Secondly, I am a sucker for the myriad forms a good story takes.
I love a good book, a well-crafted ballad, a blockbuster video and an interesting spoken word audio CD.
To illustrate the depths of my story neurosis, currently I am smack dab in the middle of thee simultaneously.
The book is The Milagro Beanfield War.
The video is the first season of 24.
The audio CD is Far Side of the World.
Music is easy, we listened this morning for 90 minutes as we spun nowhere fast in an indoor cycling session.
Commonalities?
All have strong central characters facing challenge and conflict. All get support from subordinates, teammates, families. All have drama enough to hold the attention of their audience with fascinating sub-plots. All are period pieces, detailing a place in history to provide a fertile backdrop for the adventure. All paint an slimy antagonist and draw a savory love angle. Money is always there too, lurking as motive. Sometimes it is Man versus Nature, but way more often Man versus Man. I especially appreciate Nature wearing a hard hat and bad guys wearing white Stetson's.
But above all this, with due respect to editors, technicians and producers, is this simple fact; That these are all wildly successful because they are:
Good stories, well told.
And that is where we start.
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