The elements of story 4: fire
If water is the flow of a good
story, and earth gives a story weight and substance, and air is the freedom of
the storyteller’s art, then fire is the imagination itself. The energy that creates worlds.
To tell the story of fire is to tell the story of everything and how it came to be. The universe itself, we're told by the storytellers we call scientists, began in a burst of fire. Whether there was
an Author behind it or not, this universe is an unfinished, always astonishing
act of creativity. Just look at a lilac bush, or a sunset, or a giraffe.
The
universe came up with stars, galaxies, planets, life, and then it really got
going and dreamed up a being that could create universes inside its own head,
share them with others, and change the way things are. A being who can tell new
stories.
That’s the incredible gift and
power a storyteller has at her command. A trace of the fear and reverence that
used to be felt for those who wield this creative fire survives in the way we
still regard authors as slightly mysterious beings. The difference being that
we used to be in awe of the power of their art, but now we respect them only if they make lots of money.
Both attitudes
miss the point. The fire is something meant to be passed on, from mind to mind,
to be shared by all. We all have this creative fire in us. We all have the
power to transform the world.
In the Perilous Realm trilogy, the spark of creativity is called the
fathomless fire. It can be used for good, or it can be used for selfish
reasons, to control others. The battle for the Realm coming in Book Three of
the trilogy is a struggle between these two ways of wielding the power of
story.
Coming soon: a post about the
mysterious fifth element of story.
1 comment:
This is really inventive. Thanks! Cant wait to see what the fifth element of story is.
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