Welcoming The Spirit Of The Story Teller

Telling stories is one thing, and writing them down so they become a "short story" or a "novella" or a "novel" is another thing altogether. I don't think I fully realised that until just now, and I think that is an important step forward.

Writing for a living and being a story teller are quite distinct things.

One the one hand, there is the format; fashions decide how a story should be "presented" to the "target market" and that reflects not only in the language used, and the word count aspired to, but also in many other ways onto the story, re-shapes it, makes it into this other thing.

Being a story teller, one may free oneself from all of that.

I can just tell a story, like I would tell you over a cup of coffee.

I don't have to worry about my grammar or my grandma either, I'm just trying to transmit something, an idea, a laugh, something that I found fascinating.

I don't have to "establish characters" before I start.

I can just start with, "I met this man the other day, and he said ..."

I don't have to describe him in excruciating detail; I don't have to elaborate where he came from, where I met him, or anything else, for that matter.

None of that is relevant to the telling of the story; IF IT IS RELEVANT, THEN IT WILL BE TOLD, OF COURSE!

"Now this man, you should know about him that he was in a wheelchair, and very depressed ..."

If it's not relevant to the story, we don't have to TELL that.

Story telling is primarily, information transmission. As quickly and as easily as possible, to save time, and not to "get up to the word count" or so that your story has "a decent spine presence on the shelves so it may seem good value for money to your target market".

Fuck's sake!

LOL.

In the past, I often wanted to tell a story, but was deterred from doing so because of the rigmarole of making into a "printable story for sale to the highest bidder".

I believe also that often, the story itself went, "Fuck off! I'm not that kind of story! I won't be told that way! I'm leaving now, and leaving YOU with NOTHING!"

LOL.

So now I've got a place where I can just tell a story.

What a relief!

No, it's not a short story. Or a super short story. Or any fucking category at all, it's just a story teller telling a story. THERE.

If someone doesn't like this and wants the more "polished, market orientated, grammatically correct and presentable" version, then please, by all means, avoid the new category called "The Story Teller".

Rest of us, let's just enjoy the fact you can get a story quick, without flashbacks, pointless car chases, "additional supportive character sub plots" and all that fucking nonsense, and ...

Well, that's that.

Yay, I'd say.

Silvia Hartmann

November 2009