Toffy’s Divide: Theme 6 — Storytelling & Rebellion

Following one’s curiosity can be a story of rebellion!

When I started writing my first novel, I was purely following a creative impulse which was sparked by my curiosity.

I was making music album at the time and I wanted to write a story for it. That was the spark that led me down a five-year windy path to complete TOFFY’S DIVIDE.

I started this journey right after graduating from business school — perhaps my main focus should have been on “building my career.” But that’s another story.

I learned along the way that storytelling could be a force of rebellion against social norms and the self that doesn’t want to be uncomfortable.

Writing Dreams

According to writer Joseph Epstein, “81 percent of Americans feel that they have a book in them — and should write it.”

Although more than half of Americans think they’ve got a good idea for a novel, only 15 percent have started writing.

About 6 percent say they’re at least halfway through and 8 percent of respondents have finished their pièce de résistance.

We are all storytellers.

It’s part of what has made us successful as humans.

From time, coming together around the fire, telling stories allows us to put context around the world that we were exploring. It provides social cohesion, while illuminating our paths with practical guides for survival.

Stories also expands our imagination, giving us ways to build new worlds and invent that which is not apparent in front of us.

Most importantly, stories inspire action!!!

As I explored here, just like design, “storytelling is the rituals of a hopeful society.”

Inspiring us to take action with the hope that tomorrow can be better than today.

As much as stories can be used to reinforce tradition, it also inspires people to break away from conventional thinking. Sparking the curiosity to ask questions about how we approach things in life.

This is why good stories and storytelling can be seen as a threat to established power structures.

Governments and security forces have used different ways to silence writers, artists, and storytellers.

Constrained Storytelling

Storytelling is a very powerful tool to build connection and empathy.

People use it to give a voice to the voiceless. Businesses use it to develop strong brands. Politicians use it all the time.

It’s a powerful communication device, and if done properly, can be used to convey important messages, truths, and expressions that can be passed down from one generation to the other.

Everyone has a unique story to tell and some of those stories may not fit into the narrative of the mainstream.

In the era we live in, where our “globe village” is connected by the internet, there are more stories out there to learn from but there’s also a higher chance of sharing similar stories that conform to the “digital norms.”

Where that “picture-perfect digital” self that we portray is more important than expressing our true realities.

Where the pressures of wanting to be an influencer, is forcing similar stories to be told.

Where the “cancel culture” patrol is ready to strike you down if you express an unpopular view.

This is forcing more people to be timid to speak their own reality in a universe where the narrative is driven by hyped-up experts sharing their expertise but most times really saying nothing.

Breaking free

But we all still want to tell our stories.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from aspiring authors since I wrote my first book and I’m surprised that so many people want to write a book.

They ask me:

how to start,
what to write about,
and how to complete it.

I find it difficult to answer because the reality is that you just have to do it.

Just write.

Writing a story, making music, or working on your business requires self-motivation and leadership.

I see each activity as doing “work against resistance” (aka WAR). It’s a battle field against the self that would rather be doing something more rewarding in the moment.

“In fact, only 50 percent of people who start writing a book actually finish!”

Storytelling can be used as an act of rebellion.

First, against the part of you that is used to the immediate reward system that we’ve been trained to seek in schools and at work.

Secondly, your story itself can be used as an act to rebel against the accepted norms.

To question society and allow society to reflect on itself. As a means to document the happenings of the times, engaging stories can be a very huge threat to the powers that be and their mainstream agenda.

Tech & Storytelling

As we rely on the media distributors (the big technology companies) to share our stories, these companies can illuminate or suppress diverse narratives.

The algorithm can be trained to favor more “mainstream-receptive” stories.

As we get more of our stories projected from our devices, we have to rely on these technology companies that have a monopoly on our data and behavior to give us what they think will get the most engagement.

Where encoded algorithms and artificial intelligence chooses what stories get told and through some type of punishment system (explicit or implicit) deters storytellers from telling their own diverse stories.

Storytelling & Rebellion in Toffy’s Divide

Now imagine a world where only one company decides the stories to be told and builds a self-enforcing system that continues to tell only one narrative?

With the singular goal of corporate domination from the megalomaniac boss.

That’s the world of Toffy’s Divide in the year of 2049 built by the protagonist and his colleagues.

Toffy’s Divide is a storyteller’s story.

It follows Toffy on his quest to break away from automated and tech-enabled day-to-day life to tell an important story.

A story that wasn’t quite clear to him when he started out with it. Similar to how I broke away to write my own story 😉

Toffy had the urge to write. To break away from the endless 24/7 engagement of a high-pressure job in order to tell his story from his unique perspective.

Going through all the challenges that a typical writer will experience — not enough time in the day, self-doubt, doubt from friends, questioning the need to write, the intimidation of the blank page 😤

These are all experiences and challenges that writers face. I know I face them frequently.

Toffy is really the Writer’s writer.

My hope of writing the story was so that wirters and aspiring writers can see Toffy as a reflection of themself.

I borrowed a few influences from Carmine Gallo’s book “The Storyteller’s Secrets”, amongst others, and incorporated some of the storytelling tools in my book.

One that really stuck with me was “the storyteller believes in their personal legend”

That’s what moves them forward. The belief.

It was a belief that I had a story to tell that spurred me on. It’s what got me from a mixtape to two published books.

Toffy’s Divide is a story of courage and rebellion.

But where does it take Toffy? Find out by getting your own copy here ;)

Unleash your storytelling genius

As we move deeper into the automation age, the main value that we can bring as humans will be our creativity, empathy, and communication skills.

Things that are currently considered “soft skills” in the labor market now.

These will be skills that cannot be encoded into repeatable tasks and outsourced to machines and algorithms.

We can be hopeful that the more we hone our communication skills and share them, we will all feel more empowered to tell our authentic stories.

There are at least 7 billion stories out there to be told.

I’m hopeful that by telling each one, whether through rebellion or not, it helps to inspire positive action and it builds more empathy and inclusive communities.

After all, storytelling is the ritual of a hopeful society.

These are the hopes we have for the Toffy’s Domes NFT Project.

Be a part of the storytelling movement. Get your own Toffy’s Domes Token here!