We all know of people with amazing stories. There are lots of them, scattered throughout and it doesn’t take much to find them. When told, their stories will be amazing, except if the storyteller is bad. We now come to the fine art of storytelling, something that is THE deciding factor in whether an experience becomes a story befitting it. The storyteller, by controlling how the story is told, can make the listeners think in ways he wants them to, regardless of what the story is. All he needs is that little bit of material, and the creativity, imagination and most importantly, the quirkiness that characterizes the best of storytellers.
In comes the writer. A person who makes his/her living from stories and imagination. Even writing nonfiction is an art. Creating entire worlds, bringing your creativity to life, creating a story out of nothing, all in a day’s work for a writer. However, there is a difference between a good book and a bad one. All books have the content, but some have that crucial storytelling element missing, not living up to the story they promised. These are the worst kind of books, you read them hoping to bite into a delectable plot and all you get is boring, slow and complicated vocabulary. Almost anything can be made into a good story, as seen from the previous two blog posts, both about experiences that can happen to you any day. How it is written, and how it is expressed makes all the difference. The words used, the tone, pace and theme, by manipulating these, the best of writers can make almost anything enthralling.
Let us take, for example, Roald Dahl, specifically his books for children. The team of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake was one like no other. Dahl wrote the books and Blake so aptly illustrated them that it is as though the pictures were just seamlessly coming out of the story, fitting in with perfectly with Dahl’s writing style. To describe his writing in one word, it was sparky. With slight elements of dark
humour, Dahl’s imagination when left wild was something to see. With most of his stories inspired by childhood experiences at boarding schools, he wove plots that were light, yet left you extremely enthralled and made you wanted to keep reading. They were the kind of books you could just pick up, open onto any random chapter and begin reading. From reading them, you can practically see how much fun he found writing them, and this fun is infectious. Reading him, is a pleasure.
It would be fascinating to look into the mind of a writer of his talents. To see entire new worlds, entire new populations, extraordinary new creatures, strange machines whirring away, outlandish food and other items, strange new colours and new horizons. Giving us glimpses of these worlds in their books, writers with a good imagination and writing sense combined have no equal.
Another example, J.R.R. Tolkien. In his series of his book, he created an entire new world, complete even with its own language, script, pronunciation and everything. The original creator of mythical creatures such as orcs, which have been used in numerous places since, these writers were pioneers in their own sense.
It is truly a pleasure to read such people’s books, and to become lost in their rapturous, colourful worlds. It is like exploring some new, strange part of the world that has never been seen before, all by yourself. And of course, there are numerous examples of such writers, a whole plethora of books just waiting for you to sink into them. This post is dedicated to all those writers, their creativity, imagination and talent for creating such stories, one of the most powerful objects in today’s world.
So what are you waiting for? Grab yourself some fruit juice, a comfortable couch and a book to sink your teeth into. It’s your turn to explore!
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