The Privilege Of Storytelling

Last weekend, on Saturday, January 26, I was sitting at the terrace near the front lawn of the Diggi Palace in Jaipur. From this balcony, I saw hundreds of people cheer for a 78-year-old man as he began talking about his career. That man was Jeffrey Archer, best-selling author whose books have sold over 330 million copies worldwide. Archer was speaking to this crowd on the most-crowded day of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, and he did not disappoint any attendee.

Sadly I couldn’t pay much attention to what Archer was saying because I was in the middle of producing another episode of Jaipur Bytes. I genuinely didn’t get to experience much of the sessions at JLF - even the ones we produced for Jaipur Bytes, because we were so busy making them! But Archer’s session was hard to miss, mostly because the author commands the stage like he’s in the middle of a Shakespearean production. So as I sat on the terrace with my headphones on, editing the episode ‘Call Me By Your Name’, I heard Archer, who was on the stage to my left, say this -

“What a privilege… to be able to say ‘once upon a time’... and make people turn the page.”

I’ve been thinking about that sentence for the past five days.

FYI, you can listen to his whole conversation (with journalist and author Barkha Dutt) by following this link.

I’m no Jeffrey Archer, but I do consider myself a storyteller. I’ve been doing it professionally since 2014, and personally since 2009. And never before had I thought about what a privilege it is to be able to tell you a story and have you actually listen to it.

Why is it a privilege? Because not everyone gets to do it. Because while everyone can be and pretty much is a storyteller, not everyone who has a story to tell is able to find an audience.

That’s why Archer’s statement has two components: first, there’s the ability to say ‘once upon a time’, that is, being able to tell a story; second, there’s the turning of the page, that is, having an audience.

When I started writing 10 years ago, I never assumed that I would get an audience. My only audience was my professors and peers in college. Then years later when I started Launchora, I never assumed I would find an audience. I just kept writing, and kept sharing. And for an introvert who doesn’t like to bother people, that part was not easy or fun.

My point is this - not everyone is able to find an audience that wants to experience listening to or reading or watching their stories. And much fewer people are able to get some money out of it. That’s what makes storytelling a privilege for anyone who is able to do either. And that is also why those who are able to find an audience should treat this opportunity with the utmost respect, as Archer - who being a millionaire genuinely doesn’t need to feel this way - has rightfully said. And if you listened to the man’s daily writing schedule (which he mentions in the podcast, you know where the link is!), you’d see why he’s one of the best there will ever be.

However, let’s go back to how not everyone is able to find their audience or make it a stable career. What should a storyteller do if they belong to either group?

Well, this is where I start to drift away from the limitations set forth by this guide’s title. Because the word ‘privilege’ does something really, really wrong to the brains of future storytellers - it tells them that the world of storytelling isn’t inclusive.

Not everyone can make it to the point of considering storytelling to be a privilege. No everyone can sell millions of copies of their book, or millions of tickets to their movies, or millions of views on their Youtube channels. So until that happens, and even if it doesn’t ever happen, the storyteller in you needs to find its own reasons to continue creating and sharing stories.

The storyteller in you needs to give the word ‘privilege’ a bigger meaning, one than can be inclusive to whatever kind of meaning you can give to it with your stories.

Because the stories don’t become better if 10 or 10 million people experience them.

The quantity of your audience has nothing to do with the quality of your story.

When you share your story, every human being that experiences it is valuable to you. And to you, that human being’s time that they just gave to you - is something you put into your definition of ‘privilege’.

Over these past 4 and a half years that I’ve been privileged to be the person behind Launchora, many, many users have asked me how they can make money from writing. Sometimes I would give them generic advice. I would answer their question with another question: would you stop writing if I told you that it is very unlikely that you would ever make a decent amount of money from it?

Most people didn’t like that answer. Then I would tell them that the goal of making money can’t drive your ability or desire to tell your stories. Because money is driven by audience, which put it in the ‘quantity’ box, not ‘quality’. Sure, if the quality of your stories can be agreed upon by a decent enough ‘quantity’ of audience, the ‘quantity’ of the money will go up too.

Maybe. Perhaps. Probably. Not always.

Those words above belong to the family of uncertainty. A concept every storyteller must come to terms with when it comes to the world outside of their stories.

That downer of the past couple paragraphs brings me back to the concept of privilege. I think that if we as storytellers are able to redefine that word to be broader than what it is already, more of us can enjoy it’s meaning. Because here is one thing that I can tell you with utmost certainty when it comes to storytelling -

The mere fact that you are able to find a subject to put your thoughts into and then find the will to put pen to paper is enough as an experience to enjoy the privilege of storytelling. Everything that comes after that literally comes after you’re done writing.

Your stories can’t and shouldn’t be affected by their ability to draw an audience.

So the next time you worry about not getting enough views or likes, and you’re doubtful about continuing on this journey of being a storyteller, try this thought for size -

Having a story to share, is your first level of privilege.

Having the ability to share that story, is your second level of privilege.

Having an audience, of any size, is your third level of privilege.

Once you cross the third level, every other level is a privilege of its own.

But just because you don’t reach them doesn’t mean you didn’t enjoy the privilege of the previous levels.

Find your story. Create it. Share it.

Repeat the process, respect the process.

Happy storytelling!