I did some bs writing exercises today since I wasn't feeling up to drawing. It's been a long, LONG time, and I was freewriting, so, well, WYSIWYG.

As for this charming fellow and the intro itself, it's just something that's been kicking around in my head for a long time. Every story has a narrator, or someone outside the narrator adding detail. It's not always the original author, either. So what's that narrator's story, in a general sense, instead of the specific?

That resulted in the in the meta-cognitive and wordplay-filled world of the Teller of Stories.

The intro can be taken at face value, I suppose, for its pivotal question, but I'm pretty out of touch with my old stream-of-conscious fiction and editing days.

And finally, in case Word decided to eat it or something, the full text:



Collect. Coalesce. Convene. Pay attention, if you'd please.

Myself? I am a teller of stories. I do not know who you are. Perhaps you will let me have your story, in time. Or perhaps you are so unlucky as to not have a story of your own. Perhaps you would be a teller yourself. Please, make yourself comfortable, and I shall explain myself. Do not worry. This first story is short. This is the story I've created for myself. This is the story of all stories.

We are in the narrative space. You exist in the context of a story, presently. I exist here alone. You would give me life, by hearing my story. All stories need an audience; the audience brings life to the tale. A tale in a void is nothing but an echo, a shadow. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, what does it matter? The tree dies alone.

Stories are life, or its reflection. I care not. The Allegory of the Cave would better explain the distinction; perhaps you'd like to hear that story later. For now, though, you are my audience, for as long as you choose, for as long as I can captivate, for as long as I can sink my hooks into your mind and make you choose to hear my tales... Oral tradition, the written word, comedy, tragedy, from the most lewd and lascivious bottom-drek, to transcendant expressions of ideas and forms of being beyond the power of even words to express, all are within my repertoire.

As your narrator, I will titilate, I will instill dread, I shall give life to your dreams and unlife to your nightmares. I have no other choice. You may choose now your tale. There are more stories than there are particles in the wide universe, or at least the one I speak of here, so I will offer some selections tailored to you, I think. Perhaps, if you've other questions, I will answer them in time, but I tire of speaking of myself for now. I wish to regale you with another fiction; I am a teller of stories, and you are my audience.