“Only the gods live for ever with glorious Shamash, but as for us men, our days are numbered, our occupations are a breath of wind.” — The Epic of Gilgamesh

I’m no musician, but I am a writer. When I hear music, I focus on the lyrics, what’s being said and how it’s being conveyed. This is why I’ve become so fascinated with hip-hop and rap. Yes, the music stuff is absolutely important, but rapping is largely focused on its lyrics, conveying words clearly, concisely, and cleverly. And when it comes to lyricists, I find myself in awe of Eminem.

Eminem has demonstrated a mastery over language that makes me envious. He uses the rhetoric of hip-hop culture while playing with puns like an evil scientist mixing chemicals. Although it’s up for debate whether he’s the best rapper (and what, indeed, are the qualifications for “best rapper”), he’s certainly one of the cleverest.

But the thing...

In Shakespeare’s time, three different flags were raised over the theater prior to a performance to signify the type of play being preformed. Red flags were for histories, plays portraying significant people from the past (i.e. Henry V), white flags for comedic plays (As You Like It), and black flags for tragedy (Hamlet).

Like most people, I’m going to ignore the histories and talk about the big two: comedy and tragedy. Comedies tend to have happy endings, and humor throughout. Usually they end in marriages. Think Happy Face.
Tragedies tend to have darker endings, and are more serious. Usually they end in multiple characters dying, including the protagonist. Sad Face.

As a storytelling culture, we are obsessed with tragedy.

Think of the big hitters in any medium over the past year, any work that has been given a significant reception and recognized as praise worthy. The majority of...

The story: what is told. The medium: how it is told. The medium is not the story, and the story is not confined to the medium. This happens all the time: a book gets turned into a movie (The Lord of the Rings), or a comic book gets turned into a television show (The Walking Dead). Sometimes the stories improve, sometimes worsen. Elements of the story, perhaps even entire plots, may have to be changed to adapt to a different medium, but it is possible to tell the same story through multiple mediums of storytelling.

As a storyteller, this is important to me, because I want to know what medium should I use for my story. Should my story be a movie? A videogame? A play? There are options available, and storytellers should be considering their options, choosing the best medium to go with their story. However, too often I idolize the mediums of storytelling themselves, rather than treating the...