As a storyteller, do you ever think that means we’ve run out of things to say?No. Families get together and they tell stories. How many times have you talked about that summer where dad drove the car into the lake, or whatever? There’s something reassuring to revisiting stories, the kind of ancient storytelling tradition of the campfire: “Tell me that story again.”

As a storyteller, do you ever think that means we’ve run out of things to say?

No. Families get together and they tell stories. How many times have you talked about that summer where dad drove the car into the lake, or whatever? There’s something reassuring to revisiting stories, the kind of ancient storytelling tradition of the campfire: “Tell me that story again.”

Finn Cohen • After Five Seasons of ‘Fargo,’ Noah Hawley Is Still Rooting for America

Saved by Alex Dobrenko

RelatedCollectionsNotes

To know, tell, and create stories is a wonderous skill that keeps faith with the traditional and beauteous techniques our ancestors used when faced with the sudden mists and tripwires of living.

Emergence Magazine • Navigating the Mysteries

It’s a human need to be told stories. The more we’re governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible. — Alan Rickman

Dan Kennedy • Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling

We’ve said that a story is a system for the transfer of energy. Energy made in the early pages gets transferred along through the story, passed from section to section, like a bucket of water headed for a fire, and the hope is that not a drop gets lost.

George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

In workshop we sometimes say that what makes a piece of writing a story is that something happens within it that changes the character forever. (That’s a bit Draconian, but let’s go with it as a starting place.) So, we tell a certain story, starting at one time and ending at another, in order to frame that moment of change.

George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo

Stories are everywhere. Stories are us. It’s story that makes us human.

Will Storr • The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better

For a story to ask these sorts of questions, we first have to finish it. It has to draw us in, compel us to keep going.

George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo

As storytellers, we never add something to a story that was not already there.

Dan Kennedy • Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling

Not many stories exist without both voices. On Star Trek it’s the captain’s log.

Emergence Magazine • Navigating the Mysteries

Dan Kennedy • Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling

George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo

Will Storr • The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better

George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo

Dan Kennedy • Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling

Chuck Palahniuk • Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life after Which Everything Was Different