Human life is story. We live our lives by telling each other our stories. It is the essence of education, community, even survival. This is why our brain craves it and rewards us chemically for engaging in it.
You go through your day gathering events. Most fall to the wayside because they have no lasting value. At the end of the day, you condense them down into the memorable things. The funny thing Bill told you. The crazy assignment the boss gave you. The bastard that cut you off in traffic. The delicious new restaurant you tried. This becomes the story of your day. Most of those moments are excised from the story of your week. How many remain for the story of your year?
“And, by the way, you know, when you’re telling these little stories, here’s a good idea, have a point. It makes it so much more interesting to the listener.” – Neal (Steve Martin) from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Written by John Hughes.
What is the point of the story? What is the point of life? A story needs to be interesting. What makes it interesting? Many would say ‘conflict’ is the key to an interesting story. It certainly features heavily in the best stories. Adversity is a form of conflict and an important ingredient of any story. Comedy can be full of conflict, but sometimes a joke is absent conflict and still gets a laugh. What the conflict does for us is to bring emotion to the surface. A story strives to make us feel… something, anything. This makes the story more real and in the process more likely to be remembered and have lasting value.
Which emotions do you want to evoke? There are only four of them, though you can find articles that will argue for many more than that. They are simple variations on a theme. Disgust is just a form of Anger. Surprise is just a form of Fear. The final two, and the ones most often evoked in story, are Happiness and Sadness.
I have said many times that a great movie is one that can make me laugh and cry. This is a low bar since I cry at most movies, even Terminator 2 gets me in the feels every time. Mostly I cry at the happy endings, like the town’s people bringing George Bailey money. I often laugh at the horrific scenes Quentin Tarantino puts together.
As for novels, no one has made me cry more than the death merchant, Nicholas Sparks. A Walk to Remember can keep the waterworks going for hours even on my seventh re-read. John Scalzi gets me laughing like no other. The best ones can do both, and throw in some anger and fear to go with it. I bet Harry Potter gets a lot of people there, though I am too old and cynical a muggle to fall for it.
Story is empathetic emotion, driven by conflict and adversity, for the purpose of making us aware of the potential dangers that could befall us. The reason we want to avoid danger? Aside from surviving, that is how we make our way toward happiness, the true purpose of life.