A Little Science, a Lot of Fiction

Humans rule the world because we create fiction.

No lie.

Don’t believe me?  Look around you. 

Chances are that you are currently sitting in a location where the majority of the things you see, hear, feel and touch did not evolve naturally from the environment.

The device or paper you’re reading this on.  The clothes you’re wearing.  The furniture you’re sitting on.  The cup holding your half-caff soy latte.  The music you use to block out the neighbors’ leaf blower.  The power grid that supplies the electricity for your lights.  The buildings you live and work in.

All of these things were imaginary once.  Not one of them evolved through natural processes.  Every single one, and countless other things that now currently exist all around you, all started out as a thought or idea in someone’s head.

A dream.

A fiction.

The modern world as we know it is a fiction.

Governments are fictions.  Nations and States are fictions.  They arose from stories we told ourselves about why we are this group and not that group.  In the objective reality of the physical planet, there are no map lines when you view the Earth from space, except man-made delineations like the Great Wall of China.  We imagined borders between nations and agreed to abide by them.  We imagined laws, and rules, and political bodies and police forces and agree to follow them.

All of these things exist and influence our lives on a daily basis because we agree to suspend disbelief.  We agree to operate as if those fictions are reality and live our lives by those agreements.

Americans share a collective fiction about the founding of their country.  They define themselves as Americans because they agree to abide by a set of rules called a Constitution, and a Bill of Rights that defines the freedoms that all Americans should enjoy.  They often forget that their experiences and values are fundamentally different from those who are governed by a completely different collective fiction.

Global commerce operates on a fiction that tells us that ephemeral little electronic blips symbolizing money can be traded for actual physical commodities.  Money itself is a fiction, since it has no inherent value.  It only works because we all agree to suspend disbelief and accept the imaginary value we assign to it.  Even the huge corporations behind this commerce, like Google, Amazon, and Alibaba are described by lawyers as legal fictions.

Even scientists, who strive to define the nature of physical reality as objectively as possible, use fiction as part of their toolkit.  When trying to understand a phenomenon, they create a hypothesis, an imagined reason for the phenomenon.  This fiction is then tested via rigorous experiments, and if it survives the test, it becomes part of a theory, which in itself is considered a fiction until it’s proven so many times it becomes accepted as fact.  If a hypothesis doesn’t pass, another hypothesis is developed, and the cycle continues.  We owe many of Einstein’s most powerful discoveries, including his General Theory of Relativity, to what he called “thought experiments.”  Fictions.

Fiction is a very powerful thing.  It allows human beings to communicate ephemeral, abstract ideas to one another, so that we can work together towards a shared ideal, goal, or task.  It allows us to take something imaginary and turn it into something solid, something real and physical.  No other animal on this planet is capable of creating fictions with such world-changing consequences.

Fiction makes us Creators.  It makes us Godlike.

One of the most powerful forms of fiction is the story.  This is because while stories are fiction, they are also reflections the objective physical world around us filtered through the lens of experience, perception and imagination.

Stories help us grieve, cope with stress, explore dangerous situations without experiencing real, physical consequences, and provide us with models of behavior to navigate the dangerous waters of social and romantic interactions.  They illustrate moral ambiguities and help us learn empathy through identifying with people we have never met in real life.  Despite being mere fictions, stories can hold a surprising amount of truth.

Stories are sacred.  They are the Creative Spark that is the human link to the Divine.  They are the explosive result of imagination transforming reality.  Like the atomic reactions at the heart of a star, they can be used to power entire cities (Like Bollywood or Hollywood) or they can cause immense suffering and destruction (remember those fictions about slavery being a good idea?).

Remember this when newscasters, bloggers, advertisers and those trolls on social media try to manipulate your emotions.  When you believe fictions simply because you hear the story on television or the internet, you are giving the power to direct your own story and control your own experience to a complete stranger.  Do some research before believing every fiction that makes some outrageous claim, or scapegoats some group of people you might only know through the stories you’ve heard.  Take control of your own narrative and find a more objective truth.

Stories, like dreams, are ways to simulate and problem-solve thorny and complex situations from the safety of our own heads.  The stories you love become a part of you in subtle and profound ways, and your tastes in fiction often change as you grow and transform, because the story about who you are adapts to the person you are always becoming.

Humans are hardwired for story.  It’s in our DNA.  Every major religion in the world transmits its wisdom via story.  The stories we tell ourselves and the people around us have a profound effect on our decisions and actions.  Story is integral to the human experience.  It is how we make sense out of the chaos that is objective, physical reality.  We tell ourselves stories.

Seriously.  Think about the last person you interacted with, whether a complete stranger or a casual acquaintance or a close intimate.  Whoever it was, I guarantee you that during that conversation or interaction, your creative mind and your critical mind collaborated on some imagining—a story—about that person.   Maybe it was:  “Wow, that guy was wearing an expensive suit and tie, he must be an important businessman.”

Or:  “Man, I haven’t seen her for a while.  Look at how big her stomach is.  She must be pregnant.”

Or:  “He must really love me.  He gave me the last slice of pie!” Those stories are assumptions, yet we tend to take them as fact.  We forget they are only stories, and one of the best things about stories is that, like the people who tell them, they can evolve and change and transform.

We are constantly making stuff up in our heads.  Sometimes, those things are brilliant insights, sometimes they are products of our own fear and insecurities, sometimes they are reflections of or reactions to the stories the people around us have been telling themselves for years.  Even though these are all fictions, they influence our perceptions and help us define ourselves to ourselves and others.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the story you believe about yourself is the only one that can be told, or that the stories you believe about others are objective truth and not fictions.  It might be your truth, but it’s not the only truth.  Be aware of how your assumptions might mislead you.  Ask questions and listen to the stories you hear, without trying to force your own imaginings onto the process.  Everyone has a right to tell their own story.

Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of believing you are only a bit player in someone else’s epic saga.  You are the hero of your life story.  You decide what themes and values inform your decisions, who the main characters are, and who should play a bit part in the story of your life.  You decide what your goals are, and what you are willing to sacrifice to achieve them.  While you can’t always win, you can decide who your villains are, and whether or not you choose to fight those villains.

Heroes have destinies that drive them to work past the worst of the worst to achieve their goals.  When heroes triumph, they improve the world around them.  They become models for others who are struggling with similar villains in their own lives.  Seize your destiny.  Live the story you want told about you at your funeral.

Don’t let the obstacles in your life keep you stuck in your second act.  Power through that final battle, face your fears, and beat who or whatever is currently your personal villain so you can end that chapter and move on to the next exciting installment of this adventure called life.

Everyone has stories to tell.   I can’t wait to hear yours.

P.E. YoungLibby, is an award-winning author, developmental editor and produced screenwriter.  For more insights about stories and how to write fiction that explodes off the page, check out the revolutionary new Atomic Story Method.  This is the textbook for online Zoom course Screenwriting Secrets Revealed.  It starts Monday nights @ 6:30 Pacific Time September 14 through November 9, 2020 (no class September 28).  To register, click on the link and use course #8918.V301

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