The Enduring Power of Stories
And why they matter more than ever.
We all love stories, don’t we?
When I was a child I wanted to be a writer, and that desire has never left me. I suppose it eventually led to the life I now lead, a handful of books and countless articles. But the writing I do isn’t really the kind of writing I envisaged when I was seven or eight years old. I always wanted to write stories. Somewhere along the way these intentions diminished, but never really left me, spawning, instead, pieces about stories and imagination and how the human mind can conjure up events that have never happened and people who have never existed. I even wrote a 100 thousand word manuscript on the subject that I doubt will ever see the light of day, although I’ve adapted a few chapters of it and published them here:
The Curious Psychology of Fictional Characters
Imagining Ourselves into Existence
In the February 2021 issue of The Psychologist, there’s an interesting interview with writer Will Storr, where he discusses the powerful nature of stories (I’d also highly recommend his book The Science of Storytelling). One thing that struck me was Storr’s link between stories and social change.
If you want to bring about social change, I…
