Your Story

Over the Christmas break, one of my children sat me down in front of a DVD of The Office. She was filling in time otherwise spent in front of fresh television episodes, no longer available with the writers on strike. This particular story line involved a visit to a graduate class where the demise of service orientated businesses was predicted in the face of warehouse bulk pricing. The episode ends with an indignant office manager of a small company saying something to the effect that business is people, and people will never go out of business.

I enjoyed the show and wondered when a new episode would air. I asked my newspaper editor husband. He's in charge of current affairs in our household, while I grapple with concepts and literature that prevailed a hundred years or more ago. After hearing all about the writers' strike, I started thinking.

As a writing tutor and once and future composition teacher, I have heard many comments concerning the effect of television, film, and cell phones on student writing. Someone, somewhere, is always ready to predict the demise of writing, deploring technological advancements and the lessening need for written communication. It took me a few minutes, but I realized that the writers' strike is just one more proof that those predictions won't come true. Although some movies I have seen appeared to have no writer behind whatever passed for a script, I realized that writing was behind all the story lines on all film screens, television shows, and laugh-out-loud commercials. I realized that writing is first and foremost telling a story. And stories, if distributed to the masses, will always need writers.

People love stories, I love stories, and everyone I've met has one. So, write your story. I'd love to read it. What better time? There's nothing new on TV anyway.