Let’s tell better stories.
I’m Caleb Quinn, and this is Story About Story, a Substack newsletter with a threefold purpose:
We’re exploring the way that stories help us make sense of the world and find meaning in our lives. We’ll do this by examining the stories we tell ourselves and each other, and seeking to tell better ones. This will lead us through a vast array of topics, including philosophy, meaning, religion, storytelling, writing, mental health, science, politics, history, and much more. For each question we explore, we’ll also be asking ourselves another question—how can we look at this through a lens of hopefulness and love?
I am also sharing the behind-the-scenes story of my writing journey as I create Winderverse, a collection of interrelated fictional stories that use metaphor and make-believe to help us imagine the possibility of a more hopeful universe than what we experience with our five senses. Over the coming years, you’ll get to read stories such as The Winderanium, The Duet, The Heart’s Longing, and many others on their own websites where I will be sharing them for free. I’ll let you know when these stories are available, and we’ll analyze them in detail right here on Story About Story.
For a long time I have wanted some kind of dumping ground for all of my random thoughts and musings, my poetry, and perhaps some of my shorter stories! Much of that will likely end up here as well.
As someone who is still in the process of escaping the shackles of perfectionism, I find that I write more when I give myself fewer rules to follow. So if you decide to stick around, you can likely expect me to undulate in many different directions in accordance with what is on my heart each moment. You can also expect posts to arrive on an irregular basis, as I prefer to publish content when I actually have something to say, not in accordance with the mandates of a fixed schedule.
So be warned that things could get a bit unruly over here! But finding meaning in the mess is worth it. That’s what this story is all about . . .
