Philosophy of Storytelling

 Humans are dependent on storytelling. It is a tool that we use everyday, and it is a tool that has multiple purposes. Stories are used as a means of learning, relating, and expressing oneself in a manner that provides deeper connection. Stories allow us to explain the more nuanced aspects of whatever it is we want to convey. They add layers and feelings that individual words by themselves cannot express. Stories give us the ability to reach the same emotional and mental ground with the people we share them with.

You could tell someone you are happy, but the word happy could be received and perceived in a way that doesn’t do the feeling you are experiencing justice. A single word can hardly be used to express the complex nature of human thought or emotion. A story on the other hand can depict everything you went through to achieve that happiness. The hardships you faced, and relief of overcoming them.

Stories give us context and allow us to fully grasp and comprehend deep emotions. They provide the framework for learning and are vital to developing young minds. Stories are a means of teaching children ideas and notions that are hard to perceive without them having any experience dealing with more advanced concepts.

They lay the foundation for cultures and societies. Stories tell us our past and they are used to predict our futures. Stories are also a way to convey one’s thoughts and emotions into something meaningful or entertaining. They can distract us from our ailments or give us hope to preserver through them. They allow us to sympathize and relate to people across the globe and across time.

Naturally, images have always been an integral part of a story. Before people could express stories verbally we used images to convey our thoughts. We drew shapes in the dirt or expressed a story through paintings on cave walls. These early images allowed us depict to others what we failed to describe verbally.

If visuals are not presented to us, then our minds will conjure up people and places to go along with a story we are being told. Picturing a story play out in our heads allows us to perceive our take on the events, unleashing the creative imagination that we all possess. From an authors standpoint, withholding a visual component forces the listeners to engage more. Listeners will actively form the story in their minds, with people projecting a unique visual for themselves. In a way this creates multiple stories all stemming from a single source.

On the other hand, presenting a visual component to a listener allows the storyteller to express how the story is playing out in his or her mind, the creator of the story. Giving visuals to an audience allows them to better understand the storyteller and the place, emotionally and mentally, where the author is coming from. This can lead to a connection between the storyteller and the audience.