| "The stories you tell about your past shape your future." ~ Eric Russell
How can stories shape your future? Perhaps in more ways than you think. Think about the stories you tell about your childhood. How do your describe yourself? Think about the favorite family stories you tell. Your characters also have pasts. You can use the stories characters tell about their pasts to give readers insight into motivation. This article will look at some ways the stories of the past impact the future. |
"Your characters ... have pasts." |
| Stories of Your Childhood | What stories do you tell in your family? Do you remember time spent with your parents in your childhood? Do you have funny pet stories? How about the time junior squirted the ketchup at the minister? Or the fact that sis forgot dressing expands in the turkey, and stuffed it as tightly as she could, creating something more properly used for a bowling ball than Thanksgiving dinner? When your family gets together, do you laugh and say, "Remember when…?" When I was young, I used to often go swimming with my parents. One day a little girl lost her inner tube and the only one brave enough to swim out after it was my Dad. More than forty years later, that is one of my brightest memories. That story tells you not only about my father, but also about my relationship with him. Another even earlier memory is lying full length on the back seat of our car and telling myself stories. I could not have been more than three years old. Of all the stories of my childhood, this is the one I tell over and over. Is it any wonder that I'm a writer today? |
| I have mainly happy stories of my childhood. Are yours happy or sad? Do you remember that your little brother got all the attention because he was cuter, or that your big sister got the good grades? Did words and actions tell you that you weren't quite up to family standards? I worked with a woman who had been abused as a child. That was a terrible thing, but she could never get beyond it. The only stories she had about herself were as a victim. This influenced how she reacted with everyone around her. These either felt sorry for her, treating her like a victim still, or reacted against the negativity she radiated, and struck back, thus making her a victim again, and robbing her of the ability to grow into a responsible adult. | Not dwelling on the bad times. |
| What Stories are You Creating Now? | All of us have had bad times, but if we tell stories only about them, we are stunting our growth. We need the humorous and inspirational stories to make us whole. What kind of stories are you creating now? Remember the last time you had a run in with a co-worker. How do you tell that story to yourself and others? Have you ever lost a job? How do you tell that story? Do you see it as unfair and yourself as a victim? Or do you look back and say, "I'm so glad I left there because what I'm doing now is so much better!" How you talk about significant events has a big impact on how you see yourself, and how you interact with others. |
| You should know how your characters see their pasts even if that does not come into the story. On the other hand, you can use the stories characters share from their pasts to tell the reader something about their psychology. By doing this, you can set up expectation about how they will react to the events in the story. | Your Characters have Pasts |
| The Count of Monte Cristo as an Example | One of the stories that use this technique is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. As the story starts, Edmond Dantes sees himself as a simple sailor. At one point when asked about his political opinions, he replies his opinions are "...confined to three sentiments--I love my father, I respect M. Morrell, and I adore Mercedes." He is naive, believing all people tell the simple truth like himself. Even after he has been in prison for many years, he still has no idea why he is there. But once he learns the truth, the stories of his past change. He now sees men he thought of as friends, as deadly enemies. When he gets out of prison, and sees his old enemies successful and happy, he once again reinvents himself, this time as God's retribution on the guilty. He turns himself into the fabulously wealthy Count of Monte Cristo, and sets out to punish without remorse. It is not until his old love, Mercedes, reminds him of the past that he begins to change back into a man again, who can once again believe in and practice mercy. It is the stories, the remembrance of the happier times with Mercedes, as well as all he learned from his surrogate father the Abbe Faria that change his future, and allow him to love again. |
| In a totally different vein, in Walt Disney's Aladdin, Aladdin is called a "street rat" by most who see nothing more in him. He, however, does not believe this story about himself. He sings, "Street rat, I don't buy that... There's so much more to me." Because he refuses to believe what others say about him, he shares food with those more unfortunate than himself, saves the princess from having her hand chopped off as a thief, then saves the kingdom. Ultimately, he is even willing to give up his happiness to keep a promise. How different would his future have been if he had believed the stories told about him? | Aladdin rises above what others say about him |
| "Learn the stories of your characters..." | The stories we tell about our past influence how we see our present, and how we move into the future. Learn to know your own stories. Remember the helpful ones, and forget the unhelpful ones. And be sure to learn the stories of your characters. It will give them new depth and humanity. Happy story creating! |
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