Prompt 4 - King Solomon's Truth

A science teacher once told me that no matter what planet we went to, no matter how far or close it was to us, it would have the same elements we have. Stories are very much like planets—you have the outer layer of the story, which can be very deep, followed by several slightly deeper pieces that you discover with time, and finally the very center that very few people truly understand but is the true force of the book.

In this analogy, the planets ‘skeletons’ are the backbones of the story (everything that makes it interesting and well-written) while the life on the planet is the actual story. Stories are unique, even if they’re based off another one—like Dorothy Must Die being based off The Wizard of Oz. When it comes to the basis of stories, they’re all the same, but they have different forms of life on them. (Think of it this way: the core, inner layers, and outer layer of the planet are the skeleton and will mostly be the same. There may be an extra inner layer here or there, but for the most part, the basic structure of a planet must remain the same. However, the outside of a planet could be a thousand different things—it could look like our planet, or be gaseous, or have entirely different vegetation, or be entirely underwater. The appearance of the planet is where things are different, unique.)

So, with this information in mind, do writing and telling belong in one world? Yes and no. Writing a story is nothing like telling a story. Writing is complicated; it’s a longer process that is relatively the same despite whatever is being told. The telling of a story is too complicated to be just one world, though—imagine trying to live on a planet that has different parts of it from Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and so on. Not only is that actually impossible, but it’s also confusing and conflicting. However, understanding what makes up a planet helps understand the story further and therefore enjoy it more. Of course the same goes for stories: understanding what is in the story and why will help deepen the story and make it more interesting.

In short, writing and telling don’t belong to the same story because of their difference in what makes them up. But, despite their differences, understanding one will lead to a benefit of the other.