I Feel Like There Are So Many People In Writing Spaces Who Seem To Believe Storytelling Is Metaphysical

I feel like there are so many people in writing spaces who seem to believe storytelling is metaphysical somehow instead of a very mundane and practicable skill and craft.

like that poll about whether a story needs meaning. I think it's so odd to be talking about whether a story "needs" meaning because it implies this image of writers pulling an already extant story from the sea and, like a lobsterman checking for eggs, deciding whether to throw it back to the waves based on whether or not it has "meaning."

the very simple reality of it is that stories are a form of communication. it is a use of language. whenever you are communicating something to someone using language, that person will be processing your words to understand your meaning. that is how language works.

if you're telling someone about your day, for example, you choose what events to include and exclude from your retelling. say you want to emphasize the bad parts of your day because you're feeling upset and you're talking about your day so someone will understand why you're upset. so you mention how your boss spoke to you and how you missed the bus and how you stained your one good shirt you wear to interviews when trying to find a better job. you might mention the person who offered you cover under their umbrella at the bus stop as a moment of compassion and relief contrasted with the rest of your day. but you probably leave out the details about scrolling through instagram on your lunch break or your conversation with a coworker about filling out a maintenance request because even though these were part of your day, neither are really important to the point you're making, and it would only obfuscate what you're trying to communicate. we communicate with storytelling all the time.

you can choose to just write and never interrogate why you're saying the things you're saying to other people. but I don't know why anyone would recommend it as a practice. especially in contexts in which you're tying your writing to your identity in any way, because then you're not remotely prepared for people's response to what you say to them. it's like getting blackout drunk or very high before giving a speech to a bunch of strangers. sure, it's theoretically possible that completely absent any inhibition or planning or self-aware intention or desire to communicate something you might say good things that you would be proud of later, but it's not likely. and even if it's possible, why would you want to surrender control over what random ideas and values and life experiences you share with all these people? terrifying! why gamble with that instead of being intentional?

the alternative is simply being intentional about what you actually want to say and what emotions you want your audience to be left with. intentional with what narratives you share and why it starts where it starts and ends where it ends. what images you want to repeat and why you want to connect the emotional scenes you connect. which characters you introduce and why their perspectives or actions are needed to convey what you're trying to convey. think about who and what is important to get what you're trying to say across.

all the intention and planning in the world is not going to necessarily ensure that people will understand what you are trying to communicate from reading your story. they might still interpret it completely different than how you meant it, bring their own meaning to it, assume things about you and your values from their own interpretation of it. that happens all the time, and it usually doesn't feel good, but that's art.

a lot of the craft of writing is learning how to best minimize that happening. how do you convey your meaning accurately to the most readers possible? how can you learn to evoke the emotions you're meaning to evoke from other writers who are successful at making you feel emotions they want you to feel? those things are at the core of what you are learning when you are honing your writing skills.

to refuse to engage with that at all is completely alien to me--what is the point if there is no point? why listen to someone tell you about their day if they don't even care why they're telling you what they're telling you?

all communication is imperfect--we can never understand exactly what someone else intended to convey. but good communication is trying our best to make the gap between what one person wants to communicate and what the other person interprets as small as possible. storytelling, and learning to do it well, is just another form this takes. it's language.