Ramblings from the 'goblinn

Not the right time of year for this, but I was thinking about it, and how we humans make stories. So--

I was driving with my son the other night, and he was talking about a video he’d seen recently-- “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” And he noted that there was less talk about science in this story, and more about supernatural stuff. And talk turned to how ghost stories start in the first place. I told him that usually, ghost stories start with some real event, that gets embellished over time. And he said, “How could that happen?” So I gave him a real life example. And then-- he gave me his own. And it was amazing.

( Two ghost stories... )

We make stories for lots of reasons. To comfort us. To share our beliefs about how the world is. To make sense of an often nonsensical existence. We wouldn’t write or tell our tales, if we didn’t need to do it on some basic level. And we wouldn’t read others’ tales, unless it filled something inside us.

So I put it to you, writers and readers-- what do you need? And when was the last time you thought about how those needs, and the needs of the audience, fit into your stories?