Jackanory

Did you watch that when you were a kid? I think it used to be on about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Actually I think they brought it back for a short spell quite recently. I loved it. Used to rush home from school for it. Had to wait for those fuckwits on Playschool to bugger off sometimes but that was a small price to pay. I loved any kind of storytelling. I remember Miss Harper [ all us 8 year olds had a crush on her] reading The Hobbit to us for an hour a week. Best hour of the school week, no question. And she had this really cute way of biting her lip and........

I love storytelling in whatever form. Film, TV, Book or a mate down the pub. And for me, I think that for a writer the love of story and storytelling is the best attribute you can have. All the craft in the world isn't going to help if you don't have that instinct.

Of course format is important, especially when you are trying to break in. But that is cosmetic. Telling a story well is by far more important. And that doesn't mean hitting your act 1 break on page 20 or whatever. A story has it's own rythmn, and if you've gauged it correctly no one is counting pages, they are too engrossed, anyway a good story will tend to organically follow the three act structure. Which no matter how the gurus try to analyize it, is really just beginning middle and end.

I'd like to try to cut through the bullshit about writing and just lay it on the line. We are storytellers. First last and always. Like comedians, some can do it, some can't. And it doesn't matter if you are writing corporate videos, nature documentaries, or blockbuster movies. To be a writer you need to be a storyteller in your heart and in your mind.

Then you have to get some fucker to buy it. But that's another story.