Matt:
Hello, this is the Sydney Story Factory. My name is Matt and welcome to a very special episode of How to build stories. When I was in year seven, I was a very small person. I was extremely tiny. I was short. Going to high school, I was nervous but excited. Upon arriving I was assigned a locker and as I made my way through the giant confusing maze, trying to find it, eventually I came across where it should be: right at the top of the stack. I couldn't reach my locker. I went and explained this to the teacher in charge of the year, and she said not to worry about it, that they could swap it with someone else. Phew. Later that week there was an assembly and the same teacher was there. She was welcoming year seven to the school and hoping that everyone was adjusting and fitting in and finding friends in this new big environment. And then she said there was one student who was having a really big adjustment because he couldn't reach his locker. And then she pointed at me and said, there he is. Are you okay now, Matthew? Can you reach your new locker? And everyone looked at me. Was this a dream? No, this was my new reality as the smallest kid in school. Scary, huh?
Why did I tell you that? Is it because I wanted your sympathy? Maybe. It's because I wanted to build a connection with my audience. Well, we've all been embarrassed or nervous and we've all felt like we were the smallest kid in school, even if we weren't. A blank page is a terrifying thing for a writer. A deadline can be really scary. So can getting feedback from a friend. But maybe the scariest thing is trying to be honest in our stories. The stories that stay with us, that we remember are the ones that touch us here. Now I'm no doctor, but, uh, this is how your heart works.
Student:
I thought those parts were the ventricles and atriums and they pumped and received blood through the circulatory system.
Matt:
Now, uh, I'm no doctor, but no. Your heart is always listening out for stories that contain pure emotion. So it can squeeze feelings up into your brain.
Student:
I thought feelings were created by synapses triggering memories in your brain.
Matt:
Now, uh, I'm no doctor, but no. Your brain categorises stories like a library. So it can lend them out to your imagination from time to time. Stories connect us as people. They build communities, whether it's through religion or the lead up to the grand final, or when we rebuilt the town hall after the big flood. Stories make us feel less alone, maybe it's because we're the only one in our family who reads, or we think we have too many freckles or it took us a really, really long time to learn how to swim. Remember how you felt when your older cousin came to stay and you weren't sure whether you would get along? Why not put those feelings into one of your stories? What about when you were trying really, really hard to crack that big maths problem and you just couldn't get it? Why not take those feelings and put them in your story about, oh, I don't know that astro gymnast who can't get the triple space flip. If you want your stories to matter to people, fill them with your hopes and your dreams and your big stinky fears so that other people's hearts can sniff them out.
Student:
Your heart definitely does not have a nose.
Matt:
I'm no doctor, but it definitely does. Look.