The Art of Storytelling and Creativity by James Harris
Our final blog of National Share A Story Month is a great one! James Harris shares some insight into his love of creating stories!
The Art of Storytelling and Creativity by James Harris, author of Help! We Need a Story
I’ve been asked to write a blog about the art of storytelling and creativity, but the word “art” scares me a bit, so I think I’ll concentrate on the doing of it rather than on whether it’s “art” or not. That’s for other people to decide!
And there’s good news and bad news when it comes to doing creative things. The good news is: it’s REALLY EASY to do creative things. The bad news is: it’s even easier NOT to.
I wrote “Help! We Need a Story” about a monkey in the jungle who loves to write and draw. All his friends are really bored, but he writes an imaginary story about an adventure they go on together, full of Robot sharks, zombie hens, a disco submarine… And suddenly the morning doesn’t seem so boring.
That story is semi-autobiographical. I’m not a monkey (though I do like bananas and swinging from branches), but I have always enjoyed making things up to entertain my friends, my family, audiences, passers-by etc.
I should probably have stopped doing that sort of thing when I was 11, but I didn’t. All through my life, if there’s been a kind of creativity that I have enjoyed consuming, I’ve always, always fancied a go at doing it.
I love music, so I started a band. I love acting, so I joined a local am-dram group. I love films, so I made films. I love stand up comedy so… (that one didn’t go terribly well, but hey ho, at least now I know I am not so good at stand up comedy.)
And of course I love writing stories, but I never thought I could write an actual book until my partner made me do it. She believed in me, which was lovely. But I should have believed in myself. Writers aren’t special people, they’re just people like you or me, who sit down and actually give it a go. So I wrote a children’s novel, then rewrote it, then I submitted it to a competition, and accidentally won it, and now I’m an author with books in the shops.
But if that hadn’t happened, I’d still be writing and drawing because IT’S SO MUCH FUN.
And you could be doing it too.
You don’t need to be the Beatles to make an amazing noise and express yourself in an entertaining way. You don’t have to be George Lucas to make a short film with your friends. You don’t have to be Charles Dickens to write a book.
Because somewhere out there is at least one form of creativity that you will LOVE doing. Dancing, singing, performing, coding, drawing… something. I think we worry too much about outcomes – will this song be any good? Will this film win an Oscar? What will people think of me if I do this?
But if you enjoy the process, the outcome is a secondary concern. And hey, maybe you’ll make it. Maybe someone will actually pay you to do the thing you love. And maybe they won’t. But even if they don’t, there’ll always be something in your life that brings you joy.
Of course, it’s easy not to bother. To assume you can’t. To believe you’re too old, or too sensible or that you don’t have enough time to do that sort of thing.
But doing that stuff is simply way more fun than not doing it. And that’s a fact, I don’t care how sensible your cardigan is.
Because if you want to have an adventure on a disco submarine, that ends with pink ice cream for you and your friends, honestly, how else is that adventure going to happen if you don’t write it?
Help! We Need a Story by James Harris, illustrated by Mariajo Ilustrajo.
James Harris is one of Middlesbrough’s tallest authors. He writes children’s books, shopping lists and sentences that end with unexpected rabbits. In his spare time he enjoys making stuff with his friends: homemade comics, music, comedy shows, zines, daft little films and some truly awesome sandwiches.