A Different Appreciation

Once you learn the tricks and techniques of storytelling, you are fundamentally changed. You don’t just read a story anymore. You critique it, analyze it, proofread it. There is no more mystical magic going on behind the scenes to power the dynamo. You've looked behind the curtain. You've seen the gears, you know how they work, you've even used some of them to power your own dynamos.

You've learned it; you can't unlearn it. This can be frustrating. I find movies extremely difficult to enjoy these days. I can't help but identify the tropes going on, predicting the outcome of a given scene, and picking apart errors in continuity or realism.

Not all is lost, though. You may not appreciate things the way you used to, but you gain a different appreciation - the appreciation of a beautifully-designed story. Even if you can predict what will happen next, if it is written so that you are still excited and you still react to the events that happen, you still appreciate the story, but more for how excellently the writer did it. The same thing happens when you learn how to draw or paint or learn any skill.

Of course, this is also the reason that I wish so badly for writers to be surprising. I desperately wish to read like an ignorant audience member again. I want to have absolutely no idea what happens next, but it is quite rare. Still though, I am content in finding a story so well-executed that I marvel at its excellence. So go forth and write one so I have something to read.