The Alchemy of Storytelling

We walk in the storytelling footsteps of our ancestors. 

We’ve listened to stories under starry canopies and stared into crackling flames and embers since our history began. Storytelling is a way we’ve passed on culture and wisdom, conveyed experience, expressed feelings and generated understanding.

We’ve all known stories that stay with us long after the campfire dies or we close a book. The most powerful stories are both unique and universal. The challenges faced and overcome by characters can speak to and inform us about our own.

Alchemy – the power to transform.

Since campfires began, storytelling has offered the possibility of alchemy.

It is said alchemists of old distilled base metals into gold. Heroes in stories do, too. The alchemy is the distillation of challenges from which characters heal, change and grow. 

And in our own lives there is alchemy. There are delicate or fiercely defined moments where difficulty and struggle turn around, perhaps in unexpected or even magical ways.

I’m interested in these stories.

Care in Storytelling.

Stories can also generate fear, hopelessness, despair and anxiety. I’ve read flash fictions that left me stuck in the emotional violence of the piece. Suffering, trauma and shocking the reader seemed to be the major focus and as I see it, this isn’t healthy or helpful.

I am not suggesting that we don’t write about traumatic events. I’m suggesting that we don’t reinforce trauma by disproportionately focusing on it.

I’m an advocate for transformative storytelling.

Storytelling that generates care, connection and understanding.