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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > What are stories for?
What are stories for?  [message #74865] Fri, 14 September 2018 17:53 Go to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



Some of us write stories. What are they for?



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: What are stories for?  [message #74875 is a reply to message #74865] Sat, 15 September 2018 10:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cm is currently offline  cm

Toe is in the water
Location: Somerset
Registered: May 2017
Messages: 64



For me, they can be for several things:

To scratch my itch to be creative
To be cathartic
To make somebody somewhere feel better about themselves (even just one is enough)
To give somebody somewhere a smile
To give somebody somewhere hope
To give as many people as possible a bloody good read; one of the great joys of life.

Could be one of these things or a combination.

...and of course I may sometimes - maybe often - fail...but ultimately I write stories because I love writing. A selfish pleasure which I excuse with any and all the above justifications...
Re: What are stories for?  [message #74877 is a reply to message #74865] Sat, 15 September 2018 15:39 Go to previous messageGo to next message
William King is currently offline  William King

Toe is in the water

Registered: October 2016
Messages: 98



Immortality - I will be gone one day, but my stories will live forever.
Re: What are stories for?  [message #74883 is a reply to message #74865] Sun, 16 September 2018 16:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Geron Kees is currently offline  Geron Kees

Likes it here
Location: USA
Registered: February 2016
Messages: 147



"timmy wrote on Fri, 14 September 2018 17:53"
Some of us write stories. What are they for?

--You write, and well, so you should know. Every one of us has stories inside of them. Many more people would like to tell them than do. But a few sit and actually do it, because to not do it would lead to a clutter within that would eventually become intolerable. This clutter of things takes all forms, be it things never quite completed, never quite fulfilled; or of things that did come to pass and are now treasured. Observations, ideas, imaginings, suppositions, regrets, hopes, dreams, glories, failures. People. Ah, yes, it is mostly about people. The people that have graced our lives, either fully, or in passing.

Minds are very much like closets, in that we store all sorts of stuff there. People are different, of course. Some people store stuff on shelves, orderly and neat, and occasionally open the door and look inside, and smile at all that stuff, and then go away again. Others are less neat, and when they open the door, things come falling out. Sometimes those things land on paper, and we have a story.

That's not to say that a writer cannot have an orderly mind, because most probably do. But there seems to be something also in that writer's closet that gives all that junk on the shelves an occasional push, an occasional stir, so that no matter how neatly stored away it is, it still comes tumbling out when the door gets opened. Like the old gremlins that plagued the early fliers, maybe, this thing is waiting patiently, grinning and humming happily to itself, waiting for that crack of light to appear as the door gets opened.

Some writers write to excise pain, and others write to recall past glory. The impulses run the gamut, the drivers things we may sometimes not even understand ourselves. I write because I enjoy it, enjoy expressing things I feel and think, especially with reference to people and events within my own life and those lives just around me, past and present. I share that writing because I hope others will get a little of the same sense of life out of it that I did.

And also, I probably write for the reason that a few of my friends have pointed out: I also just like to hear myself talk! http://forum.iomfats.org/images/message_icons/icon7.gif




Re: What are stories for?  [message #74884 is a reply to message #74883] Sun, 16 September 2018 17:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



Ah, my friend, you have answered your question, which I think is "Why write stories?" and the answer is a good one.

"What are stories for?" is a very different question. And it may need a non writer of tales to answer that.

I have an answer, because I know what mine are for. Mine are to give hope. I could give a longer answer, and will if pressed. I could expand on the reason why I believe hope is needed, for example, why I have written a tale about a successful suicide and say it gives hope.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: What are stories for?  [message #75066 is a reply to message #74884] Tue, 30 October 2018 12:34 Go to previous message
Pedro

Toe is in the water

Registered: March 2014
Messages: 93



What are stories for? Perhaps this should be taken with the parallel question -why are stories read/listened to?

Whether fiction or non-fiction, stories are primarily for entertainment, but they also pass information. It could be reportage, or a deliberate teaching point -eg wear something white/ visible if out at night- as in my story 'Live Long and Prosper', or more subtle -eg Norse sagas or the legends of King Arthur that give examples of how men can aspire to be heroes and the behaviour expected of them. An alternative to the latter would be the 'anti hero' story, demonstrating bad behaviour. 

The recipient has to interpret the story (fiction or non-fiction) in their own way and within the scope of their ability to understand and absorb the information being passed. How the story is presented is also significant. The story may reinforce their understanding of the world or challenge it. This can lead into the difficulties that can arise from the operation of that old adage 'a lie repeated often enough will be believed' - think: 'fake news'. 

Another aspect of presentation is accessibility. The recipient may disconnect with the story for a number of reasons. some examples might be:
incomprehensibility - the story might be so badly presented that it cannot be followed, or presented with a vocabulary not understood by the recipient.
Nausea- the story might be about a subject the recipient finds too abhorrent to continue.
Disbelief- the story might be too far-fetched or so for out of the recipient's understanding for the recipient to remain engaged.
Boredom- can't be bothered or heard to much about it already.



Pedro
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