6 Reasons Great Stories Matter

I recently had a prospect send me several hundred pages of a manuscript in which she sought my opinion about its publishing potential.

I read only about a third of it before I realized something extremely important was missing.

There was no story. 

I wrote the following email:

Thank you for letting me be of service. I have looked through the manuscript, and if you ask if it is publishable, I can emphatically say…

I don’t know.

Here’s why: I am a ghostwriter, and I deal in stories. Stories sell because they forge emotional connections, make information more memorable and relatable, and cause people to take action.

What you have sent me is a comprehensive collection of thoughts, theories, rhymes, posits, opinions, philosophies, and beliefs. They seem cohesive, well thought out and well organized.

But I can’t find a story. 

I didn’t know why the author wrote what he did. Nor could I tell why anyone would be motivated to read and follow it.

There was no “there” there.

And therein lies my issue. To paraphrase James Carville, it’s the story, stupid.

Stories boost mental health and well being. They help people express themselves, make sense of their experiences, and provide an outlet to express emotions such as empathy, joy, sadness, anger, disgust, and surprise.

“The act of telling stories helps us connect to others, make meaning, organize our lives into a coherent narrative, and immerse ourselves in others’ tales,” according to writer Barbara Field on the Very Well Mind website.

Stories enhance critical thinking, a skill I believe is in very short supply these days. Listening and telling stories sharpens analytical skills, causes the brain to understand complex narratives and be able to picture them in the mind, encourages people to make predictions and find new ways to solve problems, and improves organization (after all, how can you tell a story without organization?).

“Storytelling benefits not only the listeners, but the storyteller as well,” wrote Lisa Donovan, a professor in the Fine and Performing Arts Department at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. “You cannot tell a story without being engaged physically, mentally, and emotionally.”

Stories are fundamentally a part of being human. We say things to ourselves, then create narratives to support them. Whether they’re true or not doesn’t matter. They become part of us. As Christine Hennebury wrote, “They help us to understand that information and each other, and it makes the information memorable. Because stories create an emotional connection, we can gain a deeper understanding of other people’s experiences. That not only helps us to understand their lives but allows us to take the lessons they have learned and apply it to our own.”

Stories are where literacy begins. According to Kate Hurst, adults introduce stories to their infants and toddlers through nursery rhymes, songs, and bedtime stories. As we age and read more, we’re introduced to more words (and more complex words), which only increases our vocabulary.

Back in 2014, Matthew James Friday wrote on edutopia.org about how his storytelling helped his students, of which ninety-seven percent didn’t speak English as a first language, want to learn to speak and write in English.

“I have many children in my class who arrived speaking little or no English,” Friday wrote. “The single biggest factor to their incredible progress in English has been their wanting to become storytellers.”

That literacy expands away from the individual and into whole families and communities through the stories told about who we are, where we come from; and what are our traditions, rituals, and values that span multiple generations, geographic areas, and societies, “preserving the richness of diverse cultures and ensuring that the essence of the past continues to thrive in the present,” Angela Olea wrote on the Assisted Living Locators website.

Stories build trust. This is especially true in marketing. A story tells the target audience the beliefs and values a company, brand. individual holds. But it goes way beyond. Have you ever noticed how much more credibility you have with someone when you tell them a story instead of just reciting facts?

I know I have given speeches at networking meetings in which I spent the entire twelve minutes telling stories of “Things I Learned as a Ghostwriter.” The audience was riveted. I saw people who normally look at their phones hanging on my every word. That wasn’t just because of my charisma and presence in front of a group. It was also because of the stories.

Stories motivate and inspire action. What do Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and Steve Jobs have in common? They all gave memorable speeches that told stories and motivated people.

King’s “I Have a Dream” speech told the story of the world he wanted to live in. Churchill addressed Parliament, telling the forward-thinking story that if everyone does their part, Britain would win the war. 

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

In his first inaugural address, FDR told his story of how his New Deal would help the country recover from the Depression, and he warned not to be afraid. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Lincoln’s brief story in the Gettysburg Address praised the soldiers who died there and the need to continue to fight. Jobs spoke at Stanford’s commencement, telling the graduates stories about his life as a college dropout, his leaving Apple and founding Pixar, and his cancer diagnosis and the importance of living every day to the fullest. 

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. 

Stories do a lot of things. Never overlook the power of them.

Feel free to read and check out my other posts related to ghostwriting. Go to leebarnathan.com/blog.