For me, storytelling revolves so much around plenty of reasons. In my opinion, the most important reason is what John Yorke calls ‘The Role of Order’ in his book ‘Into the Woods: How Stories Work and why We Tell Them’. The reality of an average human in a safe house, in a calm neighborhood, in a stable country, with no conflicts of any kind could be an image of hell if one does not understand the meaning behind their existence. So what about places where humans feel lost, defeated and lonely, not understanding why they live in war zones, poor villages, isolated deserts, chaotic cities, and unheard of nations? Stories give meanings to meaningless conflicts that people often find themselves in the middle of without having a clue about, driven by bigger factors and entities beyond their control such as fate, governments, financial systems, and agendas.
With stories we make sense of a life that does not make sense most of the time. We make sense of pain and come out of it with new realizations. It is like how Rainer Maria Rilke describes it “let everything happen to you, beauty and terror”. Stories are our way to let it all happen to us, because this is how we complete the arc of our personal journey. This is how we get stronger and wiser, and here comes the second reason why I love to tell stories: to simply heal. By turning terror into beauty, and trauma into art, I feel like I am writing a different ending to the pain. Storytelling gives me the closure I did not get in hanging relationships with places I was forced to leave, faces I would never see again, feelings I was hiding under the rug, and times I could not go back to.
Furthermore, the ultimate beauty of this process is while thinking you heal yourself telling this story, writing that novel, or making that film, you actually give an everlasting source for healing for people who might experience different shapes of pain than yours, but still can find solace in your creation.
AlRaweya الراوية 