"From listening to the stories of others, we learn to tell our own."
Margaret Atwood
I think there are a couple of things at play here and it seems to me that in part, Ms Atwood is saying that by listening to how people tell stories - the things they emphasise, the gaps they leave for imagination, the way they build anticipation, the comical anecdotes they include, the surprises they spring - we develop a sense of how to tell our own stories in ways that entertain or educate or engage.
But for me it has a deeper level as well - that as we learn of other people's stories, we can build and bring together things we may not have understood from our own lives, and make sense of our experiences or feelings. Sometimes we might learn it is OK to speak of things previously unspoken. We may learn that we are not alone and can therefore share.
For me, these words also bring together the notion of listening before telling. So often we feel we need to tell other people things, and we commonly do so without first listening. Ms Atwood suggests first listen, then learn.
Finding my way home... 2010
in the same spirit, I do believe it is by reading volumes that one learns best how to write
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