13 - Tell me a tale
I’ve always loved stories.
From when I was very small (well, smaller than I am right now), I wanted to be an author. I remember planning a bunch of stories - chapters, characters, sketching out plots and scenes…they wouldn’t go anywhere, but it was fun! Unfortunately, I could never get close to what I wanted in my head. I always envisioned that it’d be so epic and awesome but those things are hard to write.
And, well…career-wise…it wasn’t going to pay the bills, right? At least according to the classic Asian parent response (though it was tempered a bit more with a more Western feel) - “Well, you can always do it on the side when you find a good paying job…”
The nail in the coffin was when I was at high school, and they brought in an editor/publisher to come talk about their job. I was so excited - I wanted to hear how they would love to have more creative people write stories for them, how it could be a viable career and inspire me to follow the life of a lucrative artist. Take that Mum! Even the editor said it’s a good idea!
They did not say those things - instead, it was, “Don’t become an author - you’ll never be great or successful, so don’t even try.”
My last great writing triumph was in high school when I came 2nd in an Age Short Story competition - that was fun! It was an answer to a story prompt written by Garth Nix about two kids who came across a treasure chest that I based on the line in Hotel California “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”- really fun and I got a bunch of stationery swag from it (see where the obsession started? :D). First place was a guy at school who wrote a story about sneezing - YIKES (I’m not jealous).
Telling a good story is really hard, and just like a lot of art forms - you know what works and what doesn’t work, but it can often be hard to work out how to make it really great yourself.
But when you get hooked by a good story, then by gods - you don’t sleep, you don’t eat, you obsessively want to know what’s next, you follow the characters, you fall in love, you hate them…it’s living another life. I’ve been obsessed with novels, short story collections, tv series, narrative non-fiction, movies, manga, anime - you name it, if it’s telling a story I’ve probably stayed up til 2am absorbing it.
Good stories are just addictive.
Our minds are wired to stories - we learn through fables, through stories handed down through generations, through songs…no wonder that in those tribes that had great storytellers, they were highly revered. They were the ones that held the implicit knowledge and wisdom of those stories, and were in charge of bringing those stories to the next generation.
I’d love to be a good storyteller.
And I’m (sort of) working on it! I’ve mentioned it a couple of times through this newsletter, but film theory channels on YouTube and random articles online about storytelling are absolutely brilliant to deconstruct what it means to build a story:
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Kurt Vonnegut talks about the shape of stories - a really interesting breakdown of the different types of stories people tell.
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Joseph Campbell wrote ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ which broke down what we know today as the Hero’s Journey:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man
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Dan Harmon, of Community fame, wrote this Story Structure 101 piece, which is based on the Hero’s Journey, but in a bit more of a…er…modern vernacular
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Lessons from the Screenplay, which is one of my favourite film theory channels because it’s about how you write the movie rather than the production of it. I’ve been binging this podcast recently - it’s SO GOOD.
Even this newsletter itself is helping me learn how to write better!
Anyhow, this piece is getting long - let me know; what are your favourite stories? Who are your favourite storytellers? Why?? Chuck me some recommendations!
Chat soon :)
✔️ Real Life Recommendations
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Melba Restaurant at the Langham - look, it’s essentially a fancy buffet. But there aren’t many buffets where they have a sushi chef who makes nigiri and sashimi for you on demand, or on-demand garlic and cheese naan by an Indian chef, or char kway teow cooked while you wait…it’s an incredible mix of foods and experience - but the price is quite prohibitive. Maybe just leave it for special occasions…
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Rhodia Notebooks - as a follow up to my Mechanical Pencils post, this is my favourite brand of notebooks. Not only does it have fantastically creamy, nice paper, but it also has notebooks that can lie-flat! I know it’s not a big thing to a lot of people, but when you write things down as much as I do, it’s so much better. When I have hardback notebooks like Moleskines…it’s just hard to write in! Not as pleasant as these nice orange Rhodia notebooks :D
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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The Complete Beginner’s Guide to TikTok - for people like me who aren’t “with it” any more - it’s a good primer into how TikTok works :D The rapid evolution of memes on TikTok, as well as the focus on songs and dancing is a really interesting phenomenon to see on a social network. It reminds me of Vine, except this one got scale.
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Battery icons shape perceptions of time and space - this was a fascinating piece about how people think about their relationship of time and space with respect to their battery percentage - how far are they away from a solid power connection where they can charge their phone.
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Auctioneers over rap beats - exactly what it says on the box HAHA - take a look!