John Clayton contemplates great storytelling
To me the big news in last week's New York Times story "This is your life (and how you tell it)" was not so much the power of storytelling, as in:
For years I've centered my professional life on that notion: whether it's a book, essay, or hi-tech white paper, I want to try to tell a story.
No, what I found interesting was the studies suggesting that relating your stories in the third person can be more emotionally healthy than doing so in the first person. In other words:
Think of all those people you've mocked for talking about themselves in the third person. (Sports stars do it a lot -- I remember the Wade Boggs mockery in the 1980s.) Turns out they may be particularly psychologically well-adjusted.
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com
People tend to remember facts more accurately if they encounter them in a story rather than in a list, studies find; and they rate legal arguments as more convincing when built into narrative tales rather than on legal precedent.
For years I've centered my professional life on that notion: whether it's a book, essay, or hi-tech white paper, I want to try to tell a story.
No, what I found interesting was the studies suggesting that relating your stories in the third person can be more emotionally healthy than doing so in the first person. In other words:
The third-person perspective allowed people to reflect on the meaning of their social miscues, the authors suggest, and thus to perceive more psychological growth... Seeing oneself as acting in a movie or a play is not merely fantasy or indulgence; it is fundamental to how people work out who it is they are, and may become.
Think of all those people you've mocked for talking about themselves in the third person. (Sports stars do it a lot -- I remember the Wade Boggs mockery in the 1980s.) Turns out they may be particularly psychologically well-adjusted.
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com
