support for storytellers: watch Farscape
I've never been able to keep a journal. Over the years I've tried, reallly I have, and I always fail miserably even when I give myself a specific task. For example, I tried, at one time, to keep notes on my thoughts as I worked on a novel. I thought it would be interesting to try to follow the characters around in my head. But they didn't much care for that, and as any novelist will tell you, an unhappy character makes writing really hard. So I gave it up. However. I have been thinking about this blogging business and it seems to me a good way to keep track of my thoughts on storytelling. Along the way if my thoughts are useful to other people looking for a book to read or a movie to watch, then maybe I'll feel motivated enough to keep doing this. I love a good story, on a screen (small or large), told over dinner, or in the pages of a book. I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm addicted to storytelling from both sides -- I need stories as much as I need food and shelter -- and I also need to write them. This isn't unusual; in fact, it seems that storytelling is a basic human need. It's how we make sense of our world and our own role in that world.
I have had some success writing novels that are heavily plotted, and I like to think that I know a little bit about what makes a story work. Wherever I can, I try to promote excellent storytelling. I tell friends about books that I really loved and enjoyed (have you read any Dennis Lehane? run to the bookstore or library!). We talk about movies endlessly (disappointed in Open Range, disappointed in Le Divorce), about older movies worthy of watching again (Bull Durham, When Sally Met Harry, Sense and Sensibility). I talk to friends a lot about television.
When I was in graduate school it was very, very bad politics to admit that you watched television (with a few exceptions: for some reason, Cheers was okay, as were reruns of Gilligan's Island).
You were supposed to be reading higher literature and criticism; you were supposed to be slaving away, losing sleep over great philosophical debates, and in general you were supposed to submerge yourself in the university culture and drink therefrom until you were converted, or you floundered.
But I rebelled. I decided that I didn't need to buy into everything they were selling, and one of the big ticket items that I passed up was this: they wanted me to believe that old-fashioned storytelling was plebian, and those who liked narrative were woefully undereducated. Plot? A four letter word. Really good writing had to do exclusively with character. It started with character and ended with character and in the middle there should be, if at all possible, a character in the throws of an epiphany. Stream of consciousness was neat-o, too. Plot was secondary and really, if you could figure a way to do without it, all the better. You think I'm joking? I wish I were.
But I like plot. I always have, and I didn't want to give it up, not in the stories I wrote and not in the ones I watched or read.
This is not to say that it isn't possible to have a good story (i.e., a well plotted, well told story) that spends a lot of time on developing complex, interesting characters. I don't see, I never will see, why the latter should be more important that the former, but I also don't think you can do without good character development. The novels I like best are the ones that have both. I really loved The English Patient both for the incredible beauty of its prose, but it was the story that moved me beyond words. I like the movie version too, for different reasons. I hated the movie About Schmidt because it seemed to me pretentious blathering about shallow, unlikable, two dimensional characters who bounced around dull scenes until their ninety minutes were up. I love A.S. Byatt's Possession because it's intellectually challenging, beautifully written, has characters I dream about, and because there are multiple engaging plots. I am in awe of Baine Kerr's novel Wrongful Death for a hundred different reasons, but right up at the top is a plot that had me thinking really hard, and rewarded me for that.
So I'm going to start this blog business off by pitching a television show that I truly admire and love, and one that needs support because it's hanging on by the skin of its teeth. It's called Farscape. I have a whole page on this website dedicated to it alone, and here's the link: Sara Sez Watch Farscape. Please have a look (and be warned that the first part of this blog is repeated on that page. If you generally steer clear of sci-fi and prefer a good love story, believe me, you need to watch this show. I should say that Claudia Black, who plays Aeryn Sun (seen here) would make a perfect Elizabeth Middleton Bonner, if the Wilderness novels ever make it onto film.