We understand the world through story
Our past, our future, our friends, our family, our news, our politics, even our understanding of the self and our own identity: we explain it all through story. This happened because this happened. Then I thought this. Then I did that. We invent lines of narrative through our lives, leading to some imagined future where it will somehow all make sense to us — be it on our death bed or in the afterlife, at some point we will understand the story of our existence in its entirety and that story will mean something, if only to ourselves.
I like fiction. Fiction is open; it doesn’t try to give you answers, but it makes the questions more interesting. I think we fictionalise so much of our lives anyway that we might as well try to understand our ‘real world’ reality by the way we try to create even more of it through the stories we tell. I like reading them, watching them, hearing them, writing about them — I even scratch out my own. It helps me cut through all the clouded thoughts to arrive at something I can better understand.
I like the idea of quick, consumable stories — readable in two or three minutes. Take a dose and get on with your day. It still clears my head, but doesn’t let me settle on easy solutions. You can read them here at olliefrancis.co.uk or listen to a few chosen readings on Youtube, along with the occasional vlog when I want to make the story of any particular day last longer than it would in just my memory. Whatever you choose, I hope you find something to take you outside of yourself for a few moments.
In addition to the work here, you can also find Good Fortune on Amazon, a novella that peeks behind the curtain of suburbia to find the desires we hide there.
My current full-length project is titled Futuredebt, a novel exploring choice in a context of wealth, poverty and the certainty of the future. I’ll finish it shortly before hell freezes over.