The art of story telling

Blogging regularly is not going to be an easy task after all! Though it is a 'not so hectic' office schedule these days, am struggling to post just 2 or 3 times a week. Am wondering what will be the case when office starts going hectic(as it will be most of the time!) again. Hope I wont have to shut this blog down and start another one(when the work loosens up a bit) all over again with renewed enthusiasm and vigor...I mean, however hectic the schedule, a couple of hours off work every week wont prevent the world from going round...or will it?

Read 'Kane and Abel' last week and thought I should write on it. It being one of the best works of one of the best story tellers the world has ever seen, chances are very high that you would have already read it. So I don't intend to give a summary or review here, but just wanted to write about the art of story telling.

I am not a voracious reader...but I feel people like me are the ones who can really say a good story teller from a not so good one. There are numerous books which I have stopped reading after the first couple of pages itself as it got terribly boring...So, a great story writer is one who is able to glue a non-book-worm onto his works. Books like Kane and Abel, Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Alchemist and some more belong to this class(again, its a personal choice!)...I used to feel uncomfortable to even keep the book down to go for food, bath or sleep; they were so soo addictive. Being an early riser, sitting deep into the night has always been an uncomfortable affair for me but while reading these books, I would sit way past midnight, sometimes even missing an entire night's sleep in a frenzy to know what would happen next, how the story would unfold, how the protagonist or whoever associated would go about solving a seemingly unsolvable issue...aah the most important talent of a story teller...making the reader desperate to know what would happen in the next few pages and then keep this momentum throughout. Very few people seem to have this talent and I envy these guys!! A simple language and a clear plot also are very important to keep the story interesting. Very complicated plots and tough language takes the fun off the story. The flow is also very important...there should be a continuity throughout. A sense of humor also helps a lot in keeping the reader alive and active during the course of the story. I think the number of prominent characters should also be kept to the minimum...too many people doing too many things could make things difficult to remember making the story less interesting. After so many fundas I remember a story. A scholar( a great guy who knew by-heart almost all the knowledge know to mankind at that time) was crossing a river in a boat and during the course was boasting about his vast knowledge and teasing the guy rowing the boat as he was uneducated. All of the sudden the boat hits some solid rock and starts sinking. The scholar knew the theory of swimming...the hand and leg movements and breath control and all that...but never had any practical knowledge of the same...and as expected, his theoretical knowledge couldn't help him one bit and he had to be rescued by the boat-guy. Similar is my situation. Am giving a long lecture on how to write great stories and when I try to write one, am struggling like hell!!!

I just wish the authors of textbooks at college and school had this talent of writing...which would make us glued onto the book once we start with it...but sadly only a very, very small percentage of textbook authors seem to have that talent; the content might be great but the writing style generally is boring and monotonic...Had every text book author been blessed with this talent, I guess the world would have seen more scientists,innovators,engineers,businessmen and doctors!!

I was just going through what I have written today again. Man... its a boring read. Looking through the little window at the swaying trees miles away and wondering if I would even be able to write a single article which would be an awesome read...but am optimistic, they say 'practice makes perfect :)'

And yes, this post is special...coz now I ahve started using Ubuntu after years of long wait and this is the first post to come out of my Ubuntu OS...