What's Your Story?

A common misconception is that we human beings communicate with one another through words. While words are obviously a fundamental building block of communication, the way you and I really speak to one another is through story.
Here's an example- Your dog, Fido, takes off one afternoon and comes back a few hours later covered in blood. Seeing this, you immediately panic, and a dozen different scenarios run through your mind. Is the dog hurt?
Did he get in a fight and hurt another dog?
Did he attack a person? But Fido would never do something like that, he's always been so gentle!

So how do you find out what happened? You have to piece together the clues. You check the dog for injuries, follow the trail of blood, look for a dead racoon, or perhaps even a chunk of your neighbor out in the back yard, etc.
Unless your dog's very special, he can't tell you the story.

He can tell you when he's hungry, angry, happy, and a number of other things through his doggy "words" and expressions, but he's probably never told you a story. My point is, the two of you aren't going to share an amusing anecdote or sit down and figure out your relationship problems. Why? Because dogs can't tell us stories- not in the sense of speaking of.


People, on the other hand, tell each other stories all day long. If you tell someone what you had for breakfast, you're telling them a story.


You: "Hey, Fido, come here boy, you hungry?"
Fido: "Woof!" Translation- "You bet I am!"

No story.


You: "Hey, Jenny, you hungry? I was just about to fix myself a sandwich."
Jenny: "You bet I am! I haven't had a thing since breakfast. I ran into my mother at Safeway this morning and she kept lecturing me about when we're going to try for a baby. By the time she got through with me I'd lost my appetite for lunch."

Jenny just told us a story- not a particularly groundbreaking story, but a story, nonetheless.



Contrast the above with this.

You: "Hey, Jenny, you hungry?"
Jenny: "Yes."
You: "I was just about to fix myself a sandwich. You want one?"
Jenny: "Yes."


Geeze, what the heck's wrong with Jenny, today? Is she in a bad mood or something? What's HER problem?


We all have stories to tell- we tell them all day, every day. So if you've ever pondered being a writer, then why not jot a few of them down- there's probably an audience waiting to listen.

Don't be scared about getting started, because you've been telling stories all your life- you've told dozens if not hundreds just today- and if you were really that worried about people not caring about what you have to say, then why are you still talking?