Makers & Tellers

I spent most of today trying, without an iota of success, to come up with a plot for a 2-3 page screenplay. It's one of the requirements for my South Seas application. I breezed through the first two assignments: a film review and a (very) short critical essay on a particular aspect of the New Zealand television industry. But when I got to the screenplay all work stopped dead - I just couldn't come up with a story. Which is more than a bit ironic. Anyone who reads this blog even semi-regularly will know that I harp on about "story" and how much I love and value it. But the sad fact remains that I do not have the gift for story-making. That doesn't mean that I can't tell stories - there is a distinct difference. Tolkien and King, for example, are story-makers who have achieved fame and success through of their skill in crafting highly original and compelling plots. We love and respect them because they've given us something new and not before thought of. But not every author can, or need, attain this particular goal. Often we don't care if it's original, as long as it's good. That's when folk like Shakespeare and Grisham come into their own. Out of all the plays that The Bard wrote, only one (The Tempest) was original. The others were all stories poached from various sources and retold with flair, heart and a craftsmans touch. And Grisham? For the first decade of his career (prolific though it was) he only told one story: little good guy takes on big bad guy and wins; David and Goliath. But he told it very well. These are the story-tellers. They serve us familiar food, relying on their cooking skills to make the difference. Are they an inferior breed to their 'creator' brothers? Perhaps. I hope (and somewhere deep inside, I think) not. But my judgement is fundamentally skewed - after all, I am one of them.