The Fabulous Tracy Wolff Guest Posts on Writers and Storytellers (and a giveaway)

(Tracy seriously rocks. I've only read one of her books, but I loved it. She's on Twitter. And everytime she guest posts, I'm thrilled to have her! Please make her feel welcome and know how awesome she is)


Thanks, Amy, for having me back. It’s always such a pleasure to blog here as you’re such a gracious host.

Just recently, a friend and I did a presentation for a hundred writers discussing the differences between storytellers and writers and how to make the good points of both work for you, while minimizing the weaknesses. This is a subject that has been particularly interesting to me for a long time—ever since I was in graduate school and the subject first came up.

From those first few days in my MFA program until last week, I always staunchly stuck by the idea that I am a writer. I love words. I love everything about words I love playing with them and rearranging them, creating metaphors and similes and dramatic irony with them. When I sit down at my computer to tell a story, I don’t see pictures, I see a tickertape of words that runs right in front of my eyes—words that I take great joy in putting down on paper (or computer screen as the case may be).

And, not to sound arrogant, but I’m pretty good with words. I always have been. I write very quickly (like a book in two weeks quickly) and the things that so many of my writing students and storyteller friends struggle with—flow, form, plot, nuance-- come easily to me.

But, then, where I struggle is often where those same storytellers shine. For example, characters are difficult for me—particularly trying to make them strong and sympathetic and fully fleshed out. For me, they are too often vehicles to get my theme/central idea across as opposed to real people who hook the reader. People like Bella and Edward (Twilight) or Rhett and Scarlett (Gone with the Wind) or even Stella, Blanche and Stanley (A Streetcar Named Desire). People—characters—that I can only dream of writing.

Also, I can’t see the end of a book before I get there. My plot may take me three-quarters of the way, but the end is always a mystery to me—beyond the happily ever after, I mean, as I do write romance. Not once in the nine books I’ve written has my story ended like I told my editor it would. This doesn’t happen to storytellers—they so often see the beginning of a book and the end of a book with perfect clarity. What I wouldn’t give for some of that clarity.

As my friend and I went through the list of what makes people writers vs. what makes them storytellers, it became obvious that so many of the very famous writers out there today are really storytellers. Stephenie Meyer, Dan Brown, Nora Roberts, Nicholas Sparks—all brilliant storytellers whose stories and fictional worlds capture the imagination of millions. And some of the great genre writers of our generation—for example Stephen King and J.K. Rowling—are both writers and storytellers. They can thrill the intellect and capture the imagination all at the same time, which, I think, is a rare quality indeed.

What I learned while doing this presentation is that yes, I am solidly a writer—from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. But I’m a writer who wants to be a storyteller bad enough that I gobble up the works of other storytellers and always, always, always work on my own in the hopes of capturing just a little of their magic to go along with my eloquent prose. Because there’s one thing that years and years of writing and teaching literature has taught me—it’s that while most people respect a writer, they love a storyteller.

So, the question I have for you today is this, what do you, as readers, prefer? The writer or the storyteller? Who are some of your favorite authors and what category would you put them in? Leave a comment and be entered to win a copy of my first book, A Christmas Wedding.

Read Amy's review of A Christmas Wedding.