The Greatest Story Never Told by Daniel Sandler

Author:Daniel Sandler [Daniel Sandler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Arrow Media
Published: 2018-09-22T21:29:59+00:00

A good book is a truly magical thing. The story within its pages has the ability to transport you to faraway lands, place you in the middle of an adventure, and give a taste of attributes you don’t personally possess. Well-written characters can speak to our souls, make us feel understood and less alone, and give us courage where we believed we had none. Books can help us see into places hidden from us by our socioeconomic status, geography, culture, or place in history. I loved reading to my kids and watching as the momentum of a mighty story carried them away in their imaginations or helped them understand the world in a new way.

Story is defined as: a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader.3 Story is a unique method of writing, with a wide variety of classifications, or genres. Some of the most notable genres are fable, myth, news, and fiction, and each has its own repeated structure that, over time, teaches us how each of these genres function and how to approach the story they tell.

Take fable, for instance. One of the most famous fable writers of all time, Aesop, was consistent with the structure of his tales, which generally portrayed animals behaving like people and in need of some sort of lesson, usually mirroring vices found in the human world. As we read these stories, we expect the choices of the animals to lead to a crisis that is resolved with a moral lesson. We anticipate the sequence and are not surprised when the story ends with a positive outcome for the characters with virtuous qualities and a negative outcome for those that lack them.

Now imagine the news being written like a fable. It wouldn’t work, because we expect the news to be presented in a certain way, with its own inherent structure. We would be frustrated trying to figure out who the fox represented and from what country the grapes were imported. No, though there is a great deal of blissful ignorance needed, we like to think that our chosen news source tells it to us straight. Just the facts, ma’am. Just the facts. However, while news is based on actual events, it still tells a story, as is evident by how different news outlets can make the same event appear in entirely contrasting lights.

Fable and news are great, but let’s just take a moment to thank the good Lord for the genre of fiction—that glorious thing that ignited our imaginations as children and can still do so today. Fiction has characters, and as we move through the story, we are privy to their perspectives. Depending on how the author positions them, we will empathize and relate to their perspectives differently. We see the difference between first person, third person, and omniscient views, and have a general understanding, even if subconscious, of how they affect the story. Good authors know how to connect with the reader and inspire the feelings that promote the intention of their book.

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