Today’s guest blog is from Stephen M Irwin, novelist and
filmmaker whose short films have won awards around the world. He has written and directed TV documentaries
and his first novel, The Dead Path, which
has been published in many countries, was named Top Horror Title in the 2011
RUSA Reading List. His second novel, The Broken Ones, was released in
Australia to excellent reviews in August this year. Stephen works as a story consultant for
Australian producers, and has a long creative association with beyondblue: the nation depression initiative.
My daughter is about to take her first steps. She turned one in August, and over the last
week or so has gained the confidence and ability to stand for up to a minute
unaided. She still needs an adult’s
fingers to lean on as she walks, but we know it is only a matter of days before
she starts walking by herself. And we
know, too, that she will only be able to take a few steps at a time before she
will fall, again and again, as she learns a skill that will carry her across
rooms and paddocks, city squares and sandy beaches, frozen lakes and airport
terminals – rocket terminals, maybe.
As I walk
behind her, bent over, her fingers gripping mine, I’m reminded acutely of the
description that “walking is controlled falling”. Perhaps it was on one of the wonderful Lord
Robert Winston’s documentaries that I first heard this (it doesn’t
matter). Watching Poppy lean and shuffle
and delight in self-mobilisation, I am struck by the similarities between
walking and storytelling. Or running and
storytelling (again, it doesn’t matter).
When one first begins writing stories, the first paragraphs – those
first steps – feel perilously unsteady
and untrustworthy, and often with good reason.
But with practice and not a few falls the steps grow more confident, and
self-mobilisation becomes a possibility.
Journeys become a possibility:
storytelling become something achievable, if you can just place one paragraph
steadily after the next.
But bless
the falls, and bless the perils.
As a person
relatively new to novel writing, I must remind myself not to forget them,
because good stories are not safe journeys.
Be they short story sprints, or novel-length marathons, or trilogy
treks, they should never be secure and uneventful; quite the opposite: every
step must be fraught with the danger of a fall.
And indeed those falls must come, and if the author’s job is done well,
the reader will go down the avalanche with the characters, willingly and
delightedly.
Here is the
rub for the storyteller. She or he must
write in such a way that the readers feel in such safe hands they are prepared
to go anywhere; the paragraphs and component sentences must be easy to read and
solid. Yet, those very paragraphs and
sentences must be ready to betray their subject and the reader, to slide away
unexpectedly. For why else do we read,
but to be surprised? Is there any better
reason not to read than to be
presented with fresh text and yet know exactly what will happen next? The storyteller must both know the route and
keep it hidden. The storyteller must be
the hands the readers hold, allowing the readers to feel they’re in control
while actually guiding them on a surprising path into new places, bright and
dark. Every step must be controlled, yet
every step must hold the promise a fall.
Pacing, of
course, is a skill that improves with practise.
The author learns not to place the dramatic moments (the missteps,
stumbles and tumbles) too closely together, or to space them too widely, lest
the reader become exhausted or (worse) bored.
Ultimately,
a destination will be reached – the ending.
It may be utterly unexpected by the reader, and that will delight. It may be anticipated, but if so will
hopefully be greeted with a glowing thought: ‘I suspected that might happen’.
But if the journey itself has been carefully sown with enough
uncertainty, even an ending the reader predicted won’t feel so, and so will
satisfy. The ending is important, but
the journey is everything.
It starts
with a treacherous, rock-solid step.
Thanks, Steve. Steve’s website is www.stephenmirwin.com
- For more about me and my books: http://www.ian-irvine.com/
- To say Hi or talk to me about books and writing: http://www.facebook.com/ianirvine.author
- To follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ianirvineauthor
- My blog about the novels I write, and the writing life: http://ian-irvine.blogspot.com/
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