{"id":2128,"date":"2019-04-18T07:24:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T11:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.whitefire-publishing.com\/?p=2128"},"modified":"2020-06-01T09:05:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T13:05:40","slug":"stories-change-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/stories-change-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories Change the World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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David White, Publisher<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

At WhiteFire we believe that stories change the world.  It\u2019s a bit of a foregone conclusion from our\npoint of view \u2013 one that we\u2019re entirely sold out to.  But because its important to understand why a\nthing is (or, some would say, because I tend to overthink things) I found\nmyself wondering why <\/em>stories change\nthe world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why<\/em> isn\u2019t\nreally the right question, is it? It really does seem obvious that we\u2019re\ncreatures of story.  We learn things\nbetter when they\u2019re told in that form, and we\u2019ll spend endless hours listening,\nwatching, reading, and telling them.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe the right question is how <\/em>do stories change the world? \nThat question naturally leads us in two different directions, depending\non how you interpret the word how.  <\/em>(Has the world now lost all meaning for you?) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It breaks down like this.  One question means \u201cWhat are the methods by which stories change the world?\u201d  That one\u2019s pretty technical to me, as a publisher and wannabe storyteller (I\u2019m a complete hack compared with our authors \u2013 if you\u2019re just here for this article and what I\u2019m writing, you\u2019re doing it wrong \u2013 go over here and check them out<\/a>).  I tend to think about this a lot.  Previously I wrote on emotionally connecting to the audience, and for one of my next articles I\u2019m considering writing on character driven stories and why I think they\u2019re so powerful.  But that\u2019s still not the how <\/em>I want to focus on this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The how I want to talk about is \u201cIn what way do you want to\nchange, or at least influence, the world?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That one\u2019s much more fun, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how to answer?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the better.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how do we go about doing that?  It turns out that this is a very hard\nquestion, especially in the Christian space or even just from a Christian point\nof view.  Even if you\u2019re not coming at\nstory from that angle, it\u2019s still an important question.  If we really believe that, (1.) Stories have\na profound effect on society, and (2.) that we\u2019re, in some way, accountable for\nthe ways we\u2019re changing the world, then we\u2019re responsible for making sure the\nend result is positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing we do as Christian\nwriters\/editors\/publishers\/producers is talk about not doing harm to the\naudience.  This isn\u2019t necessarily the\nsame thing, though, as a positive end result, and it\u2019s a massive question for\nme.  And I think its also the wrong\none.  I, personally, think that doing\nharm is absolutely fine <\/em>sometimes. You\nhave to break your audience to change them (I personally felt harmed seeing the\nmovie Unplanned<\/em>, but I hope that that\nharm was good <\/em>and necessary<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I\u2019m OK with harming the audience \u2013 if it\u2019s for the right\npurpose and done in the right way. \nAnother argument that gets thrown around a lot is that it \u201cdamages our\nwitness.\u201d  This one feels like nails on a\nchalkboard just to type, it bothers me so much. \nWhat kind of things damage our witness? \nDrinking?  Smoking?  Infidelity? \nHow about lying, stealing, cheating? \nWhat do we call those things? \nRight \u2013 sinning.  It\u2019s a strange\nthing that we\u2019re afraid to portray those things to the outside world.  Guess what \u2013 they know Christians sin.  They\u2019re not surprised.  What they find foolish is that they don\u2019t understand\n(1.) Why we view certain things as sin and (2.) Why we care to cover it\nup.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On number 2 I agree with them wholeheartedly.\u00a0 In a previous post <\/a>we were talking about making characters relatable to the outside world?\u00a0 One of the things I listed was struggle.\u00a0 <\/em>There are things we all struggle with.\u00a0 One of the powerful tools of Christian storytelling is having those outside the church see us struggle with things they don\u2019t.\u00a0 It makes them curious, and we become a puzzle they have to figure out.\u00a0 This can play out over and over and in a multitude of different ways.\u00a0 Embrace the dissonance.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as Christian storytellers, we do take things out,\nright?  Language.  Sex. \nStuff like that.  Why?  Should we put it back in because its true? \n<\/em>After all, Christians do swear and have sex (sometimes with people\nother than their spouse!).  There\u2019s an\nargument to be made that we should show this sin in all its disgusting, broken,\nheartbreaking mess.  It\u2019s an argument I\u2019m\ntempted by.  But I always ask myself two\nquestions \u2013 and they aren\u2019t \u201cdoes it do harm\u201d or \u201cdoes it damage my\nwitness.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead I ask why I\u2019m doing something.\u00a0 Is it for shock value?\u00a0 If so, then is there a better way?\u00a0 I really don\u2019t want to emotionally counterfeit<\/a> the audience.\u00a0 Can I make the audience dread the sin?\u00a0 <\/em>If they don\u2019t want it and it happens anyway, then that affects them deep down.\u00a0 I also try to use the most powerful tool in a storyteller\u2019s tool bag \u2013 the audience\u2019s own imagination.\u00a0 If I can get them to wonder and imagine the most horrible things, then I\u2019ve connected them emotionally to the characters.\u00a0 And if I can change the characters (convincingly) through the story, then I have a chance to also change the audience.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, see, isn\u2019t that better than not doing harm or\nworrying about my reputation?  Also, you\ncan\u2019t hurt Jesus\u2019 reputation.  He hung\nout with sinners and was crucified as a criminal, and He\u2019s doing ok.  Remember, though, that if you open someone\u2019s\nheart emotionally, you do have a responsibility to help them close it\nagain.  Healing and catharsis play key\nroles in stories changing the world for the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings me back to the first question once again.  How do stories change the world?  One really powerful way is to open people up\nemotionally and then leave them alone.  <\/em>This is something that has become quite\npopular in the post-modern world \u2013 tearing something down for the sake of\ntearing it down and replacing it with nothing<\/em>.  I believe that this is one of the sins of\nstorytelling that we really need to avoid. \nThis<\/em> is a question of real,\ntrue harm.  If you break someone\nemotionally, you have a responsibility to put them back together.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like with everything else, though, there are exceptions to\nthe rule.  One such example is Bach\u2019s St\nMatthew Passion.  It\u2019s traditionally\nperformed on Good Friday, lasts for hours, and is designed to break down the\nlisteners.  It ends, unfinished and\nunresolved, with Christs death.  It\u2019s a\nbreaking down without a building up.  The\naudience is left to go home and meditate on what they experienced.  Bach doesn\u2019t try to build them back up\nagain.  That\u2019s not his job.  But they will be rebuilt \u2013 by both the contemplation\nthat Bach and Good Friday calls us to (that is, of Christ\u2019s sacrifice and our\nredemption) and the soon to come celebration of the Resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what happens if (1.) You don\u2019t do it or, worse, (2.) Do\nit wrong?  If you don\u2019t do it, you\u2019ve\nopened people up emotionally and they will fill that gap up with whatever they\ncan find.  Sin is usually pretty good at\nthis kind of filling.  There\u2019s a chance\nthat the Church, God, and the Spirit can fill that gap (as is the case with Bach\u2019s\nPassion).  Always leave room for these to\nwork in whatever story you tell.  If you\nwrote a story where this can happen, that\u2019s awesome (in the best sense of the\nword). But don\u2019t count on it.  Remember\nthe old adage \u2013 \u201cyou break it, you bought it.\u201d \nYou own you audience\u2019s emotional<\/a> and spiritual\n<\/em>brokenness if you were the cause of it. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why do I say doing it wrong is worse than not doing it at\nall?  When someone has an injury, we work\nhard to keep the wound clean, right?  But\nif you don\u2019t do the hard work to clean out a wound and bandage it up tight \u2013 if\nyou put a band-aid on a deep, wide cut \u2013 the audience might feel better\ntemporarily, but eventually that band-aid comes of, the wound reopens, and they\ndon\u2019t trust the band-aid anymore.  <\/em>And what happens to them when they think\nthat the Gospel message is just a band-aid? \nThey don\u2019t trust it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know how many times I\u2019ve heard a message preached,\nor a story told, and I was caught up in the flow of the argument.  It seemed true.  But the more I thought about it, the less true\nit rang.  The more flaws I found.  Even if that message ended in the right\nplace, but got there through bad, untrue reasoning, I found I didn\u2019t trust the\ndestination.  This is another kind of\nCounterfeiting.  Where we give the real\nthing, but we do it in a way that makes the audience doubt it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you put your faith in something that lets you down or\ncomes off as false, you\u2019re much less likely to believe it later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian storytelling is a multifaceted exercise in spiritual\nwarfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, as storytellers, it isn\u2019t just important that we\nopen our audience\u2019s heart\u2014we have a responsibility to heal it again. Not just\nto slap a bandage on it, but to offer genuine, authentic truth. This is how we\nchange the world\u2026for the better. Doing ultimate good, even if it causes\ntemporary emotional<\/a> harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(This is the opinion of the author – it doesn’t necessarily reflect the opinion of WhiteFire Publishing or any of its authors)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At WhiteFire we believe that stories change the world.  It\u2019s a bit of a foregone conclusion from our point of view \u2013 one that we\u2019re entirely sold out to.  But because its important to understand why a thing is (or, some would say, because I tend to overthink things) I found myself wondering why stories […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-publishers-desk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4460,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions\/4460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}