I was reading Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science and Fiction and Fantasy with my cup of coffee today, and this made me think:
“I like to think that the difference between storytellers and non-storytellers is that we storytellers, like fishermen, are constantly dragging an “idea net” along with us. Other people pass through their lives and never notice how many stories are going on all around them; we, however, think of everything as a potential story.”
So true. I love how good storytellers, whether they’re writers, visual artists, musicians, or comedians, have this kind of acute awareness of everything going on all around them: the hidden subtexts, the lies, the absurdities, the awkwardness, the unquestioned social norms. It’s pretty easy to coast along on the surface of life in a kind of oblivion, and that’s what a lot of people happily do, but storytellers have this amazing, constant curiosity that opens up new perspectives on everything. Sometimes it’s not the rosiest view, but at least it’s fresh, and amen to that.