The Timeliness of Stories - Blog (September)

Paper Mache Whale Shark, created by German artist Anna Zentis

Every story has a purpose and every story serves that purpose best at certain times. When we look around, the world is filled with stories. There’s the most read, most widely-published book The Bible, which is always timely and applicable to the lives of people and to matters concerning Christianity because of its message.

Memoirs, in my belief, take on more significance when they’re published during the memorial of the event they’re acknowledging, from personal experiences to historical events to the birth/passing of a well-known person.

Poetry and prose can be used to voice delicate ideas at a time when they are needed to be heard more than ever. However sometimes they hold no relation to the current circumstances, but because of the situation the reader is in, we view it through that lens. That’s the beauty about the timeliness perception of stories - it’s altered by a range of factors, which we will explore through this blog post.

Time-proven Classics

Many storytellers think deeply about why they want to tell a certain story prior to writing it, or at least during the early days and weeks of embarking on their journey. I myself have an acronym for this: PIES. P for Persuasion; I for Inform; E for Entertain; S for Self. I believe those are the four primary reasons someone tells a story. In my opinion, a story is always relevant, just some more than others. That’s not to say stories that aren’t super-relevant to today’s world shouldn’t be told or written; it’s all about how we perceive it as groups or individuals.

Let me paint a picture of an event that I haven’t experienced, but just as an example. I walk into a bookstore two months after my rent goes up yet again. It’s getting tougher to pay those payments and meet my weekly budget - I have neither a surplus nor deficit, but I need to do something fast to ensure that doesn’t happen. Plus I’m on the cheapest rent in the local area. While I browse the shelves, two titles take my fancy: a self-help finance book written by a professional who understands the implications and loopholes of everything finance-related. The other book is a sci-fi novel, the most recently released from my fave sci-fi author that’s been taking the headlines and the top spots on the New York Times. 

It’s easy to understand why I picked the self-help book, but why the sci-fi? When people are going through a rough patch, they either cling to the hope that they’ll get through it and trust the process or turn to the ecstasy of another world through fiction - something to take the edge off - or a mixture of both. Therefore, books are subjectives; the world is ever-changing and even something that we wouldn’t think would affect books has a butterfly effect.

That’s one reason why so many people are reading fantasy at the moment, because there’s a lot of uncertain things going on around the world, so the reader is looking for an escape - a page-turner, a series, a new humour. Many of those readers aren’t ignoring the reality of the world we live in but are aware of it. 

Factors that can play a part in deciding what the reader consumes are: state of mind, mood and emotion, welfare, relationships with family and friends, personal experience, finance, religion, culture, politics, events, stress levels, influencers, and other stories.

Stories beget stories.

C.S. Lewis began The Chronicles of Narnia as a result of reading The Bible and because of his personal journey and because of events that were going on around the world during his lifetime like WWI. He was a committed atheist, until something changed inside of him. Sometimes we have to go through terrible winters in order to appreciate the beauty of spring. On the complete other end of the scale, Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight series begot E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey series (which I’m not a fan of; TMI!!). 

The same can be applied to other statements. Tropes beget tropes. Characters beget characters. Words beget words. The more we listen to and read stories, the more of that which will enter our database and can inspire other stories. It only takes a spark to inspire a flame. Everything from the dramatic pauses (for effect) to the words used to describe a house to the structure during the climax used to build tension.

In the July blog post, we explored The Why: why do we do something. That links into the storyteller’s vision and objective for their story. C.S. Lewis wrote because it’s Gospel-inspired stories in a new setting and using different characters and ideas to represent the Gospel - to entertain and to inform. Satire authors use their stories to make a group or an individual look like clowns without changing the truth - to entertain and to inform as well. Classics stand the test of time because there's something that made them bestsellers that have kept them in print - a mixture of persuasion, informing, entertainment and self.

Another timely classic swims to my mind as I write: 1984 by George Orwell. It was Orwell's imagining of what society may be like in 1984, however the book is still very significant in today's world with the continuous rise of surveillance and propaganda.

A couple quick real-life examples of how events have made stories timely:

Conclave (2024) directed by Edward Berger skyrocketed in viewers when just eight months after its premiere, Pope Francis passed away aged 88. The conclave decision on who would be the next Pope became the real-life situation, so many watched the film to understand how it works and so they could remember they watched the film at a time when the parallel event was happening.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas was released in 2017. Fast forward to 2020, the Black Lives Matter Movement began after George Floyd was murdered by white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. There was outrage about the racism and injustice behind his murder, and that same racism and injustice and rage is seen in The Hate U Give, in which the event that kickstarts the call for actions is similar to the horrible injustice that was done to Floyd.

Birds in Deciduous Trees

Other timely authors: Harper Lee; Franz Kafka; James Baldwin; Sabaa Tahir; Tara Westover; Percival Everett; Erik Kennedy; Grace Yee; Anne Kennedy; Joe Wilkins.

Maybe your name could be up there too?

Taking that intrigue a step further, how can the story that I know you do have inside of you - and many others see it too - be shaped to be a timely story? Does it hold a message people need to know? Have friends been urging you to get it in front of an editor because it's got great bones but needs some fleshing out? Are there events and imagining of what could happen as a result of humanity's actions in the climate change scene? Does it provoke feelings that many cannot describe but you can? Are you part of a group who all want to chip in on the story and everyone could write a poem to create an anthology? Are you the great granddaughter of a sea-faring, wave-taking, mighty captain who revolutionised ocean navigation? 

The takeaway point is: stories beget stories. When you hear a story, a story starts to develop inside of you, based on numerous factors and that shapes our translation between what we have heard and what we want to say. You can tell it like nobody else can, because your perception, depth and experience is unique and valuable. It's worth telling, but… when is the right time to get it out, for best impact? And where? And to who? Those are branches that make up the tree of the timeliness of stories.