Narrative makes stuff easier to remember
I found 105 articles about growing small businesses that I don't remember writing.
I know the writing was forgettable because I'm running a business now and suffering from all of the stuff I talked about.
Memory has some peculiar characteristics that help explain why so much of my writing feels like I'm shouting in the wind
Memory is episodic.
We remember life in little episodes. Think back, you were by the beach, in that lovely blue house with the coarse purple quilt.
Search engines are semantic. Blue, purple, quilt.... aah, yes, that house by the beach. That's just not how our brains work.
Memories are emotional.
Sometimes we don't remember what happened we just remember how it felt. Emotions, and the memory around them, stain deeper than raw facts.
Memory is autobiographical.
Events don't just occur in the world. They happen to people.
We remember life from our point of view.
Being at the epicenter of how we see the world means we find it easier to relate to things when they happens to an emotional being. This character can be us or another, real or fictional, it makes no difference.
When details fit these grooves in our mind they slice through our brain's defenses like a warm knife moves through butter.
Emotionally charged episodes that center around a person compel us.
Everything else is easy to forget and ignore.
I've written about 40 posts on Nicheless so far, they're not all stories but 13 are. I know because I can remember every one of them. I've been recalling them in conversations and sharing them with people.
Narrative has made the information easier to access, for me and for those listening.
I'm also beginning to feel heard, in a way that I'm not used to.
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The 105 articles https://www.joshpitzalis.com/tiny