I think of a story as a discrete narrative. It should make sense in and of itself. Any language or references needed to make sense of it should be understood by its audience. So any use of stereotypes, domain specific knowledge, cultural signifiers, unique language, should be intelligible to the people receiving the story.

I also think of stories as ordered. A story could be a narrative anecdote that resolves in a satisfying way with all the pieces falling into place in a moment of satisfying mental working out; maybe there’s a sense of justice or finality. Or maybe it could be just a single moment or experience captured and thought through in such a way as to feel like some conceptual or emotional ground has been covered, and some understanding gained, even if strictly speaking nothing has changed.

But whilst I usually think of stories as coming to some sort of resolution at the end, sometimes stories are more like a prism refracting light – an induction into a problem to be thought about, a thought experiment, a provocation.

Stories are shaped by the context in which they are told, and the reasons why they’re told.
The stories I like most are told in relaxed, intimate spaces. Sitting around with my friends in the pub, lazing around on the sofa with my girlfriend. By sharing trust and experiences, we learn from and about each other. Or maybe we just have a laugh about something that we couldn’t share with anyone else. These stories range from work gossip through to uncertainties that take us from stories into something bigger – something we no longer control or understand and that we’re calling out for people to think through with us.

Sometimes stories can be survival guides. Early modern folk stories usually had a dark moral message.

Stories can be ‘real’: such as attempts by people to think through, narrate – order and justify? – their own lives. They can also be intruguingly manipulative and subversive of reality. Comedic stories often distort reality for humour, or to point to a deeper truth or mistruth. Political stories, on the other hand, are conscious manipulations or re-presentations of reality. Founding myths or tales of revolutionary times.

What about digital storytelling?

I think of using different digital tools to achieve the same underlying effects. Just as a story could be told by a poem written on a page, or a silent movie on the screen, or by some actors on a stage, or across the table in a restaurant during a meal, digital tools give us new ways in which to tell stories.

Does digital storytelling bring anything different to the table?

Yes and no. Oral folk culture was/is very much about reusing and adapting existing stories. Hip hop culture creates new meaning by remixing existing material, cutting it up and presenting it in new ways, in new contexts. Digital storytelling can do this too, but I’m not sure whether it makes it easier.