I’ve heard people say two things:
-“I can’t wait to get back to normal.”
-“Things will never be the same again.”
As a fiction writer, I plan the future. I make the future. For my characters.
Sometimes it’s hard to remember that narrative is a construct. I expect the world to conform to the structures I’ve become familiar with as a storyteller. Draw the reader in. Establish desire. Drop the body. Raise the stakes. Add a conflict. Build in in a subplot. Deepen the character. Thwart desire. Climax! Denoument. Resolution.
These touchstones make story happen.
But life is not really a narrative arc. We bring this structure to the experiences we have not just for the stories we tell other, but for the stories we tell ourselves. It orders and helps make sense of the vast universe of sensations, memories, emotions, and relationships we have.
Normal. New normal. No normal.
Sense.
Today’s stories widen these windows and help us make sense.
–KLB