Storyteller's Perspective: Matters of Life and Death

I joined a group of friends last week to go and see The Book of Life, a new animated movie for the Halloween season directed by Jorge Gutierrez and produced by Guillermo del Toro. Most preliminary reviews I read said that the visuals were absolutely stunning, but the story left some to be desired.
As a storyteller, I beg to differ.

One definitely positive point about this movie is diversity - it introduces kids to a different culture and its colors, its words, its mythology, and its festivities. In the past years Día de los Muertos has often been added to Halloween as if they were the same thing - and they are definitely not. In fact, there has been a lot of discussion around cultural appropriation, and turning a serious, religious holiday from another culture into Halloween party make-up. The movie, while it definitely does not solve the entire problem, did add a very clear, colorful, and original voice to it.



Second: It is about storytelling.
And it is also about death.
The death of loved ones, family members, and ultimately, yourself.
Dark enough for kids yet?
You bet.

One thing storytellers these days have to struggle with is the increasing pressure from parents and educators to avoid all "sensitive topics" - among others, death. We are often asked, or even required, to avoid all casualties in our folktales; even villains have to repent and walk off into the sunset instead of dying in the end. While I definitely see where the people asking us are coming from, it is important to know that their request does not make sense.

As a storyteller, I have had more kids complain that the monster or the villain lived in the end than how many parents asked me not to do it. And not because kids wanted to revel in gore and violence. They simply did not feel safe, and they were anxious for the heroes: What if the wicked witch returns? What if the boogeyman is not really dead? Kids think of death as closure, and as long as a menace is not eliminated, the story does not come to a satisfying happy end.
Now, making said end child-friendly is the storyteller's work; it does not have to sound like a play-by-play from last week's episode of The Walking Dead. BUT there is also no reason why we should avoid the mentioning of death.
Death is something we all live with. It happens. Everywhere. To everyone. And if we never tell stories that psychologically prepare children for dealing with its presence, they will have a lot harder time adjusting to it later on in life. There are many, many stories - funny stories, tricky stories, creepy stories, even stories with happy endings - that talk about death in ways that are accessible and comforting to children.

Much like The Book of Life does.

Quoting Neil Gaiman:

“If you are protected from dark things then you have no protection of, knowledge of, or understanding of dark things when they show up.”

For the end, here is an animated short about Día de los Muertos that has been going around on the Internet lately. Lovely, lovely piece.

As usual, you can find @ TarkabarkaHolgy at:
The Multicolored Diary - Adventures in Storytelling
MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians

Four Reasons I Do National Novel Writing Month

This month I'm participating in NaNoWriMo, which if you haven't heard of it, is National Novel Writing Month. One signs up at the site  nanowrimo.org  and writes 50,000 words during the month of November. I'm on a good start this year and wanted to share with you why I do this and how it can impact anything you write, be that a blog, short stories, novels, non-fiction, etc.


The first major benefit in participating, in my opinion, is that you write every day no matter what, no matter how much.
Second, it can teach you how to outline, because if you outline you have a road map for those 50,000 words so if you get lost or sidetracked, you can get back on track easily. I did that for the first time last year and it literally saved me. I ended up doing 70,000 words. I don't like outlining, but now I'm a convert.
Third, you learn, if you don't know already, how to write a first draft WITHOUT EDITING AS YOU GO. This is so important for anyone writing anything. To get it down while it's fresh in your mind and unsullied by your inner editor gives you more wiggle room when you move on to the second draft.
Fourth reason is, if you are new to writing, you will learn what it really means to write EVERY DAY. If you are seasoned veteran, you will find that the freedom of allowing your thoughts to freely roam while your fingers take dictation is addicting. Each day watching that word count rise keeps the brain high as a kite with not only a sense of accomplishment, but also a joy in allowing yourself to write for whatever reasons you have chosen to write.
I don't need more than four reasons to do NaNo, because these four are good and critical no matter what I write. Imagine how many blog posts you could get done in one month (you AtoZer's know what I mean)! If you're going to participate in A to Z next year, you could get them all done with some to spare (30 compared to 26)! One participant I know will be writing ten short stories this month. I'm working on a memoir. Use your imagination!That's what NaNo is all about.

If you're doing NaNo, what are your reasons? If not, why not? Thanks for stopping by!

Images from:
www.grammarly.com
www.examiner.com
writerswin.com

Characters Who Blog

With the passing of one of my favorite holidays, I always feel a little sad. Halloween in over -- no more costumes, no more candy gorging, no more pumpkins. Sigh. I had such a good time celebrating this year (my friends and I went as the characters from Mario Kart, complete with cardboard cars and balloons). And then I realized that we're one month closer to the A to Z Challenge, hooray! I've already started working out my theme for 2015 . . . have you? 

If you need a little inspiration, here's a little peak at what England's most notorious spy might blog about:

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you have a great start to the week. And don't forget to be thinking about your theme for next April's Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

A to Z Co-host S. L. Hennessy can be found blogging at Pensuasion.