I wanted to drop this quick for folks.
There’s an impression by many, that stories are superfluous to life. Afterall it’s “entertainment,” it’s not really necessary.
If you’re in that mindset, I have news for you, stories are far more critical to the human condition than you realize.
Here’s how it works.
Most people are in the shit. Life is a struggle filled with hardships. Unfortunately, more people than they’d like to admit are STUCK in it. In a bad way. Abusive relationships. Jobs they absolutely hate. Etc…
When you’re in a bad space, escapism of story isn’t simply a physical break to get away. To get your mind off the immediate problems and discomfort… it does something far more important.
When we escape to fiction, we’re looking for moral, spiritual, mental alignment. It’s a survival defense mechanism.
The real world shows us nothing but negative. Even our most trusted people around us aren’t getting it. They aren’t giving us the support we need.
So we turn to fiction, looking for the very support and correction we desperately need in the real world, in a fake one.
This is also why we humans can fall so madly in love and connect so deeply with fictional characters. It’s not because we want to be as cool as Han Solo or as tough as John McClane.
It’s because the characters we connect with, realigned us at a deeper level. They verified that who we want to be, who we’ve always tried to be, our compass of right and wrong, is actually valid and worth hanging on to. Despite what crap reality throws at us for all our effort.
Maybe your friends and family pressure you to find a spouse and settle down, but you believe in true love. Han Solo gives you permission to be that care free romantic deep down in your heart that you know you are. Or your close circle of friends always gives you crap for being so stubborn, but when you watch Die Hard your inner voice says, “See, everybody craps on stubborn, until stubborn is exactly what’s needed. Then everyone appreciates you for who you truly are!” (I haven’t unpacked these 2 specific characters, just throwing it out there as rough examples.)
Without fiction to reinforce us, a lot more people would be completely lost.
And the world as a whole would be a lot darker place.
I’ve talked elsewhere about genuine story and how it affects us, but this, this right here is why we need them. ▪
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Nick Macari is a full-time freelance story consultant, developmental editor and writer, working primarily in the independent gaming and comic markets. His first published comic appeared on shelves via Diamond in the late 90’s. Today you can find his comic work on comixology, Amazon, and in select stores around the U.S.