Not every storyteller is a writer, but every writer is a storyteller.
From a very young age, I used to hold aloft random pamphlets (usually Daily Bread booklets) at my grandparents' house and pretend to recite them aloud, creating stories off the top of my head. I did this for myself, although I'm told that my family couldn't help but listen in to my impromptu performances on occasion. I was usually strolling about the living room, after all.
My first foray into the physicality of pen-and-paper storytelling started arguably late in my childhood. I started writing my first "novel" when I was around 10 years old. I remember slaving away at picnic tables while on holiday with my parents and even proudly leaving my green binder containing the first few chapters at the front of my grade 6 classroom for people to read (no one did). You could tell that it was heavily influenced by the Disney adaptations of Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. It was also obvious that I had no idea where the plot was going after the initial inciting incidents.
After that, I briefly worked on a story about people with superpowers that I claimed wasn't all that much like the X-Men (it was). I didn't get very far with this idea and it never saw the light of day (thankfully). Some years later I developed a story about an unrealistically immunocompromised character locked in an environmentally controlled house. This one saw the light of day in my grade 12 creative writing class. Although I was at the top of said class, that story would need to be completely re-mixed and re-hauled before I would ever consider working on it again. The science wasn't sciencing.
Over the next few years, I wrote short pieces for my creative writing courses at university and started a high-society/royalty story that I will definitely revisit at some point. It was around this time that I got the idea for my current series and started writing my first (terrible) drafts. I'll dive deeper into that story later!
Although I don't have a lot of "big projects" to my name, I've always had big stories and even bigger ideas. Storytelling is in my blood. It's also clear that I've always been inspired by the media I enjoy. Over the years, this has manifested in the common form of "you often like to write what you like to read", and although I will read and write just about anything, fantasy/science-fiction is my bread and butter. I don't think any genre can supersede Speculative fiction in my heart and soul.
If you are a storyteller, what are other ways you like to convey your stories other than in writing?
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