Do You Have Something to Say? (The Answer is Yes)

No, this is very much not the start of a self-help book.

Leading a workshop on the Berlind Stage at McCarter Theatre Center at Princeton University in Princeton, NJ. June 2024

I consider myself not necessarily a playwright, screenwriter, or director first, but a storyteller.

And I think you are a storyteller, too, whether or not you do it professionally. People in general underestimate their capacity to have a perspective and have an interesting story to tell, and feel free to count me in that number most days. But even on the days when I doubt whether I have anything of actual interest to say, I am reminded of this truth:

Every person has genuinely interesting stories. Life may just be the ongoing matter of living those stories and learning how to tell them.

Now, I’m absolutely not trying to say everyone should pick up a pen and start a career as a writer (I love my career, and also I would not wish it on anybody), but I think most people would be surprised to discover what stories they have that are truly worth telling.

The best way I can define what a story is, is that stories are humanity’s way of distilling the messiness of our lived experience into something someone else can understand. In other words, I believe the stories we tell capture something about what it’s like to be human.

That’s why I’m starting this blog again.

When I first started building my digital footprint in 2018 or so, at the bright-eyed age of 23, I decided I had a perspective worth sharing and blogged regularly for about a year. I bailed, as so often happens when a young 20-something starts a blog, because I felt I was running out of things to say. And… well, that might be true. There’s only so much life experience a person has at age 23, 24 (and only so much more a person has at age almost-30; I acknowledge that), but I think I’ve learned a thing or two in my journey through the mid-20s. I trust the process of living through stories, sharing my stories, and letting people find meaning in them.

When I lead a workshop, one of my favorite exercises is to go around the room and have students share a story that they love and share with the room something it made them feel. Whether this story is film, theater, novel, video game, or something else entirely doesn’t matter at all—I’ve not found a single person yet who doesn’t find meaning in some kind of story.

Usually, when I run this exercise, I will lead with an example. I change up what I say from time to time, but lately I’ve been using the following examples:

• I love Wicked because on a deep level, I can empathize with being an outcast and being seen by maybe the one person who nobody expected to see me.

• I love Back to the Future because it makes me feel even the tiniest of actions do matter, and the impact we have on people can be life-altering (whether or not we meant to!).

• I love Disney’s Tangled because it reminds me of how free I felt when I left the bubble of conservative evangelicalism.

I’ve found meaning in these stories because they helped me make sense of my own life. I’m not sure I’d put that connection in those exact words necessarily (because sometimes it’s really not that deep), but I’d bet more often than not, the stories that you love in film, theater, literature, or video games became stories you love precisely because they shared with you something about what it’s like to be human.

This exercise of having workshop participants share our favorite mass media stories is, of course, prelude to an introspection exercise. I guide people to then analyze anecdotes from their own lives as material to lay foundation to build stories around their own life experiences. What’s beautiful to see in the room is how participants in real time find meaning in the stories their cohorts share, even if they were complete strangers at the start of the class.

That’s what I’m trying to do here—not just tell stories, but reflect on what they mean, how they shape us, and why they matter.

You’ve lived stories. You have something to say.


Go tell it.

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About Peter Fenton

Peter Fenton is a writer and director creating stories for stage and screen that make audiences laugh, think, and occasionally squirm. His Off-Broadway debut, dark comedy Abandon All Hope, premiered at Theatre Row in 2023, and his teen satire Coronation had its world premiere in 2024. His film work, including Night Voices and his directorial debut, Inherently Special, has earned awards on the international festival circuit. Based in New Hope, PA, Fenton works in marketing at Passage Theatre Company and freelances with McCarter Theatre Center and other regional arts organizations. www.byPeterFenton.com @peterfent