I recently achieved a childhood dream of mine - to become an author.

This is a title that 10-year-old me has been wanting, and my inner child is so proud and inspired by what I’ve done. While writing a book is no easy feat, it did solidify my status as an artist. I no longer have to worry about the impostor syndrome that comes with wondering if I’m enough. I now have physical evidence of my art, and it reassures me that I am capable of more.

But what is more?
What comes next? What does a storyteller's journey look like?
After giving it a lot of thought, I have visualized the path of an artist, from where they start to how they’d like to be remembered. While most of the conclusions I drew apply to authors, I do believe that it can be expanded to include most art forms.

1. The Artist

When does one become an artist? Are we just born with that creative juice in us?
In a way, yes. We are all born at the start of our own unique story, a life that no one else in the world will experience. And while some may say that you’re an artist at birth, I don’t think that's the case. That might be a cop-out.

For me, you become an artist when you begin to share your work with the world, and open up your art to criticism, feedback, and validation. The difference between someone who journals in private, versus someone who writes a book, is as simple as that - one has an audience, the other doesn’t.

So while you may be a person who is capable of creating art and are currently doing so, you enter the artist's realm once you begin to share it. It shows that you now consider your art worth enough to survive interpretation from someone other than yourself.

The key to an artist's skill is expression - how does one capture a moment in their life, an emotion, an experience, a feeling, and find ways to articulate and cultivate a sense of relatability from their audience?
Once you become an artist, you enter the pool of countless other artists who are sharing their story in their own unique way.

You then are tasked with becoming something stronger, attaining a title that sets you apart. You aim to become an impactful artist, a stage in your artist journey where your art can genuinely inspire. It can impact an audience to think in a different light, to perceive an opinion they never considered, to approach a topic with an open mind.

Bringing impact through your art is a mark of a successful artist. It isn’t easy to influence a shift in mindset, but the best artists have learned how it's done. And once they succeed, they transition to the next stage.

2. The Storyteller

Once you understand how to tell your story, you gradual calling evolves towards becoming a storyteller.

The distinguishing element here is that you are no longer telling just your story but expanding your work to capture the stories of different characters - real or fictional. A storyteller needs to know how to relate the emotions of a character to themselves and then relate that emotion to the audience.

Storytelling involves multiple characters - the protagonist, the romantic interest, the antagonist, the supporting characters - and follows rules, structures, and guidelines. Characters need to have an arc, a purpose, and ideally, relatable conflict. The story follows genres (Adventure, horror, fantasy), themes (love, survival, coming of age), and tropes (The Hero's journey, The Chosen one, The Redemption arc). Good stories also employ literary principles like Chekov’s gun, Foreshadowing, show-don’t-tell, and three-act-structure.

A good storyteller understands their characters and how to craft a story around them.
But just writing a story isn’t enough.
Which is why, beyond being a storyteller, an artist aims to become a compelling storyteller. What sets your story apart is a compelling narrative, one that is strong enough to grip the reader.
The greatest storytellers know how to make a story exciting, emotional, and engaging, such that you feel you truly know these characters inside and out.

Once you learn how to tell compelling stories, the next stage of an artist begins, which takes decades of experience to learn.

3. The Worldbuilder

My final goal, the highest step in this ladder and the peak of achievement for an artist, is to become a world builder.

When you start crafting an entire fictional world, you have to focus not only on the individual character stories within it but also on the universe they reside in. What are the rules? What is the societal structure?

A world builder needs to think big picture, crafting structures around governments, geopolitics, races, and factions. I am also led to believe that those who play Dungeons and Dragons and similar games are quite comfortable with world building rules and designs.

Real-world examples of good world builders include George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones) and J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings).

A good world builder doesn't have to be a good storyteller, and vice versa. J.K. Rowling, for example, is a decent storyteller but not a good world builder, evidenced by the fact that she constantly changes her fictional world retroactively.

A storyteller also does not need to aspire to be a world builder. Two of my favorite childhood authors, R.L. Stine (Goosebumps) and Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to name one), are great storytellers but not world builders. Their stories start and end in the books they publish.

The key to being an excellent world builder lies in the details.

Which is why the evolution of the world builder culminates with an intricate world builder.

An intricate world builder can craft a world so detailed that it feels lived in. It's well thought out, and as an observer, you have no problem believing that this world could exist and you could be a part of it.

Denis Villeneuve is a film director who exemplifies an intricate world builder. More recently known for his Dune films, you can see how every action, every piece of technology, every custom and practice is thought out.

This is why achieving a world builder title takes years of practice and experience.

Artist → Impactful artist → Storyteller → Compelling Storyteller → World builder → Intricate World Builder

As I look forward, it is my vision and purpose to reach the final stage of this hierarchy. To learn the necessary skills and techniques, put them into practice, make mistakes, and evolve my art form to a point where I can build worlds through my work and bring you into it.