What is a story?

What exactly is a story?

According to dictonary.com it is:

‘a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader; tale.’

Stories transcend time and space and they aren’t just confined to creative writing.

They are at the heart of music, TV, films, photography and so much more.

Like the above definition suggests, stories can be used to explain, to sell, to inform, to entertain or to inspire. Their capacity for instruction is, in a sense, limitless.

Stories are what makes us human.

As far as we know, there are no other species in the animal kingdom that tell and share stories. A cat meowing at another cat is a form of communication but it’s devoid of narrative (as far as we know!).

Most human interaction is about storytelling.

For example, if you ask someone at the end of their day “How was your day?” then they’re only too happy to tell you a story.  

You could argue that stories are what have made us the apex of the species. They allow us to create and believe in abstract concepts like money.

A paper note has no value in and of itself. We give it a value by creating a story around it. It requires us to collectively believe in this story for money to function as a form of exchange.

So perhaps the popular phrase "Money makes the world go around" should really be "Stories help the world go around".