Stories About Stories

Chapter 28: What Do You Want?

Episode Summary

As a fiction writer, we must know what our characters want. As a non-fiction writer, we must know what our audience wants. As the master storyteller of our life, we must know what we want. Let me be clear, the me of today wouldn’t ever suggest that organizing our life around our surface wants is a good idea. It’s a sales job, and a con job at that. Everything in our culture teaches us to want, primes us to want. Our biology gears up our wants, namely to procreate, but also to adventure into new territory in search of evolution, or sometimes just food. Our psyche tells us to want to stay socially safe, but also to differentiate, be unique, special...