“Tell me a story.”
It starts when we are kids, and we never grow out of it, this love of stories. Even if we don't like to read, we still like the stories we tell each other. The ones about our experiences, about our dreams. Our love of story is in the movies we watch. And even in the video games many of us like to play, which always have to have some sort of storyline.
As a writer I'm often left wondering why I am doing this. It takes a lot of work to write a novel. A lot of time. It's fun to imagine and write the story down, but… But, will anyone else actually want to read it? I have to wonder, what's this story thing all about anyway?
It helps me to think of how it all starts, with a child asking for a story. You try to give them one you think they'll like, based on their interests. They may or may not like it, but when they do, they'll probably ask for it again and again.
There's something about a story that touches us to the core when it's about something that really means a lot to us. We might want to hear about good guys winning over bad guys. Or about the hero confronting the odds and claiming victory. Or about falling in love. Or maybe something that involves the challenges we ourselves have to deal with. Some of us want the same story or kind of story over and over again. We don't care if it's like so many other stories.
But some of us don't want to hear the same story all of the time. We want to hear something unique and different, or especially creative, or profound enough to make us think. Some of us are looking for a play with words, an interesting turn of phrase. Some of us have decided that certain characteristics are “literary” and want all stories to conform to those certain standards. Some of us couldn't care less. Others are really turned off by those very standards. It doesn't matter. People want to be told stories. Fortunately, there are lots of people who like to tell them.
So, I guess all I can do is hope that there will be someone out there who will appreciate the stories I have to tell. My own kind of stories. And if so, then I will have satisfied their desire for story, and answered my own call to write those stories.