Why are stories so important? Why are fictional characters and their worlds so gripping?

They’re all just ideas and pretty words on paper, right? There’s plenty of important stuff going on in the world – and there are writers and dreamers just wasting their time, pretending that imagination is important.

And yet… we all need them. Most of us read, most of us love to get lost in a tale and step away from the routines and the mundane, from the problems and the woes of our lives. We all escape into stories – movies, books, games – whatever form they come in. We’re driven to.

It must be important. Even in our sleep, there are stories.

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