So I had my iPod playing random music as I worked on a new story, and I heard a song whose chorus bests describes what a Storyteller is. What a truly great storyteller can do.
To whit:
Take me back to the places I've never been,
Take me back to another time,
Take me back to a world I have never seen,
Only in my mind, only in my mind;
As for the rest of the song, it's a musical tour through the singer's previous albums, with lines like:
"Carry me to the last time I showed her what Tender hands can do"
As it played, somehow it seemed right that it played as I was writing. Not that I'm saying that I'm anywhere in the same league as that storyteller (he who can tell a story in a four minute song that can be played on the radio), but all writers aim for that experience, to take the reader home to another world.
Then the next song came on (by the same artist, different album), and I know I'll have to work those lyrics into a story - or at least the feel of that :
Blonde hair, blue jeans, best thing I've ever seen,
She looks great, she feels good, lives in my neighbourhood,
Weird how songs can touch us when we aren't expecting it.
Goodgulf
I lived my life in the words of a Storyman,
Watched my dreams from the years gone by,
Heard my voice in the songs of a Storyman,
Always by my side, always by my side; | 
