As a story teller you love all stories...

I pride myself on being a story teller, crafting a tale is something I enjoy more than most things in life. But I have discovered throughout the years that to be a story teller, I must seek out others creativity to inspire my own. I don't know what it is, if maybe a realization that others have succeed. Or possibly it works something like a candle, the artist, or writer, or director, or musician is holding out their flame (awesome work) and ignites my own candle (blank page of some sort). But here I have decided to share my steps on my journey, my constant search for my muse of sorts. It's a creative process of enjoying others work, while creating my own.  

So currently I'm watching Merlin, one of the newest series of NBC and I'm enthralled. I might be on a mystical kick, drawn to the magic and wonder of ancient worlds long forgotten. It might be the fault of Percy Jackson, a charming young demigod that entered my world last week. A school teacher friend of mine shoved the first three books of the series at me last week, claiming there was little way I wouldn't fall in love with Mr. Jackson. In her words, he was just my sort of trouble maker. Her assumptions were correct of course, I started reading the Lighting thief on Thursday of last week and finished The Last Olympian this morning at sunrise. Rick Riordan was indeed graced with the present of a muse in his writings, the entire series of Percy Jackson and the Olympians was fantastic from beginning to end.  

I have a particular fascination with the Greeks already, their myths and their societies. While reading The Titan's Curse (Book 3), I watched Troy and realized what might draw me to the Greeks and Romans so very much. In those ancient societies, or at least the ways that we understand them through our media, it seems they understood their morality in the same capacity as their immortality. But I think what has been refreshing and engaging about Percy and currently Merlin is this distinct and solid path for our characters, their chosen and given destinies. These stories and these characters have a path, understand their purpose and live inside of it with their own personal trials and outside of it by still trudging forward for the bigger picture. Part of me feels that society as a whole might currently be looking for flawed heroes, with personal flaws that might make us think they can fail but persevere in the end. Personally I love that flawed perfection more than perfection itself. 

So today's muse has sparked some light on being a story teller! Maybe people aren't over magic, we might still like a sword fight or two, a dragon here and there and damsels that aren't so distressed but still cause some conflict. Maybe we still like stories not about the heroes, or the most powerful but about the people who support them like the demigods for the Greek Gods and Goddess or Merlin for King Arthur. And maybe we like it more than we care to admit when there are obstacles in our way to get to the happy ending, because let's face it if Merlin just popped up being powerful and Percy was just accepted and understood then why would we even like them?