Everyday Canvas

Untold Stories

Prompt: "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." Maya Angelou Do you agree?

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I agree somewhat. My “somewhat” is only because I haven’t experienced all the agonies (Heaven forbid!), and therefore, I can make no valid comparison. By the way, I love Maya Angelou, but she has her ways, such as saying “sky’s falling” instead of saying “it is raining,” which technically is the truth since rain falls from the sky.

When it comes to the stories inside people, everyone carries many stories inside them. That those stories are untold may not be a burden for most people, especially if they keep talking and giving out snippets of those stories in friends-and-family gatherings. One reason to love those gatherings, don’t you think, Writers?

Yes, Writers, just like Toys"R"Us stores are for kids, stories are there for writers. How does Stories”R”Us sound to you? By the same token, lock up a writer in a dungeon, he or she will end up telling numerous stories to the other inmates. That is the invincibility factor that comes with a writer’s storytelling.

For a writer to carry a story inside and not write it can be an agony because writers not only use the stories inside them but also go looking for them all over the place, on top of taking what Google throws up on them. Then, out of training and habit, writers end up seeing stories everywhere. With so many stories all around and little time to write them all--since human life has a limited number of years--, surely, a writer like Maya Angelou would utter such a quote.