Some Thoughts on Stories
I’ve always been drawn to other worlds. Television, books, comics, movies. Maybe it was my need for an escape from reality. Maybe it was just my need to be part of something more than what was around me. My imagination was always working overtime. I read a lot as a child and still do as an adult. I read science fiction, fantasy, horror, suspense, action thrillers, personal development, history, biographies, theology and philosophy. Comics and graphic novels. Non-graphic novels. Short stories. Modern stuff and the classics. It’s all good to me.
As a visual storyteller, I’ve done comic strips, tried my hand at comic stories and done single pieces that tried to convey a sense of more than just a pretty picture. Granted, I’m probably being overly generous on the pretty part. I always had too many interests and never pushed myself to get as good as I could have with my art. I regret that mightily. I also dabbled in some writing over the years, starting in college. Getting access to a computer was a big help there. More on that in another post.
Always though, it’s the storytelling when doing my creative works, even when I didn’t consciously realize it. Creators in the comic industry that I’ve admired most have always been those who could tell a good story just through the art. If you needed the words to know what was happening, then the artist failed in my opinion. John Byrne, George Perez, Walt Simonson, Neal Adams, Gil Kane, Sal and John Buscema, John Romita (Sr. and Jr.), Don Heck, Gene Colan and of course the two creative giants of all time, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. And many more.
The story was what was important. If you got pretty pictures to go with it, that was a bonus. Though the styles were different, you almost always got pretty pictures with the above gentlemen. When it came to the written word, the story was also paramount. How realistic was the world being described? Did it draw me in? Was it believable in it’s own right? Did it make sense? Were the characters compelling? Was there suspense, drama, humor, love, action, conflict, danger, good and evil?
All these things are important to a good story, if not all at once in the same story. Though most of them will at least make a cameo in any good story, whether as a novel, a comic, graphic novel, TV show or movie. The exploration of other worlds is what fascinates me when it comes to stories. I don’t just mean the fantastical or futuristic or apocalyptic. To me every book is an alternative history. Related to our world at least as a reference point. It diverged somewhere, though it may be as simple as people that don’t exist here and now living and working in a world very much like our own.
It’s the differences from our everyday lives that makes people want to read a story I think. Either extreme differences when it comes to fantasy and sci-fi or relatively minor differences with modern stories. How believable that world is and what’s gone wrong is it is what makes us read or watch. How do the people in the story deal with the problems? Do they triumph or fail? Live or die? In a story, anything can happen; and that’s the greatest part.
Anything can happen and often the most unexpected things do.
Contrast that with most people’s lives. Anything CAN happen, but almost never do. For most, even writers and artists, one day is like the next. For some, that’s good. For others, it’s torture. As a storyteller, it’s my job to help the reader break out of the sameness of their daily lives, even if they love their lives already.
Stories keep us sharp. Stories tell our history and our myths. Stories show us our good sides and bad. Stories shine a spotlight on the good we’ve done as well as the evil.
Good ones do at least. The best only do so subtly. Personally, I don’t read to be preached at or told how or what to think. My goal as a writer is to present a good story, that also makes the reader ponder the issues I bring up, not tell them they should think a certain way. That’s just lazy writing to me. So writing is also a philosophical exercise as well. Hopefully it’s subtle enough to fly under the radar.