Confabulate

Aren’t words wonderful?  One dictionary definition of confabulate is “to talk familiarly together, confer.”  Origins of the word are from the Latin fabulari – to talk, and fabula – story.  Another definition is “to fill in gaps in one’s memory with fabrications that one believes to be fact.”

I think that for a writer, confabulate is totally what s/he does, whether filling in gaps of fiction or fact or mixing the two.

Confabulation, it seems to me, is one of the things that differentiates humans from other species. Although, for all we know the Cetaceans (whales, porposes, etc.) great and small, as well as other creatures may confabulate also. We just don’t understand their languages yet. (I wonder if bees confabulate when they come home to the hive and dance the road to the nectar they’ve just found?)

At any rate, humans have been telling stories likely for as long as we’ve had language (though stories are told through pictures, dance and actions as well as words). Perhaps the first story was told by a mother trying to get her child to sleep.  She might tell him of the stars in the sky and of the pictures they represented to her. A hunter returning from a successful or unsuccessful foray could recount the events at the evening fire.  Oral stories kept alive the history of groups of people, set out the values and expectations.  And of course, stories always had to entertain, because who would want to listen if they didn’t enjoy the tale?

Winter is a great time for storytelling, and has been in many cultural traditions.  It’s cold outside, and hopefully food has been gathered and stored for the winter. There’s not a lot to do, and it gets dark early.  Stories make the time go more quickly and more enjoyably, and they also provide an opportunity for teaching.

Stories have many purposes, as varied as the people who tell them.  Some are short, others long, some forgettable, others stay with us for all our lives.  A story can be told by one person or by many.  Old tales and legends can be given new meanings.

One of my current favourite television series is “Once Upon a Time” which has taken the old Grimm’s Märchen (and other so called fairy tales) and given them a new spin, connecting all of them and putting the people into a town in the modern world.

Anyone can tell a story, and if you think you’re not good at storytelling, in this as in other things, practise means improvement. 

Rather than saying, “Let’s go for coffee,” to a friend, why not say, “Let’s meet to confabulate”?