This and that

The reading yesterday was something of a joke but the experience good, I ran into some old friends.

This morning I read a new story from a young writer I've been mentoring. Damn, she can write! I wish I had her chops. But she's not as good a storyteller as she could be, which is where I might be able to help her. I run into a lot of young writers whose language skills far surpass their storytelling skills. I don't think much teaching of storytelling goes on in our schools.

I think storytelling begins with an insight by Aristotle in his Poetics, that Action is more important than Character. This is quite out of fashion in literary circles and completely misunderstood by Hollywood. But I think Aristotle was right, and ignoring his advice results in the avalanche of beautifully written stories in which nothing happens, a literary disease of recent times.