Story is Holy

We are social animals and we go a little bit crazy when we are isolated from one another. I tend to carry on quite a conversation with myself when there is no one else to talk with. I discuss all sorts of ideas when I'm walking down the street alone. People stare at me as though I were some poor homeless person who had lost her mind out of desperation. In truth, I know very few people who would be as interested in discussing those ideas as I am. I tell myself that part of the reason I talk to myself is that I am under contract not to discuss the books I write for my clients with anyone else. So, when I have a question about a character in one of the stories I am working on, the only person I can work it out with is myself, and of course my client. But, it is surprising how uncommunicative some clients can be. And while I, as the writer, see the characters in his book as a living, breathing people, who have hopes and dreams and problems they cannot solve on his own, my client sees them being as merely characters in a story. My client is interested in developing the story as much as possible, but he is not obsessed with it, unless he is the main character in his book. But that is for a different article.

So, there is the isolation we have because we do not have close friends or family, and the isolation that we experience when we must work alone. In either case, this isolation is something that we fight. It is not healthy to live entirely alone. Many of us live within crowds of people and we are still alone. Watching all those people going their own directions can be a horrible reminder that our friends are elsewhere.

One thing that binds all of us together is story. From the days when we gathered around the fire at night, telling each other our stories, embellishing them to keep each other entertained and to eke some meaning from the seemingly random acts of nature, and the neighboring tribes, stories have been sacred to us. And, that is why I write for people, even though it is a lonely