Storytelling

Confession time: I'm a terrible storyteller, lacking in both experience at the telling and experience to tell of. On the rare occasions I'm called upon to do so, it's usually to people close enough to me that they don't need much explaining, and don't mind the artless back and forth before I finish or get to the point, either. 


The difference between the story in my head and the story as I am able to get it out into the world is simply too big. It helps to select a receptive, similarly-tuned audience who can fill in many of the gaps themselves, but that feels too much like cheating, and besides, I can only impose on friends' patiences so much, and even they would appreciate better-wrought anecdotes.


Of course, that doesn't preclude me from appreciating a well-told tale (and in fact, admiration can easily turn into envy and frustration, as every would-be writer knows all too well). The most recently encountered example for me would be Gemmell's Troy trilogy¹, which strikes me as a more earnest and straightforward relative of the A Song of Ice and Fire series².


(Digression: the compellingness (for lack of a better term) of a narrative seems to lie along its own axis, quite orthogonal from its literariness or originality or even overall likability, giving rise to so many guilty pleasures.)


There's nothing to be done except to continue reading and writing and perhaps begin telling more stories about myself. While I do have the introvert's aversion to even remotely approach oversharing it's up to me to develop the skill to be able to artfully mask my own self-absorption, or at least make it seem less blatant and offensive, isn't it?


The hope is to get the snowball in motion (says the guy who's never seen snow in his life), and then to just roll with it as it gathers material and momentum and turns eventually into a natural phenomenon I never knew I had in me to make real.




[1] A retelling of the fall of Troy in an ancient Greece where the warriors are doughty, the heroes magnificently mortal, and the gods exist only in men's minds.


[2] Are we friends? Have you not heard of or read this series? Consider this a firm recommendation to do so. Though technically an epic or high fantasy series, it has more of a historical, medieval atmosphere to it, and the focus is more on the characters struggling variously for power, love, or just to survive, rather than an overarching good versus evil confrontation (although that exists as well). Each book in the series is a hefty doorstop, but you'll find yourself blowing through them in no time and joining the rest of us in the impatient wait for the next.