Why Storytelling is important

The Storyteller 

I’m sure you could take a college class or attend a lecture about this topic, and I’m not a teacher, but I’ve been thinking about this lately and I wanted to share my thoughts :)

Why storytelling is important (at least to me :)

Stories provide a safe way to confront personal demons. There is something so cathartic about a character fighting through the same thing you are. There is something about the outside looking in that makes the right thing to do easy to see. Personally, I like this fight to be abstract. I can’t begin to tell you how hard I cried thinking about two small hobbit battling against a power they logically couldn't beat.

Stories challenge our prejudices. We all have prejudices. They are built into our psyche as a way to keep us safe. I love reading books that begin with a character I’m not particularly fond of and then the author turns my world upside down and changes everything I know. I remember feeling this way after I read To Kill a Mockingbird.

Stories provide a needed escape. You can bury yourself in Angry Birds or worse more destructive kinds of escape, but reading is the perfect retreat. Not only do you get away, but you are working your mind and learning too. Now that is my kind of multitasking. This last year I read over 80 books and next year I’m setting a goal for 100. I need books—they are my oxygen.

Mark Twain said—“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t.”

To that I say…AMEN!

-Angie

What do you think? Why important is storytelling to you?

The power of the write word

"The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."

-Mark Twain

I've been marinating over this quote since I took a class from Sara Eden at the LDStorymakers conference. She taught us about description and how the wrong word can haunt you throughout your entire book...lurking over your shoulder and throwing off the flow. Whereas, the right word, moves the plot forward in the direction that you want. It is liberating and gives your manuscript the crisp details that make a good story come to life.

The power of the word is unfathomable. As I've been revising my book, I have seen this first hand. It was so thrilling last night when I cut a 12 word sentence to 7 by trimming the fat and throwing out 5 non-essential words. I replaced those 5 with one word - snap. Am I a nerd to get so excited about this? It's a small thing, replacing 5 words, but it gave my plot the slight pivot and shift that it needed.

Sara