The Saga Begins...

The hardest part of a story, for me, is the beginning.  I never know where to start.  Someone told me a long time ago that you should catch the reader's attention in that first page, and maybe that's why I freeze up.  Seems like there's a lot of pressure on the first few paragraphs of whatever I'm writing.  If I screw those up, no one's gonna bother with the rest.  Obviously, I need some help.  I need to see some good examples and bad examples.  This is why I'm prone to picking up a book and only reading the first few chapters, or only watching the pilot episode of a TV show and just...stopping there.

The most recent example of such research is...Hart of Dixie.  Now, I know you're thinking, "Dude...why on earth would you watch a show with a pun for a title, starring Rachel Bilson?" In truth, I didn't even really know who Ms. Bilson was until I watched the show.  Sure, I knew her name, but that's about it.  The only reason I tuned in was because...well, the series involved the South, and I've always had a bit of a soft spot in my heart for the Old South.  Not the racist part...the cultural part.  It really is America's old, original culture, despite the name it's managed to make for itself. 

All that aside, I watched this pilot, hoping to learn something about the art of the opening chapter, and maybe something about a female character arc.  Can't say I was very satisfied.  The show started off with a voice-over...which is never a good idea these days.  The entire cast's introductions were forced--the first time you walk into a new town, you won't necessarily be intricately involved with the first six people you meet.  Mother figure, rival, love interest, bad boy, professional rival/symbol-of-oppressive-patriarchy and "kid sister"/sidekick were all the first people she met.  Ehhh...

They did use a theme that might speak to the age of the creators.  See...a lot of female characters these days have absent fathers, and end up following in that father's footsteps, idolizing and deifying him, at the cost of their own emotional (read: romantic) development.  Hart of Dixie does the same thing.  She's kind of a reverse House, MD.  Thing is...that is probably a common trait in women who hit their professional stride in the 70s, 80s...maybe 90s.  I don't know if girls and women these days have the same dilemma of sacrificing "feminine balance" for "masculine goals".  So, they might be missing their mark.

What's worse, they're obviously leaning toward the horrible romance formula where the female rival is romantically linked to the love interest...but that rival is so disgusting there's no reason why it should be that way.  Also, Magical Black Mayor.  I'm waiting on that one.

I'm gonna keep my eye on this one, not because I want to know what happens to these characters, but...I want to see how they go about infusing southern culture into the show, and if they can do it without making fun of it.  To be honest, it's very important to me.

Time for bed...

J

Not much to say today. Just tired.

I did watch Breaking Bad last night. The episode was "Crawl Space". Let me just say that those last few minutes were some of the most haunting moments I've ever seen on TV. The way the writers know how to take their time and put all their pieces in the right positions and then let the plot explode... I hope I can do that some day.

If anyone out there happens to watch the show and just happens to come across this blog, please, share your ideas.

For now...I gotta sleep.

Genius.

That would be a word that I don't particularly like. I've always had a bit of a problem with geniuses, because, unless I've got the definition wrong, the talent for which they are so highly praised is something that comes to them naturally, without any real effort at all. This is like heaping praise onto your neighbor for being able to drink a glass of water. It's silly. And so is the idea of praising geniuses. But that sounds a little harsh from the genius point of view.

If you happen to read any manga or watch any anime, you're probably quite aware of how often the Japanese use the word "genius". If you don't, I'll tell you now; they use it for everything. There are genius ninjas, genius fighters, geniuses of hard work, genius liars, genius con-men, genius athletes, genius curry chefs...the list goes on. This is, of course, the fictional use of the word. (The actual Japanese idea of genius seems to be more...like a living hard drive. Someone who can hold all the information about one topic, and spit it out exactly as they learned it. This is, in fact, the basic idea of Japanese education. Very little critical thought or innovation going on.)

This is all well and good when you pit these geniuses against normal people and watch in wonder how the genius is 20 steps ahead of the poor, average Joe-taro. The absolutely unbelievable stuff happens when these masters of deduction face off against each other, and you get a grand Genius Battle. Two good examples of these are Death Note and a manga I am currently reading, Liar Game. Both of these manga start off simple--a genius starts showing off, and makes himself look awesome. Then he (both times it's a he) rattles off some complex explanation of what he did, and the information he just happened to have stored in his head that allowed him to outsmart some unwitting fool.

That's all well and good, but then some other genius gets word of the aforementioned schooling, and comes in for a CHALLENGE! And that's when things just get ridiculous. Both geniuses are apparently thinking 200 steps ahead with 12 plan Bs for each step, and not a single detail slips past them. The normal minded onlookers scream in rapturous surprise or blood curdling terror as the Good Genius and the Evil Genius make their finishing strokes...and then laugh at each other as they both claim over and over again to have one-upped their opponent.

I mean, I like Sherlock Holmes and his powers of deduction, but this is a man who simply promotes the power of keen observation. Japanese fictional geniuses border on precognition. And this bothers me to no end.

Then again, maybe I'm just too dumb to realize there are people who really work that strategically. Maybe because I didn't play chess as a kid, I was forever walled off from the great all-knowing geniuses of the world. I've never called myself smart. I'm just a guy with a pretty good memory (I would have been considered a genius as a child if I'd grown up in Japan), and a love of knowledge.

But seriously, Japanese storytellers...stop making geniuses out to be gods.

...oh, wait...that's almost exactly what "tensai" means! Ha!

J

I changed the name of this blog a while back, hoping to do some real in-depth analysis of storytelling. The reason for this was actually to increase my own storytelling ability. In truth, I've been working on a story of my own, but I have no idea if it is good, bad, mediocre, ambitious, or just a slapped-together version of all the stories I happen to like. Thus uncertainty has led to a horrible obstacle known as writer's block.

Now...there are a couple of silly things about me using that term. Writer's block. First of all, I am far from a writer. Writers love words. They love writing. They love turning phrases. They keep such turned phrases tucked away in the recesses of their mind so that they can whip them out at the opportune moment, and be quoted someday on some college kid's social networking profile. Or t-shirt. I'm sure that's not what they aim for, of course. To me, writers are very intelligent people with grand schemes, literal styles, themes--basically, people with something important to say, and a stealthy little way to say it without sounding too preachy. Again, I am far from a writer. At most, I am a storyteller, but...I'm not so good at that yet either.

The other silly thing is the idea of writer's block itself. My sister sent me a link to a blog...Seth Godin's blog...that said that we never get talker's block because...we never stop talking. We are constantly training ourselves to find ways to say what we need to say. So why shouldn't writing work the same way?

After reading his words, I was...wordless. I had no more excuses. He suggested that I write everyday, but not fiction. Write about my observations, and just try to write better than bad. That's exactly what I intend to do...if I can.

So I'm pretty much back where I started when I changed the name of this blog to "The Art of Storytelling". I'm gonna write about what I'm reading. About what I'm watching. And I've been watching a lot. Lost, Fringe, The Wire, Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad, House, Supernatural, Thundercats, Japanese anime...Twilight... I watch movies and TV shows that I like, and even things that hurt my brain (Twilight), all for the sake of learning about storytelling. And now, I'm gonna follow Mr. Godin's advice, and aim for that elusive goal...

Better than bad.

Let's see how long I can keep it up...

Oh, and here's that blog:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/09/talkers-block.html

J