Crash Course in Storytelling
Kend all Ha ven and MaryGay Ducey
Crash Course Se ries
Re cent Ti tles in
Crash Course Se ries
Crash Course in Chil dren’s Ser vices
Crash Course in Storytelling
Kend all Ha ven and MaryGay Ducey
Crash Course Se ries
Li brary of Con gress Cat a log ing-in-Pub li ca tion Data
Ha ven, Kend all F.
Crash course in sto ry tell ing / by Kend all Ha ven and MaryGay Ducey. p. cm. — (Crash course)
In cludes bib lio graph i cal ref er ences and in dex. ISBN 1-59158-399-3 (pbk : alk. pa per) 1. Sto ry tell ing. I. Ducey, MaryGay. II. Ti tle. LB1042.H388 2007
372.67’7—dc22 2006030670
Brit ish Li brary Cat a logu ing in Pub li ca tion Data is avail able. Copy right © 2007 by Kend all Ha ven and MaryGay Ducey All rights re served. No por tion of this book may be re pro duced, by any pro cess or tech nique, with out the ex press writ ten con sent of the pub lisher.
Li brary of Con gress Cat a log Card Num ber: 2006030670 ISBN: 1-59158-399-3
First pub lished in 2007
Li brar ies Un lim ited, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 A Mem ber of the Green wood Pub lish ing Group, Inc.
www.lu.com
Printed in the United States of Amer ica
The pa per used in this book com plies with the Per ma nent Pa per Stan dard is sued by the Na tional In for ma tion Stan dards Or ga ni za tion (Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is ded i cated to
Pat rick Ducey
Dylan Brie Ducey, and
Con tents
Con tents Con tents
In tro duc tion. . . xi
Chap ter 1—The Place for Sto ry tell ing in Your Li brary . . . 1
Li brar ies Are Sto ries . . . 1
We’ve Been Tell ing for a Long Time . . . 2
What Kind of Sto ries? . . . 3
What’s in It for You? . . . 3
From Kitchen Ta ble to Car ne gie Hall: The Three Lev els of Sto ry tell ing . . . 4
Level 1: The In for mal Sto ry teller. . . 5
Level 2: The Com mu nity Sto ry teller . . . 6
Level 3: The Pro fes sional Sto ry teller. . . 6
The Place for Sto ry tell ing in Your Li brary . . . 7
Chap ter 2—Why Tell It?: The Power of Sto ry tell ing . . . 9
Be cause You Can. . . 9
Be cause Li brary Pa trons Need Your Sto ries. . . 10
Be cause Sto ry tell ing Is a Great Change of Pace . . . 10
Be cause Sto ry tell ing Is Af fect ing and En gag ing for the Au di ence . . . 11
Be cause Sto ry tell ing Makes Non fic tion Events and Top ics Come Alive . . . 12
Be cause Sto ry tell ing Gen er ates Vivid and De tailed Im ages in a Lis tener’s Mind . . . 13
Be cause Sto ry tell ing Helps Those Who Strug gle with Lan guage to Un der stand and In ter pret the Story. . . 13
Be cause Sto ry tell ing Con nects Lis ten ers to You . . . 14
Chap ter 3—“Okay, But Can I Re ally Do It?” Mak ing Sto ry tell ing Prac ti cal and Do able . . . . 15
Ask ing the Right Ques tion. . . 15
You Don’t Have to Get It Right to Get It Right . . . 17
How Do You Nat u rally Learn, Re call, and Tell Your Own Sto ries? . . . 18
What Lis ten ers Re ally Need. . . 19
The Dif fer ence Be tween Read ing and Tell ing. . . 21
Chap ter 4—Choos ing Sto ries That Will Work for You . . . 23
Where Do I Start? . . . 23
Which Sto ries to Start With? . . . 24
How to Pick a Story . . . 24
What Is a Story?. . . 25
What to Look for in a Story . . . 26
Eval u at ing a Story . . . 27
Chap ter 5—Learn ing the Sto ries You Tell. . . 29
“Learn ing” Your Own Sto ries . . . 29
Keep It Sim ple. . . 30
Toys to Play With . . . 33
Chap ter 6—The Great Ex cep tion: Lit er ary Tales. . . 35
Tell It or Read It. . . 36
Tell ing Lit er ary Sto ries . . . 36
Learn ing Lit er ary Tales . . . 38
Chap ter 7—Play ing with Prac tice . . . 39
Why Prac tice? . . . 39
Play with Prac tice . . . 40
The Fi nal Four . . . 42
Chap ter 8—Glo ri ous Tellings . . . 43
Be fore It’s Time to Tell . . . 44
Space . . . 44
Don’t Go It Alone . . . 45
Stage Ar range ments . . . 45
Set ting the Scene . . . 45
Be fore You Be gin . . . 46
Let’s Start the Story . . . 46
In tro duc tion . . . 46
Keep Mov ing . . . 47
Slow Down. . . 47
Your Part ners . . . 47
Grand Fi nale. . . 48
Don’t Muddy the Wa ter . . . 48
Cel e brate . . . 49
Keep ing Track . . . 49
Chap ter 9—First Aid . . . 51
To Mem o rize, or Not to Mem o rize? That Is the Ques tion . . . 52
The Great-Amaz ing-Never-Fail Safety Net. . . 53
Go Ahead and For get . . . 53
Learn the Smile . . . 53
Tell About the Story . . . 54
When You Re mem ber You For got . . . 55
What Co mes Next . . . ? . . . 56
Chap ter 10—Owner’s Man ual . . . 59
An Open ing Game . . . 60
Voice . . . 61
Rate . . . 62
Pitch . . . 62
Vol ume . . . 63
Ges ture and Move ment . . . 64
Chap ter 11—Sto ry tell ing Ex tras . . . 67
Flannelboards. . . 68 The Plusses. . . 68 The Mi nuses . . . 68 Props . . . 69 The Plusses. . . 69 The Mi nuses . . . 70
Make It Work for You . . . 71
Cos tumes . . . 72
The Plusses. . . 72
The Mi nuses . . . 73
Make It Work for You . . . 73
Pup pets. . . 74
The Plusses. . . 74
The Mi nuses . . . 75
Make It Work for You . . . 76
Au di ence Par tic i pa tion. . . 76
The Plusses. . . 76
The Mi nuses . . . 77
Make It Work for You . . . 78
“Cast of Thou sands” Sto ries . . . 80
The Plusses. . . 80
The Mi nuses . . . 80
Make It Work for You . . . 81
Note . . . 81
Chap ter 12—Let the Sto ries Roll!. . . 83
Where to Start . . . 84
Spe cial Pro grams . . . 84
More Am bi tious Ideas . . . 85
Keep on Keep ing On . . . 87
Ap pen dix 1—The Struc ture of Sto ries . . . 89
What Is a Story?. . . 90
Char ac ter . . . 90
In tent . . . 91
Con flicts and Prob lems . . . 92
Strug gles (Plot). . . 92
De tails . . . 93
Note . . . 94
Ap pen dix 2—Who Says Sto ry tell ing Is Worth while? . . . 95
Does Sto ry tell ing Work? . . . 95
Why and How Does Sto ry tell ing Work? . . . 98
Ap pen dix 3—Copy right and You . . . 101
Ap pen dix 4—Def i ni tions of Tra di tional Tales. . . 105
Bib li og ra phy . . . 107
Ref er ences: Works Cited in This Book . . . 107
Sto ry tell ing Ad vice, Ap proaches, The ory, and Sto ries.. . . 109
Sto ry tell ing Re search Guides and Com men tary . . . 111
Re li able Col lec tions of Tra di tional Tales . . . 111
Fam ily and Per sonal Sto ries . . . 114
Par tic i pa tion Sto ries . . . 115
Song, Move ment, and Props Sto ries . . . 116
Webliography for Sto ry tell ing, Sto ry tell ers, and Sto ries. . . 117
In dex . . . 119
INTRODUCTION
“Do you tell sto ries?” Amaz ingly, many peo ple an swer, “No.” Might as well ask, “Do you breathe?” Of course you tell sto ries. You might think your sto ries don’t com pare to the dra matic per -for mances you’ve seen by famed pro fes sional tell ers. But so what? Some go so far as to think that their sto ry tell ing doesn’t count. Not true! Your sto ries are ev ery bit as le git i mate and valu able a part of sto ry tell ing and are just as im por tant.
Sto ry tell ing is the art of us ing lan guage, vo cal iza tion, and/or phys i cal move ment and ges ture to re veal the el e ments and im ages of a story to a spe cific, live au di ence. That’s what hu mans do. Sto ry -tell ing is as old as the hu man race and has been a cher ished hu man ac tiv ity for tens of thou sands of years.
Sto ry tell ing in the United States sur vived through the early twen ti eth cen tury in two places: pri vate homes (where fam ily mem bers told to en ter tain and to in form fam ily and friends) and pub lic li -brar ies. In the 1970s a new phe nom e non emerged: Amer i can pro fes sional sto ry tell ing. These tell ers’ sto ries were de signed for en ter tain ment; the style quickly be came the at ri cal.
The spread of pro fes sional tell ers has in fused sto ry tell ing into the fi ber and flow of daily life and has en cour aged com mu nity or ga ni za tions and groups to tell more sto ries and to cre ate more op por tu -ni ties for sto ry tell ing, though (sur pris ingly—at least to many of us who call our selves sto ry tell ers) not nearly to the ex tent an tic i pated or hoped for. It’s as if many peo ple now think that sto ry tell ing is a spe cial art form that should be prac ticed only by ded i cated, skilled pro fes sion als.
Noth ing could be fur ther from the truth. Sto ry tell ing is a hu man at trib ute, a hu man skill—even a hu man birth right—that be longs to ev ery one. Yes, pol ished, prac ticed pro fes sion als are fun to watch. But that does not di min ish the value of, nor the en joy ment oth ers will de rive from, the tell -ing you do. In part be cause li brar ies have fo cused on oc ca sional headliner per for mances by a hired pro fes sional, we won der if these art ists have dis cour aged some li brary staff mem bers from tell ing them selves.
We have writ ten this book to pool both our ex pe ri ence in, and our per spec tive on, sto ry tell ing. Gay Ducey is a pro fes sional sto ry teller with twenty-five years’ ex pe ri ence who has also served as a chil dren’s li brar ian at the Oak land (Cal i for nia) Pub lic Li brary for twenty-five years. She brings both an un der stand ing of the in ter play of li brary op er a tions and sto ry tell ing and sig nif i cant in sights into the pro cess of tell ing sto ries. She has served long and well on all sides of this is sue: as the in vited pro -fes sional teller, as the li brar ian teller, and as the li brar ian who brings in other pro -fes sional tell ers.
Kend all Ha ven jumped to sto ry tell ing from the world of sci ence. With twentyfive years of ex -pe ri ence as a teller and writer work ing pri mar ily with schools and in the field of ed u ca tion, he brings both prac ti cal ex pe ri ence and a pen chant for an a lyt i cal as sess ment to this writ ing ef fort.
Gay and Kend all share the same gen eral phi los o phy, which per me ates this work. Most of what is writ ten here is a meld ing of our com mon ex pe ri ences and be liefs. Where state ments re flect the unique ex pe ri ence or be lief of one of us, those state ments are la beled by name.
Pro fes sional sto ry tell ers abound in the United States—pol ished per form ers work ing from pol -ished stages to ap pre cia tive crowds. How ever, we be lieve that pro fes sional sto ry tell ing is only one end of the con tin uum of sto ry tell ing in a healthy com mu nity. There is a vi tal role to be filled at the com mu nity level for sto ries and sto ry tell ing. There is no better nor more log i cal lo ca tion to pro vide this level of sto ry tell ing fare than the li brary. That’s YOU, the lo cal li brar ian. In this book we hope to en cour age you to try more sto ry tell ing. We hope to gently nudge you to stretch your sto ry tell ing wings, to prove to your self and to your pa trons that your sto ry tell ing skills are more than equal to the task of pro vid ing your com mu nity with a steady diet of sto ry tell ing.
Sto ry tell ing has proven value—to the lis ten ers, to the com mu nity, and to the li brary. This book is our at tempt to con trib ute to el e vat ing the prom i nence of sto ry tell ing in li brar ies.
This book is not in tended to serve as a per for mance guide for ex pe ri enced tell ers, nor is it pri mar ily a sourcebook for sto ries to tell. It is a guide to the sim plic ity and el e gance of nat u ral sto ry tell -ing for those who are not fully con vinced of ei ther their sto ry tell -ing abil ity or sto ry tell -ing’s place in their li brary. We have filled this book with tested and proven tech niques and ideas for you to use. It rep re sents the wis dom pro duced from over fifty years of com bined sto ry tell ing ex pe ri ence.
There is not one “cor rect” style for sto ry tell ing, not one “cor rect” way to tell a story. Just the op po site. The rich ness of sto ry tell ing de pends on each teller find ing a style and de liv ery that feels com -fort able and nat u ral. The glory and at trac tion of sto ry tell ing co mes from this range and va ri ety. There is room for and need for all styles.
Still, we be lieve that too few li brar i ans tell sto ries. Some tell us that they have no time to learn and re hearse sto ries. Some feel that they sim ply don’t have the abil ity to do it. Some think it’s too hard and pre fer to stick to read ing. Some be lieve that sto ry tell ing re quires a spe cial tal ent that they may not have.
We don’t be lieve it. By the end of this book, we hope you won’t ei ther. En joy!
In tro duc tion
C
HAPTER 1
The Place for Sto ry tell ing
in Your Li brary
Chap ter 1—The Place for Sto ry tell ing in Your Li brary The Place for Sto ry tell ing in Your Li brary
LIBRARIES ARE STORIES
Li brar ies Are Sto ries
Li brar iesare in sti tu tions in ser vice to sto ries and in for ma tion. The pub lic li brary, in par tic u lar, is a kind of re pos i tory of dis course. Not just in print, ei ther. The li brary’s col lec tions of sto ries in clude films, re cord -ings, doc u ments, meet -ings, talks, lo cal his tory, ge ne al ogy, au thor vis its, pro grams, and time and space for pa trons to sim ply talk. The li brary is a place in conversation with the culture at large.
Li brary staff an chors the in sti tu tion. Those of us in pub lic ser vice like to share in for ma tion, im pres sions, rec om men da tions, and re -sources. We like to talk to our pa trons. Since good con ver sa tion is based on con struct ing a co gent nar ra tive, li brar i ans have more ex pe ri ence in shoot ing the breeze than those in many other pro fes sions. We pres ent pro grams for all ages, and sto ry tell ing fits right into most of them.Just a
cur sory look at your monthly sched ule will re veal the num ber of hours spent in pro gram pre sen ta tion, class visits, reference, and out reach.
We of ten per suade a vis i tor to try a new ti tle or to tell us what books she or he has been read ing. In the course of de ter min ing what help is needed we find our selves lis ten ing to a story as it un winds, and tell ing one in turn.
A visit to a con tem po rary pub lic li brary will soon dis pel the ste reo -type of the sen si ble-shoed, bun-coiffed, glasses-dan gling, mid dle-aged woman who seems to be pro tect ing the books from the un wor thy. Li -brar i ans are very savvy about re triev ing in for ma tion from the Internet, gaug ing the read ing level of a si lent third grader, find ing the right book for the right per son at the right time, bal anc ing a bud get, stretch ing re -sources, and mak ing friends. No won der we are naturally good at telling tales.
WE’VE BEEN TELLING FOR A LONG TIME
We’ve Been Tell ing for a Long Time
Sto ry tell ing has a long, hon or able his tory in the pub lic li brary. Per -haps the most vis i ble ex am ple of that his tory has in volved ser vice to young peo ple. The New York Pub lic Li brary, for in stance, blazed a glo -ri ous trail for sto ry tell ing de cades ago when Ruth Saw yer be gan the first sto ry tell ing pro gram there in 1908. Far from be ing a glam or ous ex tra, sto ry tell ing was an in te gral ser vice for chil dren. But tell ing sto ries is far too much fun, far too valu able, and far too ef fec tive to be the prize of the nursery. It belongs to all of us.
Li brar ies are busy places. The days of a quiet sanc tu ary for the quiet seeker of knowl edge are gone, if they ever ex isted. Li brar i ans have too much to do, and too lit tle time in which to do it. We know that. We would n’t sug gest an other pro fes sional in vest ment if we didn’t think it would make your work more re ward ing, serve your pa trons more ef fec -tively, and, best of all, be enjoyable.
Sto ry tell ing is the most ef fec tive ed u ca tional tool for the least amount of ef fort. It em ploys the skills you al ready pos sess and puts them to good use. Think of it as an other way to meet the man date of pro mot -ing lit er a ture and ideas—a re ally en ter tain -ing way. It is also a valu able ad di tion in the ef fort to en cour age lit er acy for all ages and all cultures.
WHAT KIND OF STORIES?
What Kind of Sto ries?
Sto ry tell ing changes the pic ture. Slip ping a told story into a pre -school storytime pres ents lit er a ture in a fresh and novel way. It al lows for a more en gag ing pre sen ta tion for groups vis it ing the li brary. The story can be from the great col lec tions of tra di tional tales that beg to be freed from the book, or an ex cerpt from cho sen fic tion or non fic tion. A sim ple folk tale can marry well with books dur ing a pro gram. His tory can be come story and lead lis ten ers to following the path into the past.
That story you tell about your bad grade can show case books about school or study hab its. Your mother’s fa mous pi ano re cital be comes the bridge for a talk about skills, tal ents, and of course, in ev i ta ble fail ures. An ur ban leg end can open the creaky door of books about mys te ri ous events. Any thing will serve. The key is the pro cess of storytell ing as the way you choose to de liver story ma te rial to your lis ten ers. Any of these types of sto ries—or many oth ers—be come en gag ing el e ments of your pro gram when you tell them.
WHA
T’S IN IT FOR YOU?
What’s in It for You?
The more you tell sto ries, the better you tell them. Your pro fes -sional life will al ways in clude pre sen ta tions, some more chal leng ing than oth ers. Pol ish up your sto ry tell ing skills, find some en rich ing tales and you will im prove your pres en ta tional style and con fi dence.
Not all of those who visit the li brary are com fort able with print. Some peo ple find the oral ap proach to lit er a ture much eas ier to ab sorb and re tain. Gay knows this from ex pe ri ence since it was told sto ries, not print, that her A.D.D. son re sponded to, whether they were old tales, per -sonal sto ries, or sci ence tid bits. A good story reached that learner very well since it lev eled the cog ni tive play ing field. Or at least min i mized the gradation.
Li brar i an ship is one of the few pro fes sions in which ev ery sin gle thing you know or have ex pe ri enced is use ful, so your own per sonal in ter ests, pos ses sions, back ground be come grist for the story mill. You al -ready have a wealth of in for ma tion to share, and it is easy to con vert it into good stories.
Need more? There’s noth ing like a story to en gage and en ter tain an au di ence. Your tell ing brings lis ten ers to you, makes you ac ces si ble and ap proach able. We know how im por tant that is in forg ing re la tion ships with our pa trons. Be sides, there’s noth ing like a pro fes sional change of pace to re fresh us. Sto ries of myth, leg end, folk tale, fairy tale, epic, and fa ble are the great lit er ary trea sure of ev ery cul ture. As the heirs to that hoard, we can give it to oth ers in the way it de serves to be shared: by tell -ing. (P.S.: you get to keep it, too.)
FROM KITCHEN TABLE TO CARNEGIE HALL:
THE THREE LEVELS OF STORYTELLING
From Kitchen Ta ble to Car ne gie Hall
Al though our ev i dence is an ec dotal, both of us have no ticed how few li brary sto ry tell ers we run across in our trav els. More of ten, we (and other pro fes sional tell ers) are the sto ry tell ers, who come in to do a per -for mance or two, gather the glory, and then hit the road. We also know, again anecdotally, that li brar ies rou tinely use the ser vices of pro fes -sional sto ry tell ers as en ter tain ers linked to a par tic u lar holiday or summer program.
We don’t pre sume to un der stand all the rea sons for this re li ance on de clared pro fes sional tell ers. But we have both seen it and be come aware of its del e te ri ous im pact on a community.
It doesn’t have to be that way. It should n’t be that way. But it is. It may be that li brary staff see those pro fes sional sto ry tell ers and think; “I could never, ever do that.” “That”—when taken lit er ally—may well be true. You may never, ever be come a pro fes sional sto ry teller. But that has noth ing to do with your be com ing a suc cess ful sto ry teller within the li brary. The ex pec ta tions, and per for mance re quire ments of a pol ished pro fes sional tell ing on a raised stage to a thou sand lis ten ers are dif fer ent from those of friends shar ing sto ries around the kitchen ta ble, for in -stance. Com mon sense tells us that, but that doesn’t mean one is more important than another.
Think of it this way: pro fes sional chefs clog the land scape of the Food Net work, dem on strat ing their fi nesse, their per fect con fec tions, their glib onair de liv ery, and their pa nache. For those who are in ter -ested, it is a daz zling dis play. But we never see them cook ing at home, only in the hot lights of a show. Books, CDs, up scale kitchen ware all
bear the name of The Fa mous Chef. Many a cook has learned a good deal by watch ing these pros work and been in spired to try a dish or two. That’s what they do best: in spire, mo ti vate, en ter tain. The food is fancy, and it would be great to sit down to the ta ble for such a meal once in a long while.
Most of us who like to cook on oc ca sion, and even those who cook ev ery day, are not go ing to be come Iron Chefs and will never chal lenge Emeril for his primetime TV slot. Yet we can whip up an ap pe tiz ing din -ner that will please—even thrill—our fam i lies more of ten than not, and some times we can mount a hol i day din ner that con founds even our moth ers-in-law. Sto ry tell ing is like that. It has room for ev ery one who wants to tell a tale. It is not con fined to those who choose to make a living at it.
Granted, some folks have a gift. We readily ad mit that. They are un -com monly tal ented. But just as you would not stop cook ing be cause you have n’t been picked up for a pi lot, so, too, you should not avoid tell ing sto ries just be cause there are some sto ry tell ers who are better than you be lieve your self to be. That would be a shame, for you would deny the gifts of story lit er a ture to the chil dren and adults who pa tron ize your li -brary, ex cept on those few, scat tered oc ca sions when the hired nar ra tive gun sweeps into town. That’s not enough.
We of fer the fol low ing idea: sto ry tell ing has lev els. None is more im por tant than an other, but they dif fer, so it is help ful to dis tin guish be -tween them.
Level 1: The In for mal Sto ry teller
In for mal sto ry tell ing hap pens through out the rou tine course of our daily lives. Oc ca sion ally planned but more of ten spon ta ne ous, con ver sa tional, and in ter ac tive in na ture, in for mal sto ry tell ing forms an es sen -tial part of the fab ric of our nor mal com mu ni ca tions. Sto ries told across the fam ily din ner ta ble, by the auto me chanic run ning your smog check, in the su per mar ket check out line, dur ing chance meet ings of friends and col leagues—these are all times when we au to mat i cally slip into the role of informal storytellers.
We don’t usu ally plan or or ga nize the text, nor do we prac tice or try to re fine our style or voices. Some of the sto ries are brand new, the stuff of the day; oth ers are well-worn nar ra tives about our fam i lies that each mem ber knows by heart. Around the kitchen ta ble, these sto ries ebb and
flow, some times punc tu ated by some one else add ing a de tail or cor rec -tion. Above all, in for mal sto ry tell ing is a nat u ral and un re hearsed part of human communications.
Level 2: The Com mu nity Sto ry teller
This sort of sto ry tell ing usu ally takes place within the pro fes sional set ting. The li brary, the class room, the pul pit, the court room, each of these is the na tive hab i tat for tales. In an cient times, the sto ry teller passed on sto ries of wis dom and her i tage. The tales re flected the pre vail -ing val ues and ex posed new lis ten ers to im por tant in for ma tion that kept them safe and taught them how to be have. Adults heard the sto ries that glo ri fied the com mu nity’s val or ous his tory, or traced lin eage. Nov elty was not useful. Continuity was essential.
Con tem po rary vis i tors to the li brary need and de serve these sto ries still. This is the set ting in which the chil dren and adults can hear sto ries that feed the soul and free the imag i na tion. It is de sir able for the sto ry -teller to be fa mil iar, and the sto ries, too. At this level, sto ries can and should be re peated again and again. Com mu nity sto ry tell ers do not need to per form. They need to share. The style of the sto ry teller is un im por -tant. From a very dra matic teller to one who has a quiet, in ti mate approach, each is useful.
Level 3: The Pro fes sional Sto ry teller
The pro fes sional sto ry teller de liv ers a pol ished, re hearsed per for -mance, usu ally to a rel a tively large au di ence. It is not un com mon for the per for mance to have a ti tle. The sto ry teller may well be trav el ing through, never to be seen again. Styles may dif fer, but the teller is of ten larger than life and the per for mance is for mally staged. Our ex pec ta tions are high; we an tic i pate see ing a well-pre pared art ist with strong, pre cise lan guage and phys i cal prep a ra tion. Level 3 is some thing like a hol i day feast, a rare, rich treat, to be en joyed oc ca sion ally, not as a steady diet. We all ben e fit from these oc ca sional sto ry tell ers, but the place for day-in and day-out storytelling is with you, the library storyteller.
It was when we started to use pro fes sional sto ry tell ers as the pri mary des ig nated ar tis tic hit ters that we got off track. Li brar ies can fa cil i -tate all three lev els of sto ry tell ing. En cour age and fa cil i -tate in for mal tell ing. Ar range and spon sor oc ca sional pro fes sional per for mances.
And ac cept your role as a pri mary pro vider of a steady diet of community level storytelling.
THE PLACE FOR STORYTELLING IN YOUR LIBRARY
The Place for Sto ry tell ing in Your Li brary
Many op por tu ni ties for sto ry tell ing ex ist in your li brary. This list of five is not in tended to be ex haus tive; rather, it rep re sents proven niches for your sto ry tell ing. Let these ideas free you to iden tify the many other ways you can weave sto ry tell ing into your li brary and programs.
1. As a snazzy ad di tion to pre school and early el e men tary storytimes.
2. As an ef fec tive, nat u ral, di rect form of booktalking. And not just for au di ences of el e men tary school chil dren. When pre sent ing “booktalks” to mid dle and high school au di ences, sto -ries (rid dling tales, ur ban leg ends, brief in for ma tion about a fa mous guy) can be ef fec tively in cor po rated into pre sen ta -tions (see Gail de Vos’s book about sto ry tell ing for teens in the Bib li og ra phy). As an al ter na tive to the nor mal booktalk fare for lon ger books (tell ing a lit tle bit about the book, main char ac ter, and/or au thor but not the end), con sider tak ing one in ci dent within the book and simply tell the whole thing.
3. As an eve ning per for mance for fam i lies and older kids.
Granted, these per for mances of ten fea ture the sto ry teller-for-hire. Let’s change that. Once you have a few tales un der your belt, you can at least com ple ment the guest per former, or, better, start of fer ing pro grams fea tur ing YOU (the sto ry teller).
4. As a spe cial hol i day pro gram. You need not do the whole thing. Try com bin ing your tal ents with sev eral other staff per sons, and, like Mickey Rooney and Judy Gar land, “put on a show.” 5. As part of pre sen ta tions to com mu nity groups or other or ga ni
-za tions. Any story that com ple ments your pre sen ta tion will be well re ceived by the au di ence. Try a fa ble, a story about Mul lah Nasruddin, or any short tale that suits you and the oc -ca sion. Em pha sis is on brief, fast, and ei ther amus ing or thought ful, which ever the context suggests.
So let’s take it back. Let’s claim sto ry tell ing as a valu able of fer ing to our con stit u ents. And let’s do it our selves.
C
HAPTER 2
Why Tell It?:
The Power of Sto ry tell ing
Chap ter 2—Why Tell It?: The Power of Sto ry tell ing Why Tell It?: The Power of Sto ry tell ing
Chap ter 1 de scribed a role for the dif fer ent lev els of sto ry tell ing as in te gral parts of your li brary pro grams. That chap ter showed what sto ry tell ing can do for your li brary pro grams. There are eight ad di tional rea -sons for you to tell sto ries as an im por tant part of your li brary’s of fer ings. We know that most of you al ready view sto ry tell ing as valu -able and worth while and may not need new ev i dence of its power and value. Con sider this list a gen tle re minder of how im por tant you and your tell ing are in the lives and de vel op ment of your young pa trons and what a gift your storytelling can be.
BECAUSE YOU CAN
Be cause You Can.
As you’ll see through out this book, you al ready know most of what you’ll need to know, and have the in nate tal ent you’ll need, to tell sto ries suc cess fully and ef fec tively.
BECAUSE LIBRARY PATRONS NEED YOUR STORIES
Li brary Pa trons Need Your Sto ries.
Ev ery one ben e fits from lis ten ing to sto ries be ing told: tra di tional tales, folk tales, “Just So” sto ries, myths, etc. We all need to hear these sto ries be ing told with en thu si asm, and need to ab sorb the form, pat -terns, rhythms, and con tent of these stories.
Chil dren es pe cially need the de vel op men tal ben e fits of hear ing com plete sto ries be ing told, and they need the cog ni tive value wo ven into the con tent of these sto ries that have been honed and re fined over count less gen er a tions of suc cess ful tellings by count less tell ers. For many chil dren you are a pri mary source of this level of sto ry tell ing. They de pend on you. They need you. Their de vel op ment de pends, in a small but real part, on the story and storytelling exposure you provide.
A Ca na dian study pub lished in 2004 (O’Neill, Pearce, and Pick, 2004) stud ied the sto ry tell ing abil ity of pre school chil dren in On tario, Can ada, and found good cor re la tion be tween early sto ry tell ing skills and later math abil i ties. They sug gest that time spent tell ing sto ries to chil -dren and al low ing them to in for mally and improvisationally tell sto ries to de velop their own sto ry tell ing skill dur ing pre school years is likely to im prove math skill upon entering school.
More im por tant than its spe cific fo cus on math skills, this study es tab lishes sto ry tell ing skill (struc tural knowl edge and story map think -ing) as pre dat ing, and as a pre cur sor for, the de vel op ment of log i cal think ing. Cog ni tive sci ence stud ies have con firmed that hu man be ings de velop the abil ity to un der stand and in ter pret the world around them through story struc ture and story con cepts long be fore they de velop log -i cal th-ink -ing (see Ap pen d-ix 2). In fact, log -i cal th-ink -ing seems to evolve out of story struc tural think ing. The abil ity to in ter pret ex pe ri ences and to cre ate mean ing us ing story think ing co mes from ex po sure to sto ries during the early formative years. They need your stories.
BECAUSE STORYTELLING IS A
GREAT CHANGE OF PACE
Be cause Sto ry tell ing Is a Great Change of Pace
Even the best pitch ers need to change their pitches un less they want to spend a lot of time on the bench. Break it up. Change the pat tern of your pro grams. If your nor mal pat tern is to read sto ries, sto ry tell ing
(whether im pro vi sa tional, in for mal, or planned) will sur prise your lis -ten ers and cre ate extra interest.
BECAUSE STORYTELLING IS AFFECTING
AND ENGAGING FOR THE AUDIENCE
Be cause Sto ry tell ing Is Af fect ing and En gag ing for the Au di ence
As a fledg ling sto ry teller, Kend all told sto ries at an Or ange County, Cal i for nia, school—just over a year af ter he first per formed there. As he en tered the build ing, a sec ond-grade girl passed him in the hall and said, “I re mem ber you. You told us sto ries last year.”
Then that seven-year-old girl be gan to tell the sto ries she had heard a year be fore. They were orig i nal sto ries and she had only heard them once. Still, a year later, both sto ries tum bled out of her, viv idly and ac cu rately, with no prompt ing. That is not at all un usual. Vir tu ally ever sto ry -teller in the coun try has had this ex pe ri ence. Sto ries deeply en gage and entrance an audience.
Don’t worry. Just be cause there are pro fes sional sto ry tell ers out there who visit the pub lic li brary and wow the crowds does not mean they have a life lease on this cap ti vat ing ex pe ri ence. Gay tells sto ries in the li brary as well as tell ing sto ries as a pro fes sional. Re cently a fifth grader re turned to the branch af ter a long ab sence. “Do you still tell that story about the sul tan, the lit tle rooster and the di a mond but ton?” he asked. “Yes” she said “Just this week. Is it one of your fa vor ites?” “Yes” he said, as he be gan to tell it back to her. It hap pens all the time and to ev
ery one who reg u larly tells sto ries. It is in her ent in the pro cess of sto ry
-tell ing, not in some unique prop erty of skilled and theatrical performers. Brain re search con firms what sto ry tell ers know from ex pe ri ence. Bransford and Brown (2000), Engle (1995), Fisher (1994), Bruner (1990), and other neuroscientists have stud ied this phe nom e non and have drawn two gen eral con clu sions:
1. Evo lu tion has “hard wired” the pro cess and form of sto ry tell ing into hu man brains and minds. Fisher con cludes that hu -mans are re ally homo narratus, and that sto ry tell ing is an in trin sic hu man at trib ute. That is, story ar chi tec ture is hard wired into the hu man mind. Bruner has ob served that sto ry -tell ing pre dates writ ten com mu ni ca tion by 50,000 years and that the form and pat tern of sto ry tell ing are now, as it were,
res i due of many thou sands of years of evolutionary programming.
2. We learn through sto ry tell ing. We learn the pat tern, rhythm, and struc ture of oral sto ry tell ing long be fore we learn the rhythms and pat terns of writ ten sto ries. Young in fants learn to pay at ten tion to the fea tures of oral speech (such as in to na -tion and rhythm) that help them ob tain crit i cal in for ma -tion about language and meaning.
Per haps we re spond so pos i tively and pow er fully to sto ry tell ing be -cause we are ge net i cally pre dis posed to fa vor the form. That’s cer tainly what we think. Your lis ten ers will be more re spon sive to your sto ry tell
-ing than to the same story de liv ered in other ways.
BECAUSE STORYTELLING MAKES
NONFICTION EVENTS AND TOPICS COME ALIVE
Be cause Sto ry tell ing Makes Non fic tion Events and Top ics Come Alive
Dan Fossler, a Cal i for nia high school mu sic teacher, took a sto ry -tell ing course and cre ated a story about the Ital ian com poser, Vivaldi, for his fi nal ex er cise. The story was a rous ing hit. So he told it to his stu -dent or ches tra the next fall be fore as sign ing them a Vivaldi piece. He was amazed at how quickly this or ches tra mas tered the difficult piece.
He scanned their home prac tice logs and found that this group was prac tic ing an av er age of 20 per cent more on this piece than had his pre -vi ous or ches tras. When he asked them why, they re ported that Vivaldi was “cool” and that they liked him and his mu sic. Ten stu dents had gone to the li brary to check out ad di tional read ing ma te rial on Vivaldi. In short, Fossler’s told story made Vivaldi real, ac ces si ble and in ter est ing. It cre ated con text and rel e vance. Storytelling does that.
Li brar i ans have booktalked for years, just as Mr. Fossler did, us ing ep i sodes from the lives of the fa mous and not so fa mous to en tice lis ten -ers into read ing more. It’s sto ry tell ing, re ally, and it works. Any topic can be in tro duced to lis ten ers through a tale. Brief folk tales can in tro -duce the sci ences; per sonal sto ries can be wo ven into sports and the arts; and the 900s of fer op por tu ni ties for folk tales, myths, leg ends . . . just about any sort of story.
BECAUSE STORYTELLING GENERATES VIVID
AND DETAILED IMAGES IN A LISTENER’S MIND
Sto ry tell ing Gen er ates Vivid and De tailed Im ages in a Lis tener’s Mind
Kend all once con ducted an ex per i ment with pri mary stu dents in eight schools (to tal of 1,090 stu dents and six per for mances). Dur ing short as sem blies, he told one story and read a dif fer ent story of about the same length. Stu dents re turned to the class room and, with no dis cus sion, each drew one pic ture from just one of the two sto ries. He var ied both the or der and the spe cific sto ries he pre sented. But the vari a tions never af fected the fi nal re sults. Be tween 78 and 86 per cent in each class drew a pic ture of the story that was told. Sto ry tell ing seems to cre ate stron ger, more vivid and more memorable imagery.
When be ing read a pic ture book, young lis ten ers al most al ways ask to see the pic tures. But when a story is be ing told, lis ten ers have no need for pic tures. Lis ten ing en cour ages them to cre ate their own im ages, tai lor-made to suit each child.
Re cent neu ro log i cal re search has shown that mem ory de pends on the den sity of sen sory de tails as so ci ated with the event. The greater the num ber of sen sory de tails filed away into mem ory sur round ing an event or idea, the eas ier and more likely it is that a per son will re call that event or idea.
Lis ten ing to sto ries cre ates vivid, multisensory de tails. De tails cre -ate mem ory.
BECAUSE
STORYTELLING HELPS THOSE WHO
STRUGGLE WITH LANGUAGE TO UNDERSTAND AND
INTERPRET THE STORY
Be cause Sto ry tell ing Helps to Un der stand and In ter pret the Story
When read ing a book, you use vo cal tools, such as tone, pace, and vol ume to in ter pret the text. Sto ry tell ing does that too. But sto ry tell ing more readily al lows for phys i cal in ter pre ta tion of the story through ges -ture, move ment, and ex pres sion. These in ter pre ta tions can vary from danc ing across the floor to the most sub tle body lan guage. And they are ef fec tive in aid ing lis ten ers to in ter pret and visualize the story.
Im pro vi sa tion is a nat u ral part of sto ry tell ing. Tell ers re fine or change their lan guage and de liv ery in re sponse to the au di ence re ac tion. Al though small text changes are pos si ble when read ing, read ers strive to stick closely to the author’s words.
Coo per (1997) con ducted an ex ten sive study of how inclass sto ry -tell ing af fects stu dents’ de vel op ment of the abil ity to ex tract mean ing from texts. He con cluded, first, that sto ry tell ing sig nif i cantly en hanced stu dents’ un der stand ing of story text and, sec ond, that a ma jor part of this en hance ment came from the im pro vi sa tional na ture of sto ry tell ing that al lowed the teller to ac knowl edge and re spond to stu dent ver bal and non ver bal re sponses and to ad just the tell ing to in cor po rate those re -sponses. Stu dents’ abil ity to in ter act with the teller and to have the teller ad just the story and the tell ing to ac count for those re sponses sig nif i -cantly im proved stu dents’ ability to understand stories and to create meaning from stories.
BECAUSE STO
RYTELLING CONNECTS LISTENERS
TO YOU
Sto ry tell ing Con nects Lis ten ers to You
To many pa trons, you are the li brary. Sto ry tell ing can strengthen that im pres sion. It forges an in ti mate re la tion ship be tween teller and lis tener that con tin ues far be yond the ac tual tell ing of a tale. It doesn’t re -ally mat ter what kind of story you tell, where you tell it, or what kind of event it is. It might be part of a planned, for mal pro gram, or an im pro vi -sa tional, off-the-cuff story about your fam ily or your own ex pe ri ences. Re gard less of what you choose to tell, the story works to cre ates the bond. It is always a shared experience.
So, why sto ry tell ing? Be cause it pro duces all of the re sults—the top i cal and gen eral in ter est, the de light, the en gage ment, the en ter tain -ment, and the fun—that mark a good presentation.
C
HAPTER 3
“Okay, But Can I Re ally Do It?”
Mak ing Sto ry tell ing Prac ti cal
and Do able
Chap ter 3—“Okay, But Can I Re ally Do It?” Mak ing Sto ry tell ing Prac ti cal and Do able “Okay, But Can I Re ally Do It?” Mak ing Sto ry tell ing Prac ti cal and Do able
ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTION
Ask ing the Right Ques tion
Sto ry tell ing is not a new set of per for mance skills to learn. It’s not about rules. Sto ry tell ing is a nat u ral pro cess that we all do, but do au to -mat i cally (un con sciously) rather than consciously.
Dur ing work shops we of ten ask groups, “Do you tell sto ries?” Many, en vi sion ing a long list of rules and man dates for how one is sup
-posed to tell a story, an swer “No.”
Such peo ple search for the wrong kind of rules to guide them to better, eas ier sto ry tell ing. Should sto ries be told word for word? Should you use ges tures when you tell? Should you move or stand still? Stand or sit? Should you use vo cal char ac ter iza tions? Phys i cal char ac ter iza tions?
Should sto ries be told in the third per son? In the first? Should sto ries be pre sented in chro no log i cal or der? Should you avoid cos tumes and props? Name any as pect of sto ry tell ing or ga ni za tion and per for mance that would seem suit able for such a “rule” and you will find suc cess ful, re spected sto ry tell ers who in ten tion ally and successfully violate whatever rule you create.
Those are the wrong kinds of ques tions to ask and the wrong kinds of “rules” to search for. You don’t think about rules when you tell in for -mal sto ries to your friends and fam i lies. You sim ply tell the story—and usu ally do just fine.
But there are guide lines—ac tu ally, more like nat u ral laws—which, like a light house bea con, can serve to guide ev ery teller around the shoals and ed dies of sto ry tell ing dis tress. We call them nat u ral laws be -cause, like the law of grav ity, they do not tell you what you should do (as a speed limit law does), but rather they de scribe the way the pro cess nat u rally works. From these nat u ral laws we de rive in sights and un der -stand ings that, like ef fec tive rules, guide us to more con sis tently successful storytelling.
In the mid-1990s the Na tional Sto ry tell ing As so ci a tion spent two years craft ing their def i ni tion of sto ry tell ing. In one sen tence, they said: “Sto ry tell ing is the art of us ing lan guage, vo cal iza tion, and/or phys i cal move ment and ges ture to re veal the el e ments and im ages of a story to a specific, live audience.”
That’s sto ry tell ing—and that’s what we all do ev ery time we share a story with a friend, weave a story into a lec ture, or try to en ter tain sixty fourth grad ers dur ing a class visit to the li brary. You al ready do it.
Ask ing, “Do you tell?” (or “Do I tell?”) is the wrong ques tion. The question is as mean ing less as ask ing, “Do you breathe?” We all tell sto ries—per sonal day-to-day sto ries—ev ery day. You’ve told sto ries vir tu ally ev ery day since you were three years old. That’s what hu mans do.
Af ter quick re flec tion, many think that a better ques tion to ask is, “Do you tell your sto ries well?” Oc ca sion ally, ev ery one does a lousy job of tell ing a story. It falls flat; it doesn’t work. We’ve all been cor nered at an of fice party, a fam ily func tion, or at a re union by some one who droned through end less and pain fully bor ing sto ries—Un cle Philbert’s trip to the Lit tle League Hall of Fame, Aunt Penny’s mor ti fi ca tion at be -ing 30¢ short at the check out, a class mate’s in trigu -ing life as the third as sis tant vice pres i dent of mar ket ing. We’ve even done it ourselves.
Again, it’s a mean ing less ques tion. We guar an tee that ev ery reader of this book at some time, in some place has told at least one de light fully mes mer iz ing, en chant ing, to tally ef fec tive story. Maybe it was only to three of your best friends or two co work ers at the wa ter cooler. Per haps you’ve felt re ally “on,” with your lis ten ers ea gerly hang ing on ev ery word, only a few times in your life. The point is, we guar an tee it has hap
-pened. You have and can tell your sto ries well. As a com mu nity level
sto ry teller, that’s all the proof you’ll ever need.
What’s a better ques tion to ask? Re mem ber our cook ing met a phor from Chap ter 1? The right ques tion to ask is: Am I try ing to be picked for a the at ri cal TV cook ing show that has to wow and en ter tain a large au di -ence, or am I try ing to pro vide a nu tri tious and fla vor ful meal that my fam ily will en joy? These two types of cook ing have rad i cally dif fer ent man dates and ex pec ta tions. Which are you try ing to do with your sto ry -tell ing? You’re go ing to be a com mu nity level sto ry -teller, so the an swer is: cook a nu tri tious and tasty meal for your lis ten ers. That’s very dif fer -ent from becoming an Iron Chef on the Food channel.
The trick for your kind of tell ing—though it’s not much of a trick—is sim ply to know your sto ry tell ing self: how you nat u rally learn, re mem ber, and tell your own sto ries.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET IT RIGHT TO GET IT RIGHT
You Don’t Have to Get It Right to Get It Right
You see a pro fes sional teller and think that ev ery ges ture, ev ery pause, ev ery glance, word and tone were per fect. You think, “Wow. She got it right! That’s what sto ry tell ing is sup posed to look like.”
No. That’s what the at ri cal-main-stage-tell ing-in-front-of-a-large-au di ence-of-strang ers-in-a-for mal-set ting-by-that-teller is sup posed to look like. If that same teller sat in a cir cle of ten first grad ers and told the same story in ex actly the same way, it would not look or sound nearly as “per fect.” It would n’t even look ap pro pri ate. It would look and feel wrong. Why? That style of sto ry tell ing is ap pro pri ate for one kind of sto -ry teller and one kind of event.
Do you stop a friend in midstory and re fuse to lis ten any fur ther be -cause she didn’t get the words right? Do you feel cheated be -cause you sus pect she missed a word? We have yet to meet the per son who could hon estly an swer yes to ei ther ques tion.
Re cent neu ro log i cal re search has shown that we hu mans re mem ber the gist, not the spe cific word ing, when we lis ten to a story. (See Ap pen dix 2 for a sum mary of rel e vant re search.) Ev ery time neu rol o gists con -duct this test, sub jects think they ac cu rately re mem ber the words. But the words they “re mem ber” are largely their own cre ation and not in the orig i nal text. We hu mans re mem ber the gist—the idea and the emo tion and the mean ing of a told story. Then we re in vent our own words to de -scribe what we in ter preted and remembered from the story.
Get ting a story “right” has to be mea sured by the im ages lodged in lis ten ers’ minds and by lis ten ers’ re ac tions to the story. Sto ry tell ing is not a ver ba tim rec i ta tion. It doesn’t re quire you to get the words right. It does re quire that you get the gist of the story right. Luck ily, that’s much eas ier and more nat u ral. The gist in cludes the main flow of events (the plot), the char ac ters and their goals and strug gles, and the emo tional flow or mood of the story. That is what you are used to learn ing and tell -ing for your own stories.
“Get ting it right” for you will mean just two things: (1) get the story char ac ters and events (se quences) across to your lis ten ers, and (2) tell it in such a way that your nat u ral en thu si asm and pas sion for the story shines through in your tell ing. That kind of “get ting it right” is much eas -ier and more nat u ral and is what your lis ten ers need when you tell.
HOW DO YOU NATURALLY LEARN,
RECALL, AND TELL YOUR OWN STORIES?
How Do You Nat u rally Learn, Re call, and Tell Your Own Sto ries?
Sure, you tell sto ries—an ec dotes, in ci dents, mem o ries of your past, fam ily sto ries. But you don’t con sciously think about how you’ll tell those in for mal sto ries, or how you’ll word and struc ture them. You just tell them. It’s like many other un con scious, au to matic things you do. You know how to tie shoe laces. But it would be ex tremely dif fi cult to write down what you do with each thumb and fin ger in tem po ral se quen -tial or der to get those laces tied. You do it, but don’t con sciously know how you do it.
We tell sto ries the same way. We do it, but don’t con sciously pause to think about how we do it. The dif fer ence is that if you sud denly doubt your abil ity to tie shoe laces you need only glance down at your feet to see proof. The prob lem is that we have no such ready source of proof to re mind our selves of our nat u ral sto ry tell ing ability.
The key there is that you do it, and, thus, that you know how to do it. You just have to be come a bit more aware of what you al ready know and nat u rally do ev ery day.
Re call some thing that hap pened to you years ago—some mem ory, maybe some spe cial event. What popped back up into your con scious mind? Typ i cally, two things ap pear from your long-term mem ory when you re call a past event: sen sory de tails (sights, sounds, smells, feels, or tastes) and a mem ory of the way you felt when it hap pened. That’s what we hu mans re mem ber ef fi ciently. Cog ni tive sci ence re search has re peat edly con firmed it. We re cord sen sory data. And we re cord our emo -tional state to match those sensory impressions.
As most tell ers tell the story, some thing akin to a slide show flashes through their minds as im age af ter im age of these sen sory de tails shines onto their men tal screens. That’s how you typ i cally tell your own sto ries. Noth ing com pli cated; noth ing need ing ex ten sive re hearsal or cho -re og ra phy. It’s sim ple, natural storytelling.
Sto ry tell ing is sup posed to be nat u ral and fun. Tell ing sto ries is some thing we spon ta ne ously burst into when we are hav ing a good time with friends, fam ily, or co work ers. With just a bit of fore thought, the same core skills can carry you through more for mal li brary tell ing. You want to keep the nat u ral sto ry tell ing style and sys tem you al ready suc -cess fully use for all sto ries re gard less of the source—be cause that is what al ready works for you. Don’t ad just you to fit the story, ad just (or se lect) sto ries to fit you.
Sto ry tell ing is not act ing. It is not about mim ick ing the per for mances of oth ers. It is not about dra matic the at rics (un less they are nat u -ral and com fort able for you). You don’t worry about such things when tell ing your daily-event sto ries to friends and fam ily mem bers. So don’t try to force your self to worry about them for other stories.
WHAT LISTENERS REALLY NEED
What Lis ten ers Re ally Need
Have you ever thought about what lis ten ers need—re ally need— from you when you tell a story? Have you ever won dered what your lis -ten ers don’t ab so lutely need from your sto ries? Prob a bly not—and the sto ries worked just fine. But isn’t that a big part of sto ry tell ing—to give
an au di ence what it needs—and just what it needs—so that they can con -jure vivid, in trigu ing im ages in their minds?
There is a game Kend all uses dur ing work shops called What Makes
It Real. It’s the sto ry tell ing ver sion of To Tell the Truth. He has three
peo ple stand and tell a short story that they have dis cussed and prac ticed for only ninety sec onds. One of them is tell ing the truth. (It hap pened to that per son.) The other two claim it hap pened to them. They tell it as if it hap pened to them. But it didn’t. The au di ence must vote for which story they think is the real ver sion of this story.
It’s fun. But its value co mes in dis cuss ing why peo ple voted as they did. What made one story sound more real than the other two? All men -tion the same few fac tors that in flu enced their votes.
What lis ten ers say they need from the con tent of the story: • Ap pro pri ate and ar rest ing de tails
• Rel e vant, in ter est ing char ac ters
• In trigu ing story prob lem, ten sion, and sus pense (of ten men tioned un der their catch-all syn onym “ex cite ment”)
• Hu mor
• In for ma tion and con ci sion • Be liev abil ity
What lis ten ers say they need from the per for mance of the story: • Con fi dence
• Emo tional ex pres sion • En thu si asm
• En ergy • Hu mor
No tice what’s not on this list. No one has ever voted for a story be -cause the teller got all the words right. No one has ever men tioned vot ing be cause of the story’s ac tion (the se quence of events in the story).
Look at the five items listed in the sec ond half of the list. They all re fer to lis ten ers’ per cep tions of how the teller told the story. The listed items re fer not di rectly to what the teller did (use of ges tures, fa cial ex -pres sion, vo cal pac ing, etc.), but to the lis ten ers’ in ter pre ta tion of what the teller did. Re ally, they are all dif fer ent ex pres sions of a cen tral need of ev ery lis tener. If lis ten ers be lieve that the teller be lieves in the story, then they, too, will believe.
How do lis ten ers de cide if they think that a teller likes and is ex cited by his or her own story? By the way the teller said it. Does the teller ap -pear con fi dent, com fort able, and nat u ral? Does the teller ap -pear to be en joy ing his or her own story?
Again, this is good news. You are used to pour ing your nat u ral en thu si asm into the booktalks you pres ent. You are al ready skilled in mak -ing your lis ten ers see that you en joy the books you pres ent and de scribe. Those same skills will serve you well as you be gin to tell stories.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
READING AND TELLING
The Dif fer ence Be tween Read ing and Tell ing
Li brar i ans, par tic u larly those work ing with young peo ple, are skilled at read ing aloud. They know well the dif fer ence be tween read ing a story and lis ten ing to a sto ry teller tell a story. How ever, there are sub tle dif fer ences be tween lis ten ing to a story be ing read and lis ten ing to a story be ing told. It is worth while to re view these dif fer ences as you de -cide the role of sto ry tell ing in your presentation repertoire.
1. Read ing places the book be tween you and your lis ten ers. Even if you are a skilled reader, the book is still pri mary to your lis ten ers: the im ages handed to them rather than cre ated in their minds, the words pre de ter mined.
2. The pres ence of the book lim its your ges tures and move ments. 3. Read ing pre serves the au thor’s ex act words. Sto ry tell ing does
not.
4. Read ing gives lis ten ers ex po sure to ex cep tion ally good writ -ing and, in pic ture books, to ex cep tion ally good il lus tra tion. 5. Read ing does not re quire the reader to learn the story.
6. Shift ing from read ing to tell ing rep re sents a change of me dia. Chang ing the me dia of de liv ery changes the ex pec ta tions (con scious and un con scious) of the lis tener. As an ex am ple, Jack Hitt, a se nior ed i tor for Harp ers mag a zine in the early 1990s, came to a na tional sto ry tell ing fes ti val and, daz zled by the de light and power of sto ry tell ing, de cided to print a se ries of sto ries in Harp ers by mod ern sto ry tell ers. He put out a call for tell ers who wrote their own sto ries to sub mit their fa vor -ites for his con sid er ation. He told Kend all that he re ceived 176 sub mis sions (in clud ing four from Kend all). Yet he found one—just one—that he be lieved worked in print, even though he could see how most would be de light ful and suc cess ful per for mance pieces. He read the sto ries out loud to co work ers, who agreed that they would love to hear and see the sto -ries be ing told, but that they didn’t work com ing off the printed page. Jack can celed the pro ject. The sto ries were writ -ten and struc tured for live sto ry tell ing and could not sur vive a shift to the printed page—even when read aloud from that page. When you change media, you change the expectations of the listeners.
Whether read ing a story or tell ing it is right for you will vary from sit u a tion to sit u a tion and story to story. The more you try storytell ing, the more you will ex pand the sit u a tions in which you feel com fort able tell ing as op posed to read ing. We both be lieve that tell ing is a pow er ful and at trac tive choice for shar ing story ma te rial. We also be lieve that you, as a trained mem ber of the li brary staff, are better equipped and better able to suc cess fully tell sto ries than you might think. We are com -pletely con vinced that, if you try tell ing sto ries, you’ll find both that your lis ten ers will over whelm ingly en joy and ap pre ci ate your tell ing and that your sto ry tell ing will be more successful than you imagined.
C
HAPTER 4
Choos ing Sto ries That
Will Work for
You
Chap ter 4—Choos ing Sto ries That Will Work for You Choos ing Sto ries That Will Work for You
WHERE DO I START?
Where Do I Start?
Start with your self. Af ter all, you’re the one who will be tell ing the story. The con ven tional ad vice is to choose sto ries that you love. Strong words, and per haps a bit ro man tic for some, but it makes sense, be cause some sto ries just seem to jump right into your arms and say, “It’s me! I’m the one you want.”
We find it more ac cu rate to say that you should choose sto ries that you can’t seem to for get, that stay with you, that you in stinc tively want to tell. What makes one story ap peal ing, and not an other, is an ar tis tic mys tery. Li brar i ans are fa mil iar with that sort of mys tery, be cause we know that of the ten ti tles we might toss out to a pa tron, only one or two make the cut.
WHICH STORIES TO START WITH?
Which Sto ries to Start With?
Con sider get ting used to the pro cess of tell ing sto ries by tell ing the eas i est sto ries of all—your own. Slide into it. Tell per sonal, rel e vant bits and sto ries be tween other ma te rial or to in tro duce other pre sen ta tions. Ex per i ment with per sonal sto ries to see what feels com fort able when you don’t have a book in your hand.
You don’t have to start by for mally tell ing your lis ten ers that you’re go ing to tell a story. You don’t even have to tell com plete sto ries. Start with the sim ple bits you might tell a friend or fam ily mem ber. Watch what hap pens as you slip these into your pro grams. What do you like about these story bits? To what kind of ma te rial do you nat u rally grav i -tate? What pro duces the best au di ence response for you.?
In this way you can use your own sto ries to gain a better sense of what kinds of sto ries you want to tell and that will likely work well for you. It’s a nice, but not es sen tial, guide to pick ing sto ries.
This ad vice is time-tested and works well for most tell ers. For most, but not for all. We rec om mend that you give it a try. We all come equipped with in ter est ing mo ments that can be shaped into sto ries. How ever, if the mere thought of drag ging your per sonal sto ries out for pub lic dis play stabs ici cles of fear into your heart, don’t force yourself.
HOW TO PICK A STORY
How to Pick a Story
The lan guage in sto ries gets some sto ry tell ers’ at ten tion. Oth ers like an un ex pected end ing. Still oth ers en joy tell ing sto ries from a spe -cific cul ture, theme, or topic—about trick sters, for in stance. As you start to col lect and tell tales you may see some com mon al ity be tween your se lec tions. Sto ry tell ers de velop an af fin ity for genre as well, and so be -come well known for tall tales or ghost sto ries. In the be gin ning try lots of sto ries on and see how they feel. As you de velop your story ears and per sonal style of tell ing you may set tle into a pre dict able se ries of sto -ries. That is the time to shop around for new kinds of sto ries you have n’t tried be fore. Stretch ing your repertoire is good for your telling.
The past thirty-five years have been busy in sto ry tell ing. Some have re ferred to this pe riod as a sto ry tell ing re nais sance. Maybe, al though the sto ries were there all along. This up surge has been re spon si -ble for the star tling in crease of sto ry tell ing per for mance, and the de vel op ment of sto ry tell ing events and fes ti vals, as well as classes. The bless ing is that you have cho sen to ex plore sto ry tell ing at a time rich in re sources. New col lec tions of tales, ad vice and how-to man u als, and even pre cise in struc tion about us ing sto ries within par tic u lar groups or set tings are avail able for bor row ing. You might as well take ad van tage of this lar gesse. There are re li able lists of sto ries for par tic u lar age groups and settings that do the work of searching for you.
While noth ing re places the ex cite ment of find ing an un known tale and mak ing it your own, there is a lot to be said for start ing with what is tried, true, and avail able as you be gin your jour ney. You will find sto ries that are rec om mended so of ten it would be folly to ig nore them, whether you end up us ing them or not.
Most of the tales you choose will come to you through read ing. The li brary has such a wealth of tra di tional tales that you can hardly ex haust it. But it is also im por tant to lis ten, to train your ears to rec og nize a good story. The li brary’s au dio col lec tion can af ford you the lux ury of lis ten -ing to gifted tell ers while driv -ing to work. That’s good com pany to keep. Seek out sto ry tell ing in your area and make a point of at tend ing events as of ten as you can. You may know of li brar i ans who tell sto ries, or it may take a bit of sleuth ing to find them. It is par tic u larly im por tant to hear these sto ry tell ers, as their styles may dif fer from those of pro fes sional tell ers. Pro fes sional or not, there is no sub sti tute for be ing pres ent when a fine tale is shared by a fine sto ry teller. Af ter a time you will be able to spot the tellable tale very quickly and, just as quickly, know whether it is one you are interested in telling.
WHAT IS A STORY?
What Is a Story?
In the end, you’ll choose what pleases you. We know that. But will those sto ries please your lis ten ers? No way to know for sure, ex cept to try them out.
We have found that in for ma tion on the el e ments of a story sharp ens your se lec tion skills. A story is a unique and spe cific nar ra tive that in -cludes a clear plot, at least one char ac ter with which the lis tener can
iden tify, some times an an tag o nist, a prob lem or con flict to be re solved, a res o lu tion, and a satisfying ending.
Sto ries con tain ing these in for ma tional el e ments both sat isfy, and res o nate with, lis ten ers. Tra di tional tales pass on wis dom, ex pe ri ence, in for ma tion, and fact, and re in force pre vail ing be liefs and val ues. New sto ries, fic tional or fa mil ial, shape be liefs and val ues. Sto ries are the build ing blocks of knowl edge, the foun da tion of col lec tive mem ory and learn ing. Sto ries model ef fec tive use of lan guage. Sto ries en cour age em -pa thy and con nect us with the best and worst -parts of hu man ity. Sto ries link past, pres ent, and fu ture and teach us the pos si ble fu ture con se -quences of our present actions, if we choose to heed them.
There is much of in ter est and value that we could say about story struc ture. En tire books have been de voted to the sub ject. (See Ha ven, 2004 as an ex am ple.) Here, our fo cus is on tell ing sto ries, so we have moved our brief dis cus sion of these struc tural el e ments into Ap pen dix 1. It is a quick sum mary of these el e ments and of their func tion and con tri -bu tion to a story and to lis ten ers’ ap pre ci a tion of a story. This ap pen dix isn’t es sen tial read ing since you won’t, as a rule, cre ate your own sto ries. But it will help you un der stand the sto ries you se lect and tell. It also serves as a handy ref er ence tool to an swer ques tions that might arise as you se lect, learn, and tell sto ries. Why is the story or ga nized as it is? Which as pects of the story are most crit i cal to lis ten ers? What can I change (shorten or reorder) without altering the story in a negative way?
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A STORY
What to Look for in a Story
Once you get a sense of how a story works, and why, you’ve gone a long way to ward mak ing good choices. Each story has a struc ture. The struc ture may vary de pend ing on the story type, but in the main, tra di -tional tales de pend on a strong plot and a good deal of ac tion. Char ac ters move the plot along and pro vide some one to cheer or to vil ify. Sen sory de tails are lim ited to the bare es sen tials in folk ma te rial for sev eral rea -sons. Tra di tional sto ries come from spe cific cul tures. Those within the cul ture didn’t need top o graph i cal de tails, or de scrip tions of cloth ing and such. The shared knowl edge of the community made these unnecessary.
As sto ries travel about, the sense of place be comes blurred and the story changes with ev ery tell ing. In tran sit, sto ries may have picked up more de scrip tive ma te rial than they started with. That’s nat u ral. But this
means that it is im por tant to pay at ten tion to the cul tural mark ers within the story that seem to have sur vived the trip and to live with them for a while be fore chang ing them. You are, af ter all, bor row ing some thing of value, and in do ing so it will take on the col or ation of your own tell ing, You can not freeze the tale like a fly in am ber, but you can be come fa mil -iar enough with the cul tural details to do them justice.
With the rise of a pro fes sional class of sto ry tell ers has come a good deal of dis cus sion of cul tural ap pro pri a tion. Should sto ry tell ers re count sto ries from cul tures they don’t be long to? Who owns a story? What is the right thing to do? This is a com plex topic, but we en cour age li brary sto ry tell ers to tell what they wish. You are shar ing lit er a ture in an oral form, and that’s part of your mis sion. Choose sto ries care fully, treat them with re spect, tell them with joy. In do ing so, you honor all traditions.
EVALUATING A STORY
Eval u at ing a Story
As a sum mary, here are con sid er ations that the col lec tive ex pe ri -ences of many tell ers have shown will guide you to ward sto ries that will be eas ier for you to learn and more fun for you to tell:
1. Pick sto ries you like and that you can eas ily and clearly see in your mind. Did the story grab your in ter est and at ten tion on first hear ing (or read ing)? Do you find your self think ing about the story? Re liv ing it? Do you like the story well enough to want to learn it?
2. A story with fewer char ac ters is eas ier. Ev ery ex tra char ac ter adds ex tra work for you and makes the story more com pli -cated to tell.
3. Short is eas ier. Short sto ries have less story to learn and re -mem ber. Even in two-min ute quick ies lis ten ers will still want in ter est ing char ac ters with strong in tents, dan gerfilled ob sta -cles, strug gles, and de tails. They just come faster and with less de vel op ment in such a short story.
4. Pick sto ries with a clear plot (se quence of events). Sto ries with def i nite, sharp scene breaks are eas ier to learn than sto -ries in one, con tin u ous flow ing sequence.
5. Can you clearly see the struc tural el e ments in this story? If you are un clear about them, your lis ten ers will likely be un -clear as well.
6. Sto ries with char ac ters you clearly see and un der stand in your heart are eas ier for you to learn and tell. Do you clearly un der -stand the char ac ters’ feel ings, re ac tions, goals, and mo tives? Would you feel com fort able por tray ing them to an audience? 7. Choose sto ries with lan guage you don’t feel you have to re
-peat ex actly as it ap pears in the book. Such sto ries are good can di dates for story read ing. Good sto ries to tell are ones that let you com fort ably use your own nat u ral vo cab u lary, phras -ing, and man ner of talking.
8. Con sider sto ries your au di ence al ready knows (or have at least heard be fore). This is par tic u larly true for young chil dren. If they have heard the story be fore, they can help you tell it if you ever need or want their par tic i pa tion and as sis tance.
9. Pick sto ries that fit with your nat u ral sto ry tell ing style and strengths. If, for ex am ple, the story is a rau cous farce full of phys i cal com edy and you are a quiet teller, this will be a chal -lenge for you to tell.
10. Pick sto ries that will be ap pro pri ate for, rel e vant to, and in ter -est ing to your in tended au di ence. Are these char ac ters, the char ac ter in for ma tion (traits) in cluded in the story, the char -ac ters’ goals and mo tives, and the ob sta cles they f-ace suited for the audience you will face?
You may have al ready no ticed that folk tales tend to meet more of these cri te ria than do any other kinds of sto ries. You cer tainly don’t have to start with folk tales. But they are a con sis tently re li able source of tellable tales.
Above all else, start with some thing that feels easy, some thing en -joy able, some thing you like. You might want to start with a story you have of ten read aloud and al ready know. The more clearly you can see the story start-to-fin ish in your mind, the faster and eas ier it will be to learn. Af ter you have told a few sto ries you picked be cause they were easy to learn and tell, you’ll have the tell ing ex pe ri ence un der your belt to move on to broader story vis tas. Let your early ex pe ri ence guide you.