Our house is undergoing a renovation right now (thus the unexplained hiatus here). In addition to doing beautiful and timely work, our contractor gave me an insight on the power of story.

 

Somehow we got to talking about tools we use to remember things. He told me about a conference he attended that involved a speaker/magician of some sort. I promise this is relevant to novel writing.

 

The speaker called on various audience members to generate a list of a dozen random items. Then he worked them into a story, made up on the spot. At the end of the presentation, he asked the audience to try to remember as many of the previously unrelated items as possible. They easily recalled the majority of them.

 

Story is humans’ way of relating, of remembering, of reflecting, of being all the beautiful things we are as human beings. And that makes it a worthy endeavor for me.