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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Sep 8

This week's essay is free to read for all: on midlife, the illusion of freedom and life becoming a trap

willstorr.substack.com/p/ducklings-...

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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Sep 6

Thanks Lucy!

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Reposted by Will Storr

Dr Lucy Rogers @drlucyrogers.com · Sep 6

Every so often something resonates.

You may enjoy this by @willstorr.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/willstor...

DUCKLINGS, PADDLING IN THE WATER

Is life a trap? A midlife crisis update

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Will Storr

hushupimreading.bsky.social @hushupimreading.bsky.social · Sep 1

A Story is a Deal: How to use the science of storytelling to lead, motivate and persuade by @willstorr.bsky.social is a bargain 99p on Kindle today #affiliatelink
amzn.to/45GtwD4

A Story is a Deal: How to use the science of storytelling to lead, motivate and persuade

A Story is a Deal: How to use the science of storytelling to lead, motivate and persuade eBook : Storr, Will: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

amzn.to

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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Aug 31

I’m excited to announce that my newsletter is evolving.

As much as I’ve enjoyed writing about the science of storytelling I was beginning to find it limiting. So I’ve decided to change the name of my publication, to allow myself to write about a broader range of subjects.

willstorr.substack.com

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Reposted by Will Storr

Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Aug 9

Today’s free-to-read essay, A Crisis of Mattering, lays out a theory that I’ve touched upon but not fully fleshed out in previous books, that a major cause of modern unhappiness is that our world has grown too big.

READ HERE: willstorr.substack.com/p/a-crisis-o...

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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Aug 30

Thank you Chris

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Reposted by Will Storr

Chris Chibnall @chrischibnall.bsky.social · Aug 27

This is a really beautiful, thoughtful and thought-provoking piece of writing.

Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Aug 9

Today’s free-to-read essay, A Crisis of Mattering, lays out a theory that I’ve touched upon but not fully fleshed out in previous books, that a major cause of modern unhappiness is that our world has grown too big.

READ HERE: willstorr.substack.com/p/a-crisis-o...

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Reposted by Will Storr

James Shelley @jamesshelley.com · Aug 10

Storr hypothesizes that forces beyond us compel us to live in a state of perpetual status anxiety.

Pair with Arthur C. Brooks observation that people habitually and chronically choose “being special” over “being happy”…

Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Aug 9

Today’s free-to-read essay, A Crisis of Mattering, lays out a theory that I’ve touched upon but not fully fleshed out in previous books, that a major cause of modern unhappiness is that our world has grown too big.

READ HERE: willstorr.substack.com/p/a-crisis-o...

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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Aug 9

Today’s free-to-read essay, A Crisis of Mattering, lays out a theory that I’ve touched upon but not fully fleshed out in previous books, that a major cause of modern unhappiness is that our world has grown too big.

READ HERE: willstorr.substack.com/p/a-crisis-o...

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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Jul 12

This week's free-to-read essay is already proving controversial. In it, I critique fashionable but bad ideas from Eastern spirituality and accuse Buddhists of being "utterly and incurably self-obsessed and self-interested."

willstorr.substack.com/p/there-is-n...

There is no 'just ego'

What Eastern spirituality gets wrong about human nature

willstorr.substack.com

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Reposted by Will Storr

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · Jun 22

This is a very good piece of analysis on AI-generated faux-meaningful essays on Substack which has enabled me to spot quite a few as they were served to me.

What it tells me is: we’re desperate for things to be OK. But we’ll settle for calmingly written essays that tell us things are OK.

Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · May 16

Tomorrow's essay:

SCAMMING SUBSTACK?

How to get money for nothing and likes for free on the world's favourite newsletter platform!

Why I suspect popular Substackers are using AI to entirely or substantially write viral essays

shorturl.at/DTO6E

Scamming Substack?

How to get money for nothing and likes for free on the world’s favourite newsletter platform

shorturl.at

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Reposted by Will Storr

Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Jun 14

This week's piece is free to read for all! On the aesthetic construction of self and my midlife identity crisis

willstorr.substack.com/p/how-art-ma...

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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Jun 14

This week's piece is free to read for all! On the aesthetic construction of self and my midlife identity crisis

willstorr.substack.com/p/how-art-ma...

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Reposted by Will Storr

Deborah Hyde @deborahhyde.bsky.social · Jun 14

Here is @willstorr.bsky.social at @humanists.uk convention 2025. Great talk about the human quest for status and its consequences.

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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Jun 8

This week's essay is the first in a new series called Most Popular Highlights, in which I discuss the ten top reader-selected storytelling tips from an exceptional book. The first is George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.

willstorr.substack.com/p/most-popul...

Reposted by Will Storr

Jacqui @jacquicroftie.bsky.social · Jun 4

Bad pain day means I get to read this, rather than wash the kitchen floor. Thanks, @lucyfoulkes.bsky.social

Picture of a book by Dr Lucy Foulkes called Coming of Age: How adolescence shapes us

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Reposted by Will Storr

Dr Lucy Foulkes @lucyfoulkes.bsky.social · Jun 2

For those interested in universal MH interventions in schools, there’s a new meta analysis out today by Hayes et al and I wanted to highlight a few points

🧵

www.frontiersin.org/journals/chi...

Frontiers | Universal, school-based, interventions to improve emotional outcomes in children and young people: a systematic review and meta-analysis

IntroductionThere is debate into the impact of universal, school-based interventions to improve emotional outcomes. Previous reviews have only focused on anx...

www.frontiersin.org

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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Jun 1

This week's essay explores solitude. What do we really want, when we want to be alone?

"Life, for many of us, can come to feel like the sufferance of a million tiny stings of social pain."

willstorr.substack.com/p/without-yo...

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Reposted by Will Storr

Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · May 19

Israeli leaders could literally say "we will genocide until there is no more genocide to be genocided" and the world will still be like "gosh it's so complicated"

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · May 19

"The bare minimum will reach the population - simply so the world doesn't stop us and accuse us of war crimes."

www.bbc.com/news/live/cq...

BBC News:
IDF is destroying everything that remains of Gaza, far-right Israeli minister says
published at 07:19
07:19
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel's new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, August 17, 2023.
Image source,Reuters
We can now bring you some lines from a press conference held this morning by Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

He says the little amount of food entering the Strip will not reach Hamas: "The bare minimum will reach the population - simply so the world doesn't stop us and accuse us of war crimes."

"What will enter in the coming days is very little: a few bakeries distributing pita bread to people, and public kitchens providing one daily serving of cooked food."

Civilians, he says, will receive one pita and a plate of food - "that's it".

He adds that Israel's military is "destroying everything that remains of the Strip", describing the territory as "one big terror city".

He says civilians will be moved out of combat zones as the army leaves "no stone unturned".

"The population will reach the south of the Strip, and from there, with God’s help, to third countries," he says.

As we've been reporting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will take control of all of Gaza.

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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · May 16

Tomorrow's essay:

SCAMMING SUBSTACK?

How to get money for nothing and likes for free on the world's favourite newsletter platform!

Why I suspect popular Substackers are using AI to entirely or substantially write viral essays

shorturl.at/DTO6E

Scamming Substack?

How to get money for nothing and likes for free on the world’s favourite newsletter platform

shorturl.at

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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · May 14

My popular SCIENCE OF STORYTELLING masterclass, that began at the Guardian more than a decade ago and produced the bestselling book of the same name, is now EXCLUSIVE to full subscribers of my newsletter!

The next masterclass is May 28th. Sign up now to join us then! willstorr.substack.com/about

Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · May 3

Today’s essay is a Science of Storytelling special on the extremely surprising results of a recent large-scale data analysis of story. Do popular plot structures make stories more successful? And, if not, what kind of plot shape can make your story 160% more popular? Find out: shorturl.at/Eyc4P

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Will Storr @willstorr.bsky.social · Apr 26

Delighted to announce my next SCIENCE OF STORYTELLING LIVE! masterclass, on character and plot. Containing lots of new ideas not featured in the bestselling book. Now EXCLUSIVE to full subscribers of my weekly newsletter You Are A Story.

May 28th 6pm

SIGN UP HERE: shorturl.at/TpTmo