Laura Anne Ewald

The Power of Story Laura Anne Ewald

THE POWER OF STORY is intended to give writers and storytellers a boost to their creativity by a thought-provoking look at the importance of story through history and how it might be used today to affect change in peoples hearts and minds. WE DO, AS a species, like our stories. It's in our DNA, I am convinced, to always give more than Joe Friday's "just the facts, Ma'am." We not only want to hear and tell what happened, but we also want to know the complete who, when, where, why, and how that goes along with the what... From the days of living in caves, man has presented a whole lot more than "just the facts" when talking about anything going on in the world. Even in those pictures painted in the dark, deep inside the caves of Europe and elsewhere, man was telling a story, for the artists did not only illustrate the hunt, they created a pictorial narration of what went on... The storyteller has been revered since long before we could read and write for just this reason. It was the storyteller, the bard, who kept traditions alive from one generation to the next. Their stories not only entertained; they educated. They gave us, as a people, a center and an identity. It was the storytellers, traveling from town square to village green, from stage to campfire, who told the stories that kept us connected-to one another, to our past, and to our future... And if you think the importance of story has been lost over the centuries, then you haven't attended a John Grisham book-signing event or waited in line at an opening of a new Star Wars movie...!