Storytelling vs. Writing

[Philip Overby]

I've met some great storytellers in my day. One, an older guy, he could go on and on and his stories were pretty mesmerizing. Bootlegging, running away from police, confrontations that involved guns, just crazy stuff I'd never (or ever will) encounter. I love to pick an older person's brain sometimes and just hear how they really "lived" life. I mean, they actually did loads of stuff.

I've said this before, but good writers are a dime a dozen. There are thousands upon thousands of good writers in the world. They can weave with words like no one else. Does that make them good storytellers? No.

I believe you can be a great storyteller and not necessarily a good writer. As was posited in another thread "Can you learn how to become a better writer?" Yes, I think you can. Just like someone who studies the guitar for years and years, you can become a virtuoso if you dedicate enough time to something.

However, can you learn to be a good storyteller? No, I don't think so. You are either born with it or you're not. Some families are just full of great storytellers, stories passed on from generation to generation. Are all published writers great storytellers? No, not necessarily. I studied creative writing and English in my university days and I sat under "the learning tree" with old men and women. Hearing those stories from the men and women did more for me that 4 years of studying how to write ever did.

I know this is a writing forum, but sometimes I think people worry too much about what's cliche', what's overused, what makes a good this, that, or the other.

Shouldn't the biggest worry be about telling a good story?

What do you think: does worrying about conventions of writing overshadow basic storytelling? Do you worry more about your writing being perfect before thinking if you're even telling a convincing story?

Who are some great storytellers you've come across in your life? (whether in book form or in person)

 

[Caged Maiden]

My best friend Craig in high school. Oh man, he had me in stitches so often I just can't rave about his story telling enough. He had a way of creating drama with his speech patterns, dramatic pauses like he was exasperated or thinking, and he never laughed at his own stories while he was telling them... BRILLIANT!!!

I sat down in Biology and looked at my friend. His whole left arm was crusted over from elbow to wrist. "Craig, where'd you get all the scabs?"

"Skateboarding."

"What happened?"

The lanky youth rolls his eyes, brushing his floppy hair away from his eyes. "I was going down the street," he said, holding his hand in the air in front of his face to emphasize his point and I guess to lend truth to the statement, "and everything was going great."

As if I wouldn't believe it had been going fine, I thought. I didn't lack complete confidence in my friend. There were at least a few times my poor accident-prone friend had made it through a day of skateboarding without bleeding. I'm sure if I tried I could recall one.

"I was in the middle of the road, not even going fast. It looked like a construction truck had gone by, there was gravel all over the place. So there I was, dodging huge chunks of rock, weaving back and forth." He was even making the motions from his chair, leaning first left then right.

"So I was going real slow up this hill. I thought about just walking up it, but that seemed lame."

When Craig pouted like that I could tell how lame he really thought it was. "So what about the scabs?" The suspense was killing me.

"I got to the top of the hill and tripped over..." he stopped. Another of his dramatic pauses as he kept me waiting, searching for the right words. His dry tone just made me anticipate the punchline even more. What Craig, I thought in my mind.

"Well I can't even call it a rock. It wasn't a rock, it was tiny, a speck almost."

"Ahaha," I roared. It was just his luck. So typically expected of one of Craig's adventures. Fortune never smiled on him.

"Yeah, after making it through all the gravel, I fell over the smallest pebble ever formed in the history of the world. Then I slid down the hill on my left arm and leg. I think I actually picked up speed while I was skidding down the hill."


Okay I probably didn't do it justice, but anyways, he was a wonderfully captivating story teller because he never took himself too seriously.

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

Yes, storytelling should be the main goal. The problem with storytelling is you do have to have some communications skills if you want to actually convey the story. That's where improving one's writing comes in.

I sometimes worry that the effort to improve my writing sometimes overshadows the idea behind what I am trying to do. I've been trying to untrain myself to allow for more telling in places I normally wouldn't, not to skimp on the showing, but to adjust the pace.

I never seem to get it quite right.

 

[Caged Maiden]

@ Darkstorm. My focus has recently shifted to quality as well. I think my rough drafts are pretty good for what they are, but the editing process has been just beyond my grasp thus far. I have some pretty embarrassing examples of drafts I've "edited". Sometimes I took away all the details, thinking them erroneous, other times I cut away dialogue tags so as not to sound redundant. Oh balance, how you elude me. I'm a better talker than I am a writer. Sometimes it helps me to just talk out a conversation and fill in the details later.

 

[Penpilot]

I sometimes worry that the effort to improve my writing sometimes overshadows the idea behind what I am trying to do. I've been trying to untrain myself to allow for more telling in places I normally wouldn't, not to skimp on the showing, but to adjust the pace.

I never seem to get it quite right.

I have a similar problem. The way I dealt with it was I just said screw it and told my brains out. Told like a tattle-tail after recess. Then on edits, that's when I start to figure out where I should show.

The way I figure it, the telling part is the sketch, and when I show, it's where I decide to add in the extra detail. Sometimes all you need is a one well defined line to convey a part of an image. Other parts, you may need more.

 

[Lawfire]

I think storytelling can be taught, to a degree. At very least it can be polished and improved. Not all stories are created equal, and no matter how well a poor quality story is told, it is never going to be a gem. Also, being able to tell (verbally) a great tale does not mean that tale would be good (or even mediocre) in print. There is something special about listening to a great story, told by someone you know that would lose its appeal if told by another person you do not have a relationship with.

Not all stories are created equal. A tale of a knight in shining armor saving the princess can be interesting on a superficial level, if it is well written. However, if the tale gets into the motivation behind why the knight is rescuing her it can be much deeper and compelling. The ability to 'deepen' a story like that can be taught, in my opinion, and it is a very important part of 'storytelling.'

 

[Telcontar]

I've long said that storytelling is the 'talent' part of writing. It can be honed, but I'm not confident that it can be learned or taught to any great extent. I remember saying before that it is because this 'talent' is actually the product of a number of other things, such as the capacity for empathy, which are also hard to change. It's a part of the makeup of your brain, after all.

The actual writing is the craft - the ability to distill an idea into textual form and share it accurately. Obviously this one can be taught.

 

[Devor]

I've met some great storytellers in my day. One, an older guy, he could go on and on and his stories were pretty mesmerizing.

. . . .

However, can you learn to be a good storyteller? No, I don't think so. You are either born with it or you're not.

. . . .

Shouldn't the biggest worry be about telling a good story?

I worked with a guy once, back in my early years of college, when I was home for the summer working blue collar jobs - at some point during every day he would look up and smile, and get a glint in his eye, and he might say something like "I got it."

I asked him, "What?"

And he told me. He had figured out the story he would go home to tell his wife about the day, every day.

That's a story-teller.

. . . and I made it up.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Like I have already said before here in Mythic Scribes, I consider myself a Storyteller first, and a Writer second... I think that what is really important as Fantasy writers is to tell a good story, take our readers away from their everyday world and send them to get lost into the worlds that we create =)