Consumption of narrative is good for your soul

Piggybacking off the topic of my last blog post, I have a little bit more to add to the subject. I realized that it wasn't so much video games and Youtube videos as mediums that were sapping my creative energy, but more so the content of the games I was playing, and the things I was watching. In general games have little to no narrative present, and whatever they do have tends to just be a call to action to get the game play flowing properly. This is not a bad thing, games are so versatile that they can work well in many different formats. Conversely there are many games with astoundingly good narratives that allow for an experience that cannot be replicated with any other medium, The Last of Us being a prime example and a personal favorite of mine. What I'm getting at here is that when I chose to lay off books and movies, and instead chose to indulge in video games with no overarching narrative, I was cutting off my consumption of narrative as a whole. Something that I have found to be true for myself is that consumption of narrative is not only entertainment, but nourishment for the creative part of your brain. Ranging from some minute detail in the work of another person to it's over arching theme can jump start something in you that you could have never imagined was there. It is also a motivating force if nothing else, you tend to be more likely to act on your creative idea if you are constantly viewing those of others who have finished what they started and shared it with the world. The "if they can do it, so can I" mentality. To sum things up, if you need motivation or inspiration to get something creative done, consume a lot of things that are creative in similar ways that people have already finished.