Are you a storyteller or a writer?

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Medea

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I'm a storyteller primarily. Writing isn't the only medium I use to tell stories.
 

kdaniel171

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I'm definitely a storyteller.
I'm not very good with the mechanics and that makes me a pretty bad writer.
But I think that writing skills can be improved but storytelling is a gift.
 

BWretched

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Writer. I like to be in the moment with words and craft them in a small scale. Of course, I have to add a plot, but that's just out of necessity and it's usually something I expend a lot of effort to keep on track with.
 
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Roxxsmom

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I'm a writer. I believe I'm good with the mechanics and can craft pretty decent sentences and paragraphs. I create realistic characters, interesting worlds, but the story? That's where I fall flat on my face. No amount of pretty words can hide that fact.

I'm beginning to worry that this is my problem too.
 

CJMockingbird

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I would say I'm more of a storyteller. Characters and plot interest me far more than the technical backwork, but I have made an effort to pay techniques a little more attention lately. Technique/planning can help a lot with plot, which is one of my weaknesses.
 

o.Nixie.o

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I definitely feel I'm a storyteller. I fuss over the proper mechanics and make sure that I plan my writing time and work around other things, do what I feel a writer would do. However, when I sit in front of my manuscript, my mind just floods with story and plot and everything. I rarely have to outline before starting, it just sort of flows organically. So yeah, I believe I'm a storyteller.
 

L. OBrien

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I don't know which I'm better at, but my outlook is definitely more storyteller. I think that the language is supposed to serve the story, and that truly good writing lets the reader understand what's going on without calling attention to itself.
 

rfitzwilly63

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As seems like the majority, I am also a storyteller (I just had to look back to see if storyteller is one word or two). I am a plot driven, what happens next kind of guy. I have to go back to make sure I have given some character depth and setting, weather etc., cuz if it ain't pertinent to the plot I don't see it. I am not really in the habit of using ain't, or cuz., by the way.
 

dragonfliet

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I'm surprised to see the vast majority side with storyteller. Unsurprisingly then, I see myself as a writer. While the storytelling aspect is a given, and basically a necessity, I also find it the least interesting. While the idea that there are no new ideas is reductive and essentially wrong because of that, there is some truth to it. There are only a few plots, only a few twists, and I find myself most compelled as a reader (and driven as an author) by the process of making it new. It isn't that the STORY hasn't been done this way before, but that something along the way has been changed, tweaked, done better (hopefully), etc. that makes it new.

Granted, I also write strange, experimental literature, so...
 

Disa

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I don't know, actually. It didn't occur to me to separate the two. The stories seem to write themselves to a point, so I never considered I was the story teller. Once the story says what it has to say, then I , the writer, put my spin on it. So I guess I'm a writer, I don't really know who's telling the story. It just comes from "somewhere, out there" and I write it down.
 

morngnstar

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The stories seem to write themselves to a point, so I never considered I was the story teller. Once the story says what it has to say, then I , the writer, put my spin on it. So I guess I'm a writer, I don't really know who's telling the story. It just comes from "somewhere, out there" and I write it down.

It's called a storyteller, not a story-maker, so even if you see yourself as channeling a story that's already out there in the universe, you can still be a storyteller. And I would think the part that comes naturally is what you'd identify as. If writing comes really naturally, but you have to struggle to find a story to write, you're a natural writer. On the other hand if the story just pops into your head and writing is the work part, you're a natural storyteller.
 

dragonfliet

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Strange and experimental... What would that be like?

Some books that have been very foundational for me, and qualify as strange and experimental: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje, People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia, The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus, As She Crawled Across the table, by Jonathan Letham (less experimental, but still very weird), Ava by Carole Maso, Theories of Forgetting by Lance Olson, Jealousy by Allain Robbe-Grillet (which is actually way more experimental than it seems). I tend to be interested in writing that forces the reader to approach it in ways they aren't immediately familiar with, and play a very active part in the construction of meaning. It isn't that the meaning is hidden, per se, it isn't a trick or a gimmick but the very process of figuring it out is essential to the experience. Roland Barthes calls this the "writerly" text, where the reader must do half of the work (as opposed to a "readerly" text, in which the writer has done all of the work and the reader simply receives it).
 

DeannaR

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This is an interesting question, and reading all the responses was similarly interesting! I never considered the question, nor been asked it. I found my answers shifting as I read other's responses and what they considered important to each aspect of either story-teller or writer. I think I have settled on that I would consider myself a writer. But, not because I love the mechanics of a sentence. honestly, and you can probably see this through my posts, I am "comma-happy" I write my sentences how I would speak them. I throw stops or pauses in where they do not belong (I do edit these out in my final revisions of course). But I still have to consider myself a writer. I cannot "tell" a good story, but I can write one (at least I think so, most days.) I know the ending to my story but I do not always know what is coming in the next chapter until I get there. An analogy I heard once, and loved, was it is like driving a car at night, you can only see as far as the headlights but you still get where you are going. I enjoy the sound of a sentence and will edit it until it rolls of the tongue in a pleasing manner.

So, long answer short: Writer.
 

lacygnette

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Deanna, I'd add to your analogy, with limited vision, there is tension. Surprises jump out. Getting to where you are going isn't easy...Don't forget the tension!
 

DeannaR

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Deanna, I'd add to your analogy, with limited vision, there is tension. Surprises jump out. Getting to where you are going isn't easy...Don't forget the tension!

Love that addition, sometimes the tension is so high it's like driving at night through a snow storm. With lots of deer jumping out, and the odd moose for good measure.
 

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I hope I am a story teller. It is a story, I'm trying to tell in my novel, which is finished and looking for a home, whether agent or publisher. However, I have been told off by an agent about being 'too writerly.'

It's beautiful writing he said, it's like a song, but why is the reader going to care? One metaphor, fine. Three too close together, it's linguistic showing off and that turns off the reader.

An editing exercise followed, as you'd imagine.
 
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inoue77

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I'm a writer, myself. It's something I'm slowly coming to terms with as I practice and try my craft. My story always lacks. I write for the wordplay and for the act of making beautiful sentences and imagery. I write for the sake of writing. So much so that if I try to be a storyteller first and a writer second, I can barely begin. If I try to be a writer first and a storyteller second, however, I can start and make something from nothing.

When my writerly tendencies work well I like to hope that storytelling and story come as a natural (and positive) byproduct. Maybe.
 
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