Story Insider: "New Times Need New Stories" with Joel Carnegie

It's time for us to have real talk.

This is Story Insider. Your regular dispatch that lifts the hood on storytelling.

There is plenty that has been said about the assassination attempt on Former President Trump over the weekend. Clearly, this was horrific assault on democracy. Violence is never the answer.

But when stories about an evil “other” are driven into the heart of a nation [that has semi automatic weapons conveniently available from the corner store], then this really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

So, what’s this got to do with storytellers? Everything.

Currently, we’re taught to build stories in terms of antagonists and protagonists who duke it out with oppositional wants in order to create tension, crisis and resolution. “I want this, you want that, we fight. I want this, you want that, we fuck.”  And so we go until the big bust-up and characters either get what they want or don’t, they “learn” something or they don’t and, the End. - Joan Scheckel

Whether you are a story commissioner, a storyteller, or a story lover [or all of the above], we need to take a moment of introspection. About the stories we choose. Before this gets completely out of hand. Let’s talk.