My high school drama teacher described theatre as “life without the boring bits”. It also works for novels, films, and poems.
In these stories, we typically meet characters at a critical turning point in their lives. We observe them work their way through a physical, intellectual, or moral dilemma that will forever alter them and their life’s journey. We witness them at their most vulnerable, decisive, timid, and triumphant.
It’s not that life on stage or screen is more exciting, it’s just that they are only showing us the peak moments.