they write, and getting rich has not been one of them. (Stephen King and Natalie Goldberg immediately come to mind. I am sure there are many others.) They also talk about the piles of rejection letters they received before someone offered to publish their work and actually pay them for it.

Nowadays, the emphasis does not seem to be on the quality of writing so much as how well a piece is marketed. How many eyes can you get to click on the link to your piece? Never mind if they are bored after the first sentence. Social media is the way to be discovered! Spend your time (or hire someone) to spread your link over all the social media available. If that is not enough, invent another one. It doesn't seem to matter how well it is written or the impact it may have on a reader. Clicks are the currency!

Maybe the rejection letter's contemporary equivalent is no reaction at all, tossing the fruits of our creative angsting into the spaces between electrons and not causing a ripple?

I have no clue. I am through venting my spleen. I am old and tired. Now I have to chase some young upstart whippersnappers off my lawn.