Storyteller first, author second

Storyteller (noun) – someone who tells stories (duh)
Author (noun) – a writer of a book, article, or report (seems incomplete)

As a child, I tried to make sense of this world, as most of us do. My parents and family did their part to educate me before church and school tried to warp and bend my thoughts to their will. Even before I needed my imagination as an escape, I protected it from harm with all my meager might. When a childhood friend first showed me a role-playing game manual, something clicked.

My brothers being considerably older than me, they hadn’t brought me into the pastime of turning imagination into shared entertainment. I started simple and borrowed concepts from anywhere and everywhere that was of interest to me, and kept on building up and out as fast as my fecund mind was able. It wasn’t long until I was the go-to Game Master / Dungeon Master / Storyteller for those who were into the hobby, regardless of the game system. I bounced around between established systems for years, never wanting to borrow someone’s module or campaign – I needed to create my own worlds and the characters within.

Before high-school I was getting a grip on the 13 Realms of Eternity, but it was still a raw thought leaning too heavily on borrowed content (as you might suspect, this has been sorted out by now). By grade ten or eleven I was opting for writing my first novel in my three ring binder rather than listening to boring teachers in their classes. When the world around me moved too slow, I pulled out my WiP and escaped to something creative. I’m sure the story isn’t worth dusting off at this point, but the writing wasn’t my reason for penning that work. I needed the characters to come alive.

With each year of life, my voice as a storyteller changed, and I resisted much of the bad advice that was hurled at my head in favor of the positive insights. A storyteller is mostly an entertainer, but might masquerade as a philosopher or councilor. Exploring difficult subject, working through complex resolutions, challenging the audience, it can happen given the right group, but you better keep them interested and engaged. Share the spotlight among the players at the table as equally as possible, the natural leaders will distinguish themselves, some might need to be held back a bit for sake of the group, but not always. Give the story to them, let their characters do more than have meaningful choices like a video game, give them an unequalled open world and appropriate challenges to their unique character and player personalities. Have fun, you want them to win, but not for it to be easy. Hell, some of them might not even survive with their initial character, but I’m never out for blood.

I carry this approach into my writing, which is why I consider myself a storyteller first. I create characters, give them personalities, and let them tell me a story. As the author, I have to supplement world building and attempt some sort of balance throughout the work, regulating the flow and introducing forces of opposition or chaos. At the end of the day, my ambitions for any of my written works are secondary to my characters’ desires… And that’s the way I like it.