Hello out there,
Can you remember the first story you were told?
The first one I can remember is from my dad. He would tell us about his adventures growing up. As kids ourselves we ate that stuff up.
I remember watching my brother as my dad told his stories, he was transfixed. It was as if his next breath hung on every word. The awe on my brother’s face made me feel the importance of my father’s words.
This is when I knew that I wanted to write stories. I wanted to cause that reaction in a person. I wasn’t exactly thinking of it that way at the time because I was pretty transfixed at the time.
You see, I grew up in the 80s and 90s. My family didn’t have a bunch of video games and the video games that we did have were these really bad looking ones.
A story from our father allowed us to imagine something better. If I had grown up in today’s society I don’t know if I would have liked my father’s stories as much.
The world is so saturated with stories today it’s hard to fit yours in. It’s hard to find where we actually belong.
No app has ever given me the same feelings I felt when my father told us his stories.
His stories weren’t very elaborate. They were simple stories like the one about his family when they were out camping. A bear wandered into the area and their dog scared it away.
Or the time he had to dig into the snow and stay the night because a blizzard blew in.
Dad didn’t overwhelm us with every detail. He kept it simple.
This is the type of story I like to write. I want to keep people wondering what the next scene will be about. The overarching story is important but not as important as what is going to happen next.
This is why I write Slice of Life. It’s seeped in realism which is how we all experience the world. If you can write a great realistic story where it’s just another day I think you can write anything.
You can write about pancakes and their delicate aroma. About how fluffy they are and how they effortlessly slide down your throat.
Then turn around and give your cat a piece. It sniffs at it a few times and leaps into the air for seemingly no reason.
When you write Slice of Life it’s about connecting with nostalgia. It’s about pulling people into those situations in which they’ve experienced themselves. At least, that’s how I see it.
Dad wasn’t the only one that inspired story writing for me. I mentioned video games earlier because video games actually inspired my story writing. Role-playing games in particular.
I remember the game that inspired me as a kid. Final Fantasy IV.
It wasn’t the first role-playing game that I played but it was the first role-playing game with a story I could connect with.
Once I found that I could immerse myself in videogames stories I used those stories as a distraction from my own life.
It’s no secret that I’m transgender. In fact, I’ve been talking about it ever since I figured it out.
I used these stories, these tales of wonder, as a mask so I didn’t have to face myself.
While my situation is different and I used stories to push away reality. I think everybody uses stories as an escape. That’s the reason why sales of books have gone up during this pandemic.
Stories are so very important to the world. As a society, we used to sit around and tell stories to our families. Our families would then pass down those stories. It’s just something that isn’t done anymore.
While I only got a smidgen of the experience of passed down stories they’ve changed my life in unimaginable ways.
Maybe one day life will change and people won’t have to be so busy all the time. Maybe then the art of live storytelling will really come alive.
Thank you for reading along today. I hope you have a day worth telling someone about.
Katherine
Author Katherine Phillips 