OUR PHILOSOPHY OF STORYTELLING
There are many books about storytelling that an up-and-coming storyteller may look into to learn his craft. Indeed, the whole genre of books that teach one how to write a good story has become a sort of cottage industry. Many have profited much thanks to it, and that is probably one of the reasons why these books are still being produced. After all, with so many wanting to learn how to tell a good story, why would there be a shortage of these books?
Nevertheless, one key aspect that many people tend to forget is whether or not these books actually provide any good insights into the craft of storytelling. Many will argue that they do. They say that it is necessary to read these books if people want to learn the theory of the craft. After all, no craftsman or artist can practice his trade well until he has first learned the theory. Others will claim that just reading great stories and not bothering with any of these books is a better pathway for beginners to follow. They will argue that many (if not all) of these new storytelling books are not based on any real knowledge of the craft. They are just opinion pieces from people looking to make money out of a profitable cottage industry. Hence, they conclude, it's better to learn from simply watching great films and reading good stories than from reading these books. The debate goes back and forth constantly, and like with all debates of this sort, it often seems like the controversy until Judgment Day.
Yet, to be honest, I think both approaches have something good to offer. On the one side, it is true that learning theory is necessary for doing the practice well, and this, whether we like it or not, is almost never accomplished without recurring to some books. We cannot learn everything by analyzing stories; we need some more substantive on which we can base our analyses. On the other hand, it's also true that many of these "how to write a good story" books are nothing more than a scam. The knowledge they provide is often very superficial and will most likely not stand the test of time, and as such, we are probably better off learning from films that have indeed become great classics and have something valuable to teach us. So in a sense, it's possible to see how these two positions can be reconciled by admitting what each has gotten right. Reading books is necessary to learn the craft, but that does not mean we ought to read the books being released today.
So if neither of these approaches is entirely right, what should we do then? Well, what I propose is that we combine what is good in both approaches and thus create a third way that overcomes the other two. Firstly, we ought to acknowledge that reading books on good storytelling is going to be crucial for us to learn well the craft. However, since most of the books being put out today are not going to provide us with any valuable insights, we must therefore somewhere else to find good resources from which we can learn. Indeed, we must look in the ancient wisdom of our forefathers, who knew how to tell great stories much better than we do now. That's why I believe we have to begin acquainting ourselves with the great works of Homer, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Dante, Chesterton, Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis, all of which have provided over the centuries many important insights into what it means to tell a good story. Unlike the books being sold today, these giants of storytelling have indeed passed the test of time, and so we can safely say that reading them and learning what they had to say will not be a waste of time. And secondly, we also must be read and watch the great stories that have been told throughout History to be able to see how these eternal principles of good storytelling are applied. Thus, besides reading Aristotle and Tolkien to learn the theory, we must also read the great classic stories and watch the great classic films to see how that theory is put into practice. That's the way we should learn.
Therefore, if we truly want to learn how to tell great stories, we need to take an approach that is constantly putting in touch with the Wisdom of our forefathers and the Beauty of the work of the great masters. We cannot allow ourselves to be taught by scavengers looking to make money off beginners like us. But at the same time, we cannot be so arrogant as to just read and watch whatever story and then expect to learn some eternal Truth about storytelling from it. Hence, we must open ourselves to the great teachers of the past and their Wisdom, and then we must encounter the great classics and try to understand why they are so good. In other words, we must combine theoretical Wisdom with practical Beauty. A marriage between ancient theory and classic masterpieces of practice. That's how we learn to become great storytellers.
