As a novelist, I’m naturally interested in stories.
Not just the stories we read, watch, or write, but the stories we tell ourselves.
Every person you’ve ever met is carrying one around.
I’m responsible.
I’m unlucky.
I always finish what I start.
I never get a break.
These stories often begin with something real. A success. A failure. A pattern we notice in our lives. Over time, though, the observation becomes a narrative, and the narrative becomes an identity.
That’s where things get interesting.
The Stories Become Us
Human beings are storytellers by nature. We don’t simply experience events. We interpret them, connect them, search for patterns that help explain who we are and how the world works.
Most of the time, that’s useful. Without stories, life would feel like a collection of disconnected moments.
But stories have a weakness.
The longer we carry them, the harder they become to question.
Someone who believes they’re a failure notices every setback and dismisses every success. Someone who sees themselves as fearless may continue taking risks long after wisdom suggests caution.
The story stops describing reality and starts shaping it.
When the Story Breaks
Sometimes those stories break. Not gradually. Not through years of reflection.
Suddenly.
A diagnosis.
A betrayal.
A discovery.
A moment when reality refuses to cooperate with the version of events we’ve built in our heads.
Those moments can be terrifying because they force us to confront a difficult question: Who are we without the story?
Perhaps that’s one reason I’ve always loved science fiction. People often associate the genre with spaceships, distant planets, and futuristic technology. But the best science fiction isn’t really about those things. It’s about placing ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and seeing what survives.
What beliefs hold up?
What assumptions collapse?
What truths emerge?
Those questions interest me far more than the technology itself. Because while technology changes, human nature evolves much more slowly.
Some of the most compelling stories aren’t about discovering a new world.
They’re about discovering that the world you thought you understood—and the story you’ve been telling yourself about it—was never quite what it seemed.
Jayson L. Adams is a technology entrepreneur, artist, and the award-winning and best-selling author of the science fiction thrillers The Quantum Mirror, Ares, and Infernum.
Jayson writes sci-fi thrillers that explore what extreme situations reveal about who we really are. His novels combine high-stakes science fiction with deeper questions about identity, courage, and human nature. You can see more at www.jaysonadams.com.