In Australia, bushwalking can often resemble storytelling, so much so I recently made a short video about it, which has gone viral!
Only kidding, it’s merely been well-received enough across all my social media platforms that I thought I’d share it with you here!
You see, as I say in the video, we authors are very much like bushwalkers in that we have to draw our readers along the exciting trails we want them to follow, inciting their curiosity with glimpses of what’s to come. There must be rock-solid histories carved into our worlds, clearly depicting significant characters, as well as the creatures around them. Once they’re chiselled in place and doing interesting things, we then need to offer insight into the human condition – even if it’s just a handprint on a wall that says we were once here, among these trees, breathing this air and doing our interesting things.
We need to offer hope, of course, and some beauty. But then our readers must climb, and climb, up the steps of drama and adventure, and into discovery, noting all the changes shifting subtly around us.
At first it might all look the same, but there will be danger lurking – like a snake silently slithering across a track in search of its wants and needs. Then, at the end, a memorable perspective of course needs to resonate, before the reader returns to civilisation…
Enjoy the video!
