It depends who you ask.

That’s the situation we have found ourselves in, and why this topic can feel so confusing and complex from the outside. We keep hearing the word — but every time we think we know what it means we hear it in another context.

You’re not missing anything — it is being used to mean different things, in different conversations.

“narrative” is a term used in many contexts.

If you ask academics — of literary theory, narratology, narrative theory — it is the way we “make sense” of hte world.

In communications, we’re playing fast and loose. We say “narrative” when we mean messaging (something we produce) or opinion (something someone else thinks), which is a wild swing. What makes it most difficult is that we don’t acknowledge that our “narrative” is just an opinion, too. We like to think our narrative is the truth (it’s not). So, that makes it the most difficult for us.

If you ask people in communications, — we mean “messaging”. We say “the narrative” and we mean the dominant public opinion. strategic communications, what we mean is “messaging”. We mean the beliefs that we bake in.

If you ask neuroscientists, they mean the cognitive process by the brain.

If you ask therapists, it means the story someone believes about thesmelves.

This is why there is so much confusion on the topic — we are using the same language to describe something different.

But — it makes sense. Academics are stuying texts. Comunications jprofessionals are attempting to shift public opinion. Neuroscientists are studying the brain. They all intersect at these places, and narrative is at the center of this intersection.

Narrative academics must claim the right to use the word however they choose — they’ve earned the right by studying narrative texts for so long.

What is most useful.

There is a distinction between the activity of the mind, and the text. It would be most helpful if we had language that distinguished the thought from the text.

I use narrative when I am referring to the activity.

I use story when I am referring to the output - whether mental or textual.

Narrative is the organization of information. By humans, in our human brains.

It’s an action - something we do. It happens in our brains - hence the interest by neuroscientists. You can’t see it — unless someone writes it down or says it, hence literary theory. And it impacts opinion, hence the interest by communications professioals who want to influence opinion.