What
makes and good story?
By
Michael Casey
Well actually,
it’s the way it’s told. Ask Frank Carson the late great Northern Ireland
comedian, who was so funny Roger nearly crashed the van, as he was crying with
laughter, as he took Frank back to the airport. So, that’s the standard, let’s call
it The FC standard. Now as I talk to you, you’ll not cry with laughter, though
you may just cry. I hope that the putting it together makes it more interesting,
and as I reveal things it gets more entertaining. Yes, I’m a Stripper on the
page, hoping you’ll get more and more interested and entertained so a hairy man full of scars with
an enormous birthmark on his left shoulder is your thing, not to mention the
Winnie the Pooh belly. Some of you are, well you are, perfect for me, if that’s
what gets you going. But in generality what kind of woman you do anything for
love like that. But I digress.
You now
have this horrible image in your mind, and that’s what stories do. They put
images in your mind, in the Windmills of your Mind. Which is my favourite song
by the way, and didn’t Fr. Brain later Bishop Brain used to say I was Sancho
Panza as I always trailed after my much taller brother over 50 years ago. Yes really.
So again you have another mental picture in your mind, and that’s what I hope I
do, Cartoons made with Words, hence the name of my backup site for my words. And
Don Camillo as you all know was written to fill a space on the page, and even
the Pope was given a copy of those stories. I was reading Don Camillo prior to
my heart bypass 6 years ago, and the Italian heart professor was impressed when
I told him what I was reading. See, humble me impressing an Italian heart professor
at the QE.
You can
impress with your words too, but stories are for builders, a layer here a layer
there, and then decoration, like a cake too. Too fancy and people will be sick,
too bland and people will spit it out, or even be sick of it. Remember too a
book can be great as a film, but not so good as the book itself. Because in a
film things are rearranged and changed, so a novelist will have to accept
changes, and if he does not like them, he can have his name removed from the
credits. Then for film audiences there are Telegraph moments, and film buffs
can ruin a film by pointing them out. Such as I always wear shades in front of
my screen to prevent eye strain, then later on in a film the shades would
reappear and save the day somehow.
The pace
of a story makes it what it is, too fast and it’s like a bad boyfriend, too
slow and your parents arrive. Now what am I talking about, I don’t know it’s all
in your imagination, On y soit qui mal y pense, and so on. So, you’re smiling
now, why? Come on, tell me, why? So choice of words can make or break a story.
I’d rather be gentle myself, and make the laughs last, just take you by the
hand and lead you up the garden path. And yes there are several meanings to
that last sentence, it’s up to you. That’s the joy of Radio, as I hope you hear
all these stories as you read them aloud to grannie and all the others in the
old people’s home. They like a good story old people, and if you find Old People’s
Home on my back list, or even spotify, you’ll have a really good laugh. It’s in
the second chapter of Tears for a Butcher, my unfinished sequel to The Butcher
The Baker and The Undertaker, and you all know I’d like to dictate it, otherwise
you’ll all be spared another 600 page comic novel.
Keeping
people reading and turning pages is another thing a story should do, but you
know what, if they just drop knickers every 20 pages, or a murder every 40 page
then that’s just boring. Though some novelists have had a lifetime of words
just by doing that. With me I hope you get laughter and more, and bastards get
shown the door, in the best possible taste, with humour. You are the judges, I
just please myself, and hope you all like it. I don’t plan it like a Delia
Smith recipe, I am like a blindfolded chef who mixes it all up, and presents it
naked on the plate, which might remind you of another tv chef. My words are
chosen and flow, and the hope is that you all says he’s on LSD, I am on IMAGINATION
in reality. The reality I present on the page should amuse and make you ask who
is Michael Casey?
Now have
I explained What makes a good story? Probably not, but it is a story in itself?
And getting the stories from in ourselves is what it is all about. Words on a
page, cartoons made with words shared with love and laugher. Now this Sancho
Panza has to mount his donkey and head
for Korea, and Vincenzo is waiting for me there, to help carry away bars of
gold.
