Anyone who is in marketing, advertising, or branding right now, or is in a field that touches those fields, knows that right now, story is king. Everyone is talking about storytelling - how a brand can and should tell a story for its consumers, and then how it weaves itself into consumers' life stories. I follow business blogs and read articles by the gurus, and the word "story" appears to be taking over the world, for the moment.
What's funny about this for me is that story has always been what has made my heart pump. From the first time my kindergarten teacher dispatched me to the library to find my own books while everyone else was having circle time... no, from the time I was sitting cross-legged on the preschool rug listening to my teacher read The Cat in the Hat... no, from the time I first crawled up in my Mama's lap, clutching a book...
(Image credit: sxc.hu user kylpyamme)
As long as I can remember, I have lived and breathed story. In books, in films, in songs, in poems. Character A wants thing X, but then event B happens and ... oh! Who would have expected it? Character A chooses thing Z and now, are they really Character A anymore after all? Yes, they are a new Character A, they have grown! The world is different, things have changed. How glorious, how beautiful. We change as our worlds change. It is all so very thrilling to me. It's essential, like breathing, or coffee, or Nutella. #eatallthenutella
As an English Lit nerd, I never thought I'd be here, professionally - it's never something I imagined. I fell unexpectedly into this work through a story portal, like Alice falling into Wonderland. I learned that every person walking this earth has a story. I learned that companies want to understand those stories so they can build better products and services (and make money doing so, of course). I learned that I could put my writing to use to help tell the stories in ways that made sense.
You would think that meant that I am delighted that everyone is abuzz with the concept of story. It's the right moment for me, right? The planets are aligning?
Well, not exactly.
Because somewhere along the way, I developed an annoying contrarian streak that makes me kind of flinch away from anything that feels too trendy. It's why I've never read Harry Potter or seen Fight Club, and why it took me four years to start watching "How I Met Your Mother."
So when I see the word story popping up across the Internet right now, like an innovation, like another trick in a marketer's magical hat, I feel skeevy and weird. I start wondering if storytelling should really be my thing, after all. Maybe it's trite. Maybe it's cliche. Maybe it's overused.
I've been pondering this more than is healthy, and I think I'm working through it. I think I've concluded that...
Story was my first love. Story is life, lived out loud. Story is dream and reality, mixed up and mingled like only the imperfect human mind and spirit can make it.
(Image credit: sxc.hu user nkzs)
Can this be cliche? Can this be just another element of a good marketing mix?
Maybe that's what it is for someone else, but not for me.
For my part I'm going to keep digging, to uncover the stories that people tell each other, the stories they tell themselves, the stories that matter most to them. Because in the stories we tell, we find the breadcrumbs we've dropped from where we've been, the best and the worst of who we are right now, and who we dream of becoming. I'm so glad that storytellers are in the limelight. I'm glad that technology is enabling more of us to share our stories with each other in unprecedented ways.
So, let story have its day in the sun. Let it be king. Long live the king!
And when many of the authors and the gurus and the experts have moved on to something else, I'll still be over here... eating and breathing stories.
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