Different People Need Different Stories

Why are different readers drawn to different stories?

What We Love

I’m not a fiction reader, even though I write fiction. However, I go through stages of being interested in various types of stories. I can’t remember the last time I read a novel in the traditional way, but I occasionally listen to an audio story while driving or, more often, watch the film version of a story that interests me.

Recently, for instance, I became interested in science fiction. I loved the K-PAX and Project Hail Mary movies. 

K-PAX is about a man living in a psychiatric hospital who claims he is an extraterrestrial being from another planet. His psychiatrist slowly becomes drawn into the life-changing mystery, and many of the patients begin to heal and change through their contact with the extraterrestrial man. It was not just the extraterrestrial theme that fascinated me, but the intelligence behind the story — about consciousness, mental illness, trauma, psychotherapy, hypnosis, healing, and the complexity of human beings. The story was grounded in human suffering, but it was very hopeful, buoyant, and often funny. 

In Project Hail Mary, I loved the originality of the extraterrestrial being — a strange rock-like creature that felt just as real and intelligent as the human beside it. I was fascinated by the evolution of their communication. Completely different worlds, completely different biological systems, and completely different ways of perceiving reality, yet they found trust, humour, love, sacrifice, and purpose together.

Playing Games

There are many things I dislike, or do not resonate with, in stories. I dislike violence and aggression. I dislike horror and thrillers. I find most romances repetitive and shallow. Even many metaphysical stories leave me unsatisfied because they do not go deeply enough into consciousness, transformation, or the nature of reality. Obviously, these are simply my own preferences, based on my makeup and needs.

One of my sons, when quite young, went through a long stage of wanting to play violent video games. At first, I resisted strongly. The games were stressful, dark, and aggressive. However, he remained determined to play them, so I reluctantly and hesitantly conceded.

With time, I realised that for him, the games were not really about the violence. They were about overcoming fear, facing challenges, mastery and courage. He was too young to test himself in the outside world and was actually quite an anxious child. But within the game, he could face danger, make decisions under pressure, overcome obstacles, survive frightening situations, and gradually build his confidence. The games were functioning psychologically. They were helping him rehearse courage. 

Interestingly, as he grew older and faced more real-life challenges, his fascination with those games ended. As life became more vivid and demanding, he no longer needed that particular symbolic version.

If You Ever Meet a Psychopath…

People are drawn to story genres for many reasons, mostly unconsciously. Take psychological thrillers, for example. I would think, “Why fill your mind with murder, danger, fear, manipulation, and darkness?” But other people are not approaching these types of stories the way I am. 

A person drawn to thrillers may have a buried belief that life is, at some level, dangerous and unpredictable. The story becomes a safe arena where danger can be explored, outwitted, and survived. Once, I overheard two people who both enjoyed psychological thrillers talking. “Well, at least if we ever meet a psychopath, we will know what to do.” 

Thriller readers are generally not attracted to darkness because they are dark, but because they are trying to become stronger in relation to darkness. They want to face darkness rather than deny it. They are rehearsing competence and aiming to master fear.

Mystery and detective fiction often work similarly, though in a more logical way. These stories are usually built around restoring order to chaos. A crime occurs. The world feels uncertain. Then gradually, clue by clue, truth emerges from confusion, and the reader experiences the relief of resolution.

Love is Real

I find mainstream romance boring and repetitive. Yet millions of people genuinely love it, especially women. 

Why? Romance is fundamentally about connection. It reassures people that love is possible, that attraction can grow into intimacy, that emotional bonds can survive difficulty, and that loneliness can be overcome. Even when the stories are simple, they still nourish something very human: the longing to feel chosen, loved, emotionally safe, and connected.

Romance is a valid way of immersing oneself in a field of physical, emotional, and energetic well-being. Whether that feeling comes through real life, a film, or a book ultimately makes little difference to the nervous system and consciousness. Once you are genuinely inside an energy field you enjoy and emotionally respond to, your mind and body react as though the experience is real. 

On some level — on the most important and impactful level — it is real.

To the Moon and Back

Science fiction appeals to another aspect of human nature: adventure, expansion, and possibility. Many science fiction readers are not merely interested in technology or spaceships. They are interested in exploration, discovery, new realities, and the unknown. A story set in space is often really a story about moving beyond ordinary limitations.

Fantasy can function similarly. Stories like Game of Thrones combine danger, power, morality, survival, and transformation within worlds that hold enormous human struggles. Even though I personally cannot tolerate the level of violence in that series, I appreciate many aspects of its world-building and psychological complexity.

In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins, a small and ordinary being living his simple life, is suddenly drawn into a world so unimaginable and so important that he could never have dreamed it up. Step by step, through friendship, fear, courage, sacrifice, and the help of many others, Frodo not only discovers strengths within himself but also helps save an entire world.

Readers and Writers

Stories are not random. Nor are their readers random. The genres people are drawn to reflect layers of their being. 

The stories a person loves can reveal what they fear, what they long for, what they are trying to overcome, what they believe in, or what part of themselves is seeking development.

Some people seek reassurance. Some seek preparation. Some seek intensity. Some seek escape from a life that feels too small. Some seek justice. Some seek connection. Some seek transcendence. Some seek realities beyond the visible world. 

Once we understand this as writers, we write with greater awareness and precision in our chosen areas. Every reader is searching for something. And every writer, in their own way, is meeting that search for someone.

Writing: A Spiritual Voice