Tag Archives: Mythology

Four Key Elements in the Art of Story Development

Posted on by Grace Wolbrink

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Every story we hear, read or tell has a story. The place where story-based artistry begins. So, grab a chair, a stool, or a slice of floor and your favorite muse. Now join us for a brief collaboration in the four key elements of story development. For in story, as in life, its characters are as outlandishly adventurous, deviously mischievous and outrageously zany as any of us truly are.

What is story? Isn’t everything we see, hear and talk about a story?

Story: The place where it all begins: Life is as it is . . .
Change happens . . . Now what? . . .
Life as it has been will never again be the same. A new normal unfolds . . .
The place where the beginning is never the same as the ending.

Story: The narrative and the meaning we attach to the events of our lives.

Storytelling: An interactive art form where storytellers, though their voice and gesture, invite people to join them on a guided tour of vivid imagery.

Destination: Ending’s New Beginning

  • What do you love about the story? I mean really, love about it. If you don’t love it, don’t tell it. By its nature, what we love, naturally grows.
  • What is the ending? It is much easier to get there if you know where you are going! A few short words, phrases or movements guides your story’s journey securely into its destination.
  • Memorizing the ending helps insure you and your listeners arrive at their targeted destination; especially when meeting the challenges of unexpected interruptions, brain farts and cosmic disturbances.

Captivation: Love at First Sight!

  • Besides the story itself, what are some key parts or aspects of this story’s storyline which captures your attention? Why?
  • What do you love, hate, regurgitate or scream about the main characters and their antics? Why?

Engagement: The Meet and Greet of Team Building!

  • Take a few minutes to meet and greet your story’s characters. Who are they? What are they like to hang around with?
  • Revisit the key images in your story – this is correct, not the words of your story, but the images inside your story. Step inside each one of them. Who is there? What is happening around you and/or them?
  • What are the dominate feelings and emotions that you and/or your characters are experiencing?

Listen: Story’s Interactive Unfolding

Supportive, or responsive listeners help us grow our stories. Supportive listeners also allow you, the teller, to see what audience members are hearing. Storytelling is an interactive art form. Responsive listeners support storytellers in naturally bring out unexpected and unrehearsed bits of humor; spontaneous internal dialog; insightful moments of awareness; or newly inspired story-line twists and turns.

Select a few supportive; non-critical, non-critiquing, non-judgmental listeners or consult the services of an experienced storytelling coach. Listeners, per your direction, can either:

  • Listen without comment.
  • Listen and offer what they appreciated about the experience and/or the story.
  • Listen and offer bother appreciations about the experience and/or the story and offer any questions they might have.
  • When working with a professional storytelling coach you may also want to add some suggestions regarding the more technical and artistic aspects of storytelling and story development.

Celebration: A gift from my heart to yours . . . Story’s Story Continues . . .

Your story is a gift to your audiences. Like any gift, it is given from the heart. Invite your audience members to join with you on an interactive journey into the enchanting realm of story’s vivid realism and adventurous journey.

Remember: It’s your story to tell, so tell it like it is; in only the way you can! Let your story be the one long remembered after the performance or presentation is done.

                                                                                     

Until next time . . . Let Your Storyographer’s Journey Begin . . . !

 

 

 

Telling a Story? – Tips and Tidbits!

Posted on by Grace Wolbrink

A storyteller, though voice and jester, invites people to join him/her on a guided tour of images, the place where a story begins, change happens and where life or someone’s awareness will never again be the same: knowing that the beginning will never be the same as the ending.

  1. Choose a story, myth or tale that you love – if you don’t love it, don’t do it. Ask your self, why do I love it? Why is this important for me to tell? What is the most important part of this story to me?
  1. If it is a myth or a folktale, then look it up in other sources – book and/or audio. Every storyteller adds his or her own unique style and flavor to a story. This might give you some more ideas as you work up your own version. Try reading it out loud to yourself or to a friend to hear the cantor of the story.
  1. Make an outline of the key events. Know your story – never memorize it. Remember every story has a beginning, something that happens that changes everything, now what – how life is different from when the story started.
  1. Practice by telling a friend or a family member. The more you tell it in front of others, the better your story becomes. Watch your story grow and come alive as you “listen” to what your audience is hearing.
  1. Become familiar with and research key elements in your story – main characters, geographic locations, plants, animals . . . Or try changing the setting or the main character in your story ie, retell it from the mouse’s, wicked step sister’s or tree’s perspective. Maybe the tortoise and the hare decided to race through the plumbing in your school!
  1. Review your original sources. It is important to keep the integrity of the storyline.
  1. Remember the ending to your story.  That way you know were you are going.
  1. Have fun. If you love what your are doing and love your story, your audience will too!

“The mythology of Greece survived for centuries before Gutenberg invented the printing press. To know the stories, one had only to listen to keepers of tales – the storytellers. Today, because we no longer need to rely upon the spoken work to know the stories, we forget that they were vividly entertaining vehicles of culture in a pre-reading era. The best written versions, I believe, remind us once again of the oral power of the ancient myths.” Barbara McBride-Smith in her book Greek Myths Western Style: Toga Tales with an Attitude.

Greek Myth's Western Style

Until next time . . . Let a Storyographer’s Journey Begin!