Storyteller's Responsibility
I consider storytelling the second oldest profession, and believe it’s nearly as noble as the first. Maybe this sounds glib at face value - and indeed, that’s partially true, but only partially. I’m being careful to minimize sounding too self-aggrandizing, but I do believe that the craft of storytelling, in whatever form it takes at any given point in history, is fundamental to the human experience. Typing that sentence just now makes me realize how basic of a sentiment that is, but all the same I want to conjure the image in your head of the elder, the shaman, the bonfire storyteller. Now with such an archetype sitting at the forefront of your imagination, I would like to begin drawing parallels from that crucial role in prehistoric human society to the modern writer of today… But first, the monthly update.
Last month I did a proofread of my most recently written manuscript, which was originally completed around this time last year. It was pretty exciting, because I had come fresh off a redraft of my first manuscript before that and it was great to see the progress of my own writing. This month, I’ve begun the lengthy process of redrafting my second manuscript, originally written back in the summer of 2016. While I love the story, and plan to talk more about it soon, it has been trying to say the least. The difference in writing quality is palpable. Going from proofreading a sturdy second draft to a complete overhaul of an older, rougher draft has been a trial in managing expectations. I’m about halfway through the first phase of the process, and hopefully the whole thing should be completed by Fall, but we shall see - as I’ve come to learn over these past few years, there’s a lot more to writing, than simply writing.
Back to that archetypal storyteller above - if you too see yourself fitting that proverbial mold, in whatever specific path you’ve chosen, then to be succesful in such a role requires acknowledging and assuming certain ingrained responsibilities. Fortunately, many of these responsibilities are shared with the whole, general human condition situation - though magnified in particular ways. Too esoteric for you? I’m definitely tiptoeing around pretension here, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.
The first responsibility I’m apparently sermonizing about is the responsibility to oneself. Sun Tzu or whatever once advised something along the lines of “know yourself, know your enemy” - and considering as well that 90's one-hit wonder, Lit famously sang “It’s no surprise to me I am my own worst enemy,” my point becomes obvious. You gotta know yourself, and that’s hard sometimes. But that said, you’re thinking of writing a novel, a screenplay, or whatever - basically, you want to put your ideas out in the world to be experienced and interpreted by other people because you feel the calling to be an author. Should go without saying, but you owe it to everyone and yourself that you take responsibility for what you create - as you will be held responsible for all the weight of that creation, even the aspects you never intended. You’re probably wondering what that means and if I could possibly phrase it in a more puffed up way, but let me tell you, it will sink in with all of its gravity eventually. For now, do yourself a favor and delve a bit into why you want to write. For most, I’m sure it’s a choice you arrived at naturally - what more do you need than you were simply born to do it? Sure, skip the full tilt navel-gazing for now, but at least begin to heighten your understanding of your craft by asking yourself “why this?” Why this book? Why this story? Where did it come from and why is it deserving of so many of your ever-dwindling hours? Why is it deserving of someone else’s attention when it’s finally complete? There are no wrong answers if you dig deep enough, for you see the closest thing to truth is authenticity. You have a responsibility to yourself that the sinew and ichor you rip and tear from your precious, finite creative soul is truthful to your essence. Even if your only goal is to, say, sell out and get paid forever, there’s nothing ignoble with that, so long as the vein you’re mining leads straight to your heart. Be truthful with yourself, be authentic in your methods and your decision-making, and you’ll always be at least pointed towards the right path, even if you still have years of practice ahead.
Quick aside from the esotericism to touch on something more tangible and probably more important. There is no greater responsibility to the self, especially for creatives, especially for creatives who undergo projects as deep and longterm as a novel, than the responsibility to your own health. Mental health has been a reoccurring theme of my own since childhood, it factors into quite a bit of my writing, so much so that it’s somehow wormed its way into the ways I've viewed myself and my craft over the years. It’s been a long time coming, but slowly I’ve been able to grasp how skewed I’ve been seeing things. It’s only been in the past few years, years spent trying to hone my writing and develop it into a career, that I’ve been able to see how mental illness, trauma, and so on, has held me back from my goals. Just as there is more to writing than composition alone, there is more to life than single-minded pursuits at the cost of all else. Success requires the most complete form achievable, and one truth is that many of the biggest obstacles are internal. If you’ve been thinking you may need help, consider this permission to proceed. It’s not easy, society has stigmatized therapy and even simple requests for assistance to those around us, and a lot of that leaks into our brains even when we think we know better. But you owe it to yourself to step out of your own way. If you feel something’s been holding you back, work your way through it from the inside out. Get help if you need it, because it takes both courage and hard work, but I got your back and I'm sure you have more tangible people in your life who will as well.
Your next responsibility is to the reader. If you have no interest in ever being read, feel free to skip all of this. After all, writing with an audience in mind takes bravery, wit, and empathy - not everyone’s cut out for it. On the same note, it can be tricky to parse out my earlier advice to be authentic while simultaneously composing for the audience, but it’s a manageable balance and one that must be walked if you do in fact wish to be read far and wide. I’m certain that a lot of us creatives, especially when very young and dumb, can get stuck for a spell in a phase where we feel that we must be wholly uncompromising in our vision as the author. The truth, as with most things in reality, is in the gray murky bits between. Your responsibility as the writer is to compose a work that can be found and appreciated by the reader. This means many things, such as doing the research into your genre and demographic to maintain relevancy, for example. It means incorporating interesting tropes so that the reader understands where your story is coming from, without boring them or making them feel ripped off by merely repeating popular tropes verbatim. Someone out there needs your story, just as you needed that story that still sticks with you to this day - you owe it to that person to ensure your work can be found, appreciated, and remembered.
The final responsibility is to society as a whole, just as it was for that ancient, archetypal storyteller alluded to before. Hollywood wouldn’t be what it is today if humanity didn’t have a fundamental need for stories. That hasn’t changed since cave drawings were in vogue - if anything, the need has increased an unfathomable amount of times over. Additionally, there’s also a whole lot more competition now than ever before, even more so than just a couple decades ago. Despite the need for stories increasing alongside the population, and despite that there is no short supply to meet this demand, just look at the world around us today: for all of our countless stories, ancient mythos, and syndicated television shows, we have yet to learn every conceivable lesson that can possibly be taught through the old means of storytelling, and furthermore we never truly will. My point is don’t give up, despite the odds, as there’s an ever-changing world out there still struggling with all the same existential and not-so-existential quandaries that humankind has been dealing with since the beginning. Remain mindful of your choice of representation, of the particular perspective of the world your work presents and always reflect on how it suggests you believe the world should be. Be true in your aims, may the morals and themes you inevitably espouse point to a higher truth, a needed truth; even if you insist that you have no interest in morals or themes, such things will be found in your stories regardless - so in the least, be mindful of that truth. What does your story mean within the context of your real world? Having even the faintest idea of that can mean everything.
Okay, I’ve wasted enough of your time with pontification. What I want you to walk away with is the mere, simple call to action to do the fucking research. Know yourself, know your genre, know your audience, know your place in history. This is all I’m trying to say - but I want the point to sink in that it’s all on you, no one can do the work for you. As I’ve repeated a few times over, storytelling in whatever form your craft takes, is more than just putting your ideas onto paper. If I can shamelessly indulge just a little bit more, I do believe that this is ultimately a higher calling, and those that really “make it”, so to speak, are those who manage to tap into something deep, waiting to be unearthed and polished up in ways both familiar and novel. To reach into the zeitgeist and not merely pull out something pretty, but something that can also reshape and contextualize the zeitgeist in turn - this is the responsibility I’m talking about, but I’ve said all I can in what’s supposed to be a casual blog update. The rest takes a lifetime.
Hopefully the fact that I’m posting this month’s update so late doesn’t give away how wild of a February it’s been. Please believe I’ve been unable to keep from reflecting on how my little musings on responsibility come wrapped within a series of words that aren’t particularly responsible themselves - I had a much needed vacation (at last) that bisected the writing of this entry, and maybe that gave me a bit too much time to overthink the subject matter. I guess I write this sort of junk because the nature of this blog has thus far been centered around my own journey as a writer. A lot of the topics are inspired by lessons that I’ve either had to learn, or am in the process of learning, and in no way should be seen as the advice of someone who’s obtained any sort of mastery of anything. My goal with this one is merely to encourage my fellow creators to consider the broader scope of your work, as I believe this will inevitably be a factor at some point on your own journey, and probably sooner than one would realize. Though a broader scope can mean so many things, and the reasons why such considerations are important are just as numerous - to be any more specific would require another entry altogether. For now, I leave you with the hopes of better luck at avoiding the sorts of overthinking I've clearly been dabbling in this month, and most of all, my sincerest thanks to you for reading. Cheers friends!
