Storytelling is a tough job…
No one is a born writer. This is a single fact that no one can change. Everyone has their journey towards it. I have written stories, bad or good that is not a matter of discussion here but the important thing is the exhaustion behind it. A sleep-deprived thought process that goes behind a well-curated story cannot become your life. It can only be a part of your life.
I am not a professional storyteller is something that came out of my mouth at the wrong place where people were more intelligent than me. I didn’t realize it at first but when they laughed in unison and said, “Who is?” was the moment for me. I never realized that it was the single thing in life that came naturally to me. No school is teaching you this. Although you go to school to collect such stories which you can later use in your stories in the form of anecdotes. But that is it. What to do when you do not have enough people in your life after a point who can help you create those stories again?
The solution can be reading. The solution can be observing little things happening and changing around you. I am not saying that read and write the same things again and again but you can at least learn new things through this, right? I have never been a consistent reader but I have always been a consistent writer and a talker. But in the past few years, I have made very few human connections and have not written much either.
As the world was evolving and working its way up since Covid I guess I was left behind. I stayed behind because I couldn’t complete a single thing that I started. I learned how to ride a scooty and car but didn’t practice enough and hence I am still dead scared of traffic. I started learning flute but left it in the beginning. I started my podcast but didn’t continue with it either. I have left so many things in the middle that I have piles of stories myself. But sometimes I feel that the thing I ignored the most is the only thing that always stayed with me. My skill of storytelling (not a very polished one) but it is a skill I like that I have and I hope to make it work. I do not want to lose it over my laziness or fear of judgment.
And I hope that for everyone out there who thinks that they can’t survive life with this skill or they are not confident enough to pursue their dreams like this one. I just want to say that I know what you feel. I feel the same way and no, I do not have a plan for this but I don’t want to be scared at every point of my life and that is why, I am trying to put myself out there, fighting my fears one day at a time. I hope that you do too.
