On Fri, 06 Jun 2014 05:10:11 -0600, mumble    
   wrote:   
      
   >Is storytelling a talent one is born with, or is it a skill that can be   
   >developed?   
   >   
      
   Both.   
      
   I'm assuming you are speaking of writing stories rather than "oral   
   storytelling for children or adults using other writer's stories."   
      
   The ability to perceive the human emotional gestalt accurately is   
   genetic. If you are not born with the ability for empathy, it's not a   
   skill that you can learn. If you can't talk to somebody for 5 seconds   
   without a full understanding of their back story, you can't do it. A   
   storyteller needs not only the ability to gauge and understand the   
   emotional underpinnings of life, but also the ability to deal with the   
   information intelligently. In short, if you can't tell when anybody   
   except a professional actor is lying (by immediately knowing whether   
   they believe what they are saying), and have the intelligence to   
   detect inconsistencies for those who are professional actors, you may   
   learn to tell a story, but the emotions, motivations, and character   
   consistency will be off (at least to similarly sensitive readers).   
   This is measured by both IQ (4 scales) and social IQ (3 additional   
   scales) which are not the same. (I can not elaborate on this, it has   
   been too long since I looked.)   
      
   (Note that you can learn to read body language and voice stress if   
   your perception is adequate, but if you can't do it naturally, without   
   training, the skill is not sufficient to be a good storyteller.)   
      
   That said, you can mostly learn story telling, but the story won't be   
   very interesting on an emotional level. (You may, however, be quite   
   good at plot driven stories rather than character driven stories.)   
      
   Other talents you need:   
      
   1. To write in sentences and paragraphs except when it is necessarily   
   otherwise for the personality of the characters and useful to the   
   story. You can learn this, but some are born with this ability.   
      
   2. To write with a beginning, middle, and end. You can learn this.   
      
   3. A sense of the music of words. (See Brendon Behan - Under Milk Wood   
   for an example. See TS Eliot - Murder in the Cathedral for another   
   example.) I don't think you can learn this, but it is not necessary   
   for some storytelling.   
      
   4. To know where to start the story, and to know when to end the   
   story. I think you can learn this, but it means having a really   
   perceptive editor who can show how.   
      
   You also need certain things NOT happening to you.   
      
   1. You need to have an TOTALLY honest relationship with some primary   
   role model. Otherwise, your role models will teach you to be blind to   
   their own shortcomings. Almost everybody develops "blind spots" where   
   they learn "not to see" whatever their parents want to keep hidden.   
   (Almost all children develop blind spots.)   
      
   2. You need to be mentally healthy enough to not require heavy meds.   
   Heavy meds interfere with the creative process.   
      
   There might also be other factors.   
      
   In summary, you need certain skills that are hereditary plus some   
   learning to use them and to write to be good at character-driven   
   storytelling. You need less genetics to be good at plot-driven   
   storytelling.   
      
   I'm a very good high-tech writer. My grandkid is a very good   
   character-driven fiction writer.   
      
   >Aside from autobiography, where do the stories come from?  Are they   
   >imagined up out of thin air?  Are they transformations of stories one   
   >has lived himself?  Other?   
      
   Character-driven stories come from observation of people. Plot-driven   
   stories come from observations of complex systems.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)