Discussion: Writers vs. Storytellers!

[kitty_fic]

If you're a writer: New ideas send you scurrying to your keyboard because you see things in words- you get a kick out of language, and enjoy crafting a pretty sentence. You like building worlds, but sometimes you get lost in them, and sometimes you find yourself getting stuck in the same world over and over. Because it's just SO MUCH FUN IN THERE!!1!11!!!! Maybe you like your themes, your settings, your plot, but you really get all googly over mood and language. Wordywordywords...

If you're a storyteller: You like images, love plots, and the central idea is what drives you onward. ONWARD! MUSH! *koff* Sorry about that. Once you get started you write quickly and with focus, and enjoy the writing of the story. You've always got a new story idea (or three, or four, or...) and new characters and worlds are constantly popping into your head. You love your characters, settings are okay, conflict is your jam, and POV is fun to play with.

The important thing, above all, is to use your strengths. Central themes not your thing? Use character descriptions to drive the plot forward or set a mood, or describe a setting. Use language instead of characters to create conflict. It's been said that the world respects a writer and adores a storyteller. I know many good storytellers who make people laugh with ease, but I also know gifted writers who move folks with their words. I'm an introvert who loves writing, my sister's an extrovert who loves telling stories. Both are good, appreciate what you have!

Of course, you can be a little bit of both. Just like Gryffindors can be a bit cowardly, and Ravenclaws can be a bit flighty, A lot of writers we like lean heavily to one side or another, with undertones of each.

Examples:
Joss Whedon? WRITER: All about the quips, and he can move mountains with a few lines of dialog, and he built this magnificent world. BUT he's also got about ten characters waiting in the wings and a dozen worlds brewing.
George Lucas? STORYTELLER! He's got characters and this big ol' plot. BUT the writer in him created a world beyond the stars that he (and we) got lost in for decades.
J.K. Rowling? WRITER: All about the words, the descriptions, the settings, all so carefully planned out. BUT she also wrote a great central idea: Harry growing up into himself.
Stephenie Meyer? STORYTELLER! Her characters are the thing- Sparkly vampires? Damsels in distress? Check and check. BUT dang did she get lost her own little world of Forks!
Stephen King? Well, everyone's got an opinion there, but I say WRITER.

So how about you? Take a whack at the following questions:

<b>1.) What elements of fiction are the most challenging for you?</b> <b>2.) What do you think you do best?</b> <b>3.)What do you think you need the most help with?</b>

BONUS: Who's your favorite storyteller/writer and why do you like them?


(Originally posted by lillbet in pulped_fictions - crossposted with permission)

Comments

[tryslora]

1.) What elements of fiction are the most challenging for you? Challenging as in find them impossible or challenging as in I love the challenge? I love to roll around in relationships. They are my bread and butter, trying to sort through how people interact. Plot, however, feels impossible, like a mountain I have to climb, slogging every step of the way. Although sometimes once I finally scale the peak, I can tumble down the other side. It just feels SO HARD to get up there.
2.) What do you think you do best? I create characters who come alive and draw people in and hook people. I write dialogue easily. Characters are simple for me.
3.)What do you think you need the most help with? Plot. Totally plot. I suck at plot. I've been trying to write casefics lately, and adventure stories in order to get better at plot, but still, I often just stare at walls and still jump right in when I should be planning ahead of time so the plot makes sense.

Bonus question: Gods, there are so many of them. I recently loved the first Chaos Walking book by I think it's Patrick Ness. I loved it for the construction and the best ever use of first person present. I adore Elizabeth Bear, who mixes characters I love with incredible social and political plots.

[crazyparakiss.livejournal.com]

I'm with Ginger Veela, I don't quite get the difference between one and the other. (Except for the whole S.Meyer being a storyteller kinda made me think that's not something I'd want to be, tbh. No offence to those who like her.). >.>

1.) What elements of fiction are the most challenging for you? Settings and scene description. I hate reading too much of it in novels and I get really irritated with myself when I endlessly describe stuff that doesn't need description. Mostly, I'd like to find that balance because setting can be/is very important. I want to be able to describe a scene without my reader going OMG REALLY WOMAN MUST YOU KEEP GOING ON ABOUT THE DRAPES. I'd prefer to write scenes full of meaning. Things that pertain to my characters and give them a more human feel--to me, a scene should be an extension of the characters, to give the reader more understanding. Not just useless background (which I write when I do scenes) so that is my greatest weakness. And my overuse of angst and mpreg but I'm not changing that for nothing cause I like writing it BWAHAHHAHA.

2.) What do you think you do best? Er...*is awkward with this one* I couldn't tell you. Because sometimes I think I know my strengths and then I reevaluate them and find they are my weaknesses. So I may come back to this.

3.)What do you think you need the most help with? Commas, I am balls at all commas.

I don't have a favorite writer/storyteller. But I do have loads of favorite books and children's books (seriously I love children's books).

[potteresque_ire]

1.) What elements of fiction are the most challenging for you?
Anything to do with the existence of human beings *smiles sheepishly*. I don't know how to write human interactions at all—dialogs, physical interactions... I usually have an idea of a storyline and definitely the world and the scenery, but I don't know where to put the people :D.

2.) What do you think you do best?
I am not sure I do best, but at least it feels easier than pulling teeth: coming up with a world and the imageries that drive the theme.

3.)What do you think you need the most help with?
... Mmm, everything really. On the writing end, I think I need more discipline, learn to not over think and just get the words out, and learn how to do character portraits.

[nekochan23.livejournal.com]

um... newbie here. don't bite me please >,<

1.) What elements of fiction are the most challenging for you? quote from tryslora: "Challenging as in find them impossible or challenging as in I love the challenge?" impossible: um... maybe describing things, action, gesture? as they are the most fatal point on novel >__<.if i could, i prefer open my brain and let people to see. so i don't need describing things to them. and as for love: i love doing 1 theme but with many alternate storyline. like a challenge. i can do bunch. :D like Garasu no Kamen saying (if you read the manga): by changing the character, you can change the whole story with the same dialogue and story line.

2.) What do you think you do best? story lines! i never run out of ideas. i think that's my greatest virtue and weakness. because i tend want to write all of them on 1 story... :-/

3.)What do you think you need the most help with? time? because i want write lots of stories, but i don't have time. give me 1 day = 3600 hours! ugh... and also, my greatest failure is grammar... damn me, english is not my first language. T___T


BONUS: Who's your favorite storyteller/writer and why do you like them? my favorite writer, Rhysenn or iscaris. why do i like her? because for every story that she write (that i manage to read) she never makes me bored. i tend to skip parts if i found it boring, aka i can guess the story like, like many harlequin books. :( well, she the person that make me want to write, create my own story. her story motivated me. ^__^

[juwel-fic.livejournal.com]

A very interesting post! Although I'd argue that Stephen King is a storyteller--i don't see him caring one way or another about the beauty of the language but really being there about the plot, the actual story--he's even written about it, which is good stuff. The rest of your examples I agree with.

1.) What elements of fiction are the most challenging for you? The ENDING! I'm great at getting things started, great at building up the tension, but I hate writing the ending. I think it's just taht I don't want to say goodbye to a story.
2.) What do you think you do best? I think I write believable characters and real emotions--I've heard this compliment enough times that I actually believe it. Also, I write realistic sex and try to go beyond one or two senses.
3.)What do you think you need the most help with? I get a little word happy and have to shrink down my sentences. I love the semi-colon a little too much, as well as commas. Basically I just have to simplify things at times.