Storytelling for better life

minstrels

Today I want to talk to you about one of the topics that passionate me the most, one of the activities that I’ll never be bored of, storytelling. Although this word is having a large success in recent times – in Italy, for instance, it is now associated to cool marketing strategies – this process has been part of human life for a very long time. Building narratives is a natural way that our brain has to make sense of what happens around us and, at the same time, socialize.

“Narrative is like life, it exists in itself, it’s international, transhistorical and transcultural” Roland Barthes

We use stories to communicate, express our feelings, release our tensions, share our experiences,  affirm our ideas, give support, educate, entertain, discuss and, ultimately, to define who we are. From the ancient Greek tragedies to the web series, from the nineteenth-century romance to contemporary poetry, narratives are an essential tool to build our identities. Here’s a note that I found in one of the sociology books I have in my personal library, “Common stories” by Professor Paolo Jedlowski:

– identity is the result of  a self-development work that the individual acts on himself using the symbolic resources that he founds in his social context –

To understand what we are, we need to tell a story. Sometimes the personal novels that we create in our minds and that we tell to explain our lives help us to grow up and find a way to redefine our identity. The bed-time stories that we listen to in our childhood and the books we read every day are strategic in the process of building and re-building a personality through time.

Some sociologists like Jedlowski say that the contemporary community is now losing our oral tradition and slowly losing our ability to tell good stories. I would rather say that things are changing, we now use many different mediums, but we still tell stories. The problem is that we have so many stimulus that often we can make a story of what we are not very interested in, and we desperately need to prioritize our stories, make order before heading to the communication step.

Like it or not, we are all minstrels, wandering on the edge of our thoughts and making show of ourselves to create our comfortable place in the world, either if we write or not. With social networks, we all have a ready-to-use opportunity to share something about us. Even a simple “like” expresses something personal. Think about it. What is the story you are telling now?

 

 

Jumping monkey

monkey1

I realized that by quickly scanning my resume, people may think I’ve been jumping like a monkey from one experience another. It’s part of my nature of insatiable curious, and a closer look will reveal that there’s two fils rouges that link all my experiences. One is reading. Looking for knowledge. Learning. And the second one is digital technologies. Web publishing. Storytelling on the net. This monkey has been pursuing her passions.

After many uncertainties, I realized that my first love and source of inspiration is reading. Books, handbooks, news, blogs, travel journals, websites, drafts. I remember 6 years-old myself falling in love for the first time with a pocket book called “Rosalia” and reading it every day during the break at school. Sitting on a chair, happy and completely absorbed by those wonderful pages. That feeling is what I’ve always been searching.

The biggest satisfaction I’ve had in my brief career was when I helped other people to enhance their writings or talking. At Latitudes, I received articles from journalists and bloggers, I fixed them and then published them on the web magazine. I interviewed people and then transformed their words in interesting articles. More recently, in my project MoltiMedia I’ve been working closely with a writer and helped him to create a modern and attractive book.

I like to be part of the connection between the audience and the organization that may interest him. Even when I was a child, I didn’t want to be like Rosalia, but I was fascinated by the way the author described her. What aspect did he point out? What is the attribute that tells more about her? And how another author would describe this hero?

And all this reading, writing and helping people and organizations to express their creativity in the best way, works perfectly in a digital system. Technology adds pepper and a bunch of amazing possibilities to storytelling. Not only for a novel or an essay, but also for any content that has to be delivered in a direct, effective and attractive way through digital technologies. Culture, literature, art, history, science, news, business, brand identity. You know it. And that’s what I do.

Where will this monkey jump now? Who knows.

Learning bites

computer-desk

This morning I woke up and decided to start a new blog.

As a curious thinker, inveterate curious and thirsty learner, I’ve always been fascinated by the infinite amount of knowledge that culture offers. At the same time, I was frightened for the certainty of missing something. Inevitably more than something.

This is why I normally spend a lot of time reading around, browsing the web and discovering new things on the most diverse topics. Art, history, literature, technology, music, travels, events, sports, DIY, cooking, health, sustainability, social issues, international problems and, of course, communication.

A few years ago, I also started to attend online courses and develop further interests. With all this amount of free resources available on the net, it’s impossible for me to resist.

This blog wants to be a place to keep track and share what I learn.

Feel free to comment, suggest topics and contribute to my journey through culture.