Whether fiction or non-fiction, stories are an effective tool to express an experience or imagination. While it takes a sweet headline or title or clickbait to get enticed and read a story, it takes courage to write one. Story writers are great artists who have decided to be crazy enough to pen down their imagination or experience. For all it’s worth, they could’ve just told it to a few people around them – telling stories is way easier than writing one – or simply just keep it in their head. And so, in this article, we’ll examine the importance of stories to everyone in the “story-chain”, particularly focusing on storytellers/writers and readers and every other thing in between.
There are a million reasons why a writer would write a story. In fact, the intention of a writer is the best tool to explain a story. Because, when we understand the intention, what the storyteller stands to gain or is trying to prove or pass across, readers can then read the story in understanding to have maximum satisfaction from the story. Some writers write experience. They pick a particular scenario or chain of events that has happened personally to them or someone they know and just scripts it up.
Most times, the writer is trying to unburden him or her self by just laying it all down through pen to paper. And this is actually one of the very importance of writing a story. Not so many people feel this way, but writing your experience, either bad or good is actually therapeutic. Creative writers, on the other hand, are simply trying to stretch their imagination. Creating what is not and making it so real and compelling that readers begin to feel and live in the atmosphere. Creative writing is a form of mental exercise. The best form of creative writing uses literature tools to create an aura of imagination which is used to pass a subtle message to the readers.
To readers, taking time out to read a story might just be the best use of their idle travel time on the train Or to get new words and their usage. Sometimes, reading is done to expand in knowledge, catching a glimpse of the world without leaving the couch. While all of these are good, there are some major reasons why stories are good for us, filling our subconscious with thoughts being the first one. Often time, when we read stories or any literature, sometimes as harmless as a fashion magazine, we tend not to take note of the fillings happening to our subconscious. We often then act out the point that tickled our brain while reading in the real world.
We are so busy with life we can’t connect the reading to our actions. It’s why it is important to be very conscious of the content we take in. If you read a piece about how simply saying “Hi” got the characters in the book to start their love life, you should watch yourself to see how many attractive people you greet the next day. You didn’t decide to greet them, your subconscious is out on a ride exercising what you filled it with.
Story reading on another ground helps readers to gain strength knowing that what they are passing through is not just happening to them. Stories sometimes help through grief. When you read a story and it sounds like you, you tend to feel a little relief. The story could either be a happy one or the other way round, the point is stories helps us to create a mental world for people passing through things – happy or sad- like ourselves and in this world, readers find solace. It’s why storytellers have to be careful about how they script their stories and not just having fun with them.
Conclusively, the importance of stories is more plentiful than expounded in this article but I hope I’ve been able to establish that stories are not just simply stories, they are life.
