Back in the 1940s, psychologists Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel made  a simple animated film. Heider and Simmel used it in an experiment: They asked people to watch the film and describe what they saw happening.

Try it yourself and see what you experience.

What Heider and Simmel discovered is that many people who watched this abstract film of simple shapes roaming around were quick to see a story unfold. In those simple shapes, viewers often saw characters with emotions, motivations, and purpose.

Humans have this need to "fill in the gaps with story". We do it all the time. We see two people interacting and make assumptions about what is going on. We "make up a story" about what we see. We see a beggar on the street corner and we make a story for ourselves. It's often unconscious, but we fill in any gaps or lack of knowledge with some kind of story. Whether we give that person some money is based on what we believe their story is...unless we ask them to "tell" us their story. Then we must decide if the story is credible, do we believe them?

This is just a little tip (poke) about how we make up stories about what we see around us. Those stories are often shaped by our "filters"; they are colored by our past experiences. The next time this happens to you, try to be aware of your need to find the story in what you see. Then ask yourself if there might be "another" story going on, or perhaps a third or fourth version.

How does all this affect your telling? How might it affect the audience "listening" to you tell? For a storyteller, there are always more questions.