To Be A Storyteller . . .

To be a storyteller is to be insane. 

Even if you’re telling a story that is true, it’s still a story. A story of a past event, a story that is unfolding as you speak or a story of what you hope will come true in the future. But to write fiction involves a certain measure of madness. 

Everyone knows the comparisons to genius and insanity but you don’t have to be crazy to be a fantastic fiction writer.  However, to turn yourself into several characters that are completely original to you and not reflections of those surrounding you is, in a way itself, a version of going insane.

The need for solidarity is overwhelming. To write is to put yourself in a jail cell and throw away the key. No windows. Beautiful spring days cannot lure you out of the alternate world you dance in and out of.

There are days when nothing will come to mind but I feel obligated to get it done.  Books don’t write themselves.  Then, when I decide to just edit, the ideas flow out and scenarios build themselves again.

There are other days when I feel almost compelled to write. I don’t want to stop. I cannot peel myself away from the computer because the words forming in my head will never be there again if I stop. I must do it and it can be frustrating when I can’t.

I like to compare writing to method acting. Once you start writing about a character, you, in turn, become the character. When you’re telling the story from two or more different perspectives, the lines between reality and fiction become even more blurred.

And while I say that you are not required to be certified "on paper crazy" to be a great writer, I am.

Melissa Sue Vieira

Co-Founder of Storytellers:  The Collective

Melissa wears many hats.  
Some are super colorful and some are dark, just like her stories.  

She is a mother, friend, writer, survivor, warrior, yogi, listener, talker 
and a lover of all things art.