Storytelling: Tips to let us in your world…

- Guidelines Abstracts -by Cecilia Ruberto

June 2012. Credentials and bibliography references slide n. 12

You can tell a story! And the more you do, the better you’ll be.

So don’t be shy, take a chance, make the plunge, show your stuff, shift your gears, set the stage, brave

the storm, lift your sights—but, whatever you do,

TELL A STORY!

The Muscles of imagination: how a story works

Basic assumptions…• We all tell stories all the time. When someone asks you how your day

went, that’s an invitation for a story. We allow the listener to participate in our lives by sharing interesting highlights of events we experience.

• The first is the worst. Storytelling is a skill that improves with practice. The scariest part is starting. How did you learn to swim? By drowning for a while. How did you learn to ride a bike? By falling many times. To tell a story well, you need to practice. The more you practice the better you get.

• The audience looking at you wants one thing: Take us away! The members of the audience are there to go on a story journey, and the storyteller is there to lead them. Don’t be afraid, the audience wants to get lost in the tale!

Stories for Sharing, Reflecting, Learning

Why we want stories…

• One of the greatest human universals is storytelling. Stories create a common bond linking past to present, present to future, and person to person, regardless of ethnic origin.

• Anthropological significance aside, storytelling is a compelling method of sharing experiences in order to make sense of our world right here and now.

• Stories build kinship, allow a glimpse into other people’s lives – and perhaps let us see ourselves in the story.

Transforming Capabilities: Using Story for Knowledge Discovery & Community Development By Elizabeth A. Doty http://storytellinginorganizations.com/EDotyTransformingCapabilities.pdf

So, What’s a Story?• Good question. When asked, most people will tell you a story is something they have read or a fable or fairy tale they’ve been told. They may tell you the plot to a movie they’ve seen. Chances are they won’t tell you a story from their own lives, simply because they don’t know that these qualify. Nor are they likely to sing you a song or show you a journal, a dance, a painting, or a cartoon, but they need to know all these too can be stories.

• For the purpose of this workshop, storytelling will focus on real life stories and personal histories.

By Word of Mouth: A Storytelling Guide for the Classroom, http://www.prel.org/products/pr_/storytelling.htm

How Do You Start?

• Brainstorm. First write down some story ideas. Don’t get hung up on how good they are. Just brainstorm. Now put one idea or memory into a sentence. Decide if you want to tell a story in the first or third person and what impact that will have on the story.

• Facts, Feelings, and Faces. Next, write or draw down the sequence of facts. From there, add the details, descriptions, details, situations, time reference, colours. Finally, layer the feelings and emotions.

• Timing. Think about the timing of the story. Don’t be afraid to cut it up and rearrange it out of real time or chronological sequence if it sounds better that way.

Above all, trust yourself, your audience, and your story. Remember, anyone who comes to hear a storyteller is already on your side. Just

being a storyteller is magic—even before you say a word.

• Don’t think you have to be perfect the first time you tell your story. It’s not likely! But, if you love your story and have prepared it reasonably well, you will surely give pleasure to your listeners and yourself. And, each time you tell the story, you and your story will improve.

• Storytelling is magic in part because it’s personal—so make a personal contact with your listeners. Talk to them—not at them—and don’t be afraid to talk with them.

• Look them in the eyes. If there are too many of them, or you can’t see them all, look mostly at the ones in front. If some aren’t paying attention, focus on those who are.

• As you tell your story, take your time, and give time to your listeners—time to “see” the story, time to laugh, time to feel, time to reflect, time to hang on the edge of their seats for what comes next. It’s easy to go too fast, hard to go too slow.

Aaron Shepard Storytelling: http://www.aaronshep.com/storytelling/Tips3.html

Different way to tell and visualise a story

You can Narrate a story but you can also use others methods to tell a story. Various tools could help you in creating the context, the meaning, the understanding of your story. For example you could use:• Drawings – preparing drawings that represent your story• Story knifing (Yaaruiyaraq)- drawing stories with a stick on the sand while

you narrate• Music • Videos• Objects/things to represent your story• MimeA story can be told, shown, represented, build.. You can use any method to take us in your life.

Pitfalls of story-telling• You’re Not Scared, Are You? Crafting a story from your life will not only

increase your comfort level, it will bring you higher self-esteem. And remember: just being a storyteller is magic—even before you say a word.

• It is true that there are many places where you do not want to call it “storytelling” if you want to be taken seriously—at least not before you have tried it. But when you dare to invite people to relate the experiences behind their thinking, most often they pick up the ball and run with it.

• Temptation to give unsolicited and sometimes unwanted advices in response to a story (it is why it is important to set ground rules each time). A story should not be judged.

Famous quotations

• “You have to understand, my dears, that the shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story.”

Anthony de Mello, from One Minute Wisdom

• “The tale is often wiser than the teller.”Susan Fletcher (as Marjan, in Shadow Spinner)

• “That’s the trouble with you sad-city types: a place has to be miserable and dull as ditchwater before you believe it’s real.”

Salman Rushdie (as Blabbermouth, in Haroun and the Sea of Stories)

• “God made man because he loves stories.” Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlev (as quoted by Steve Sanfield)

• “Stories tell us of what we already knew and forgot, and remind us of what we haven’t yet imagined.”Anne Watson

• “We can never know truth, but some stories are better than others.”Aaron Shepard

BibliographyThis short presentation has been created adapting key messages of various documents (shared openly in the web) with the objective of giving generic understanding on why and how to use a life story for a presentation. Various material plus my personal contribution have been the source of this ppt. The main texts used have been:

• By Word of Mouth: A Storytelling Guide for the Classroom by Jeff Gere, Beth-Ann Kozlovich, Daniel A. Kelin II http://www.prel.org/products/pr_/storytelling.htm

• Aaron Shepard’s Storytelling Page http://aaronshep.com/storytelling/

• Transforming Capabilities: Using Story for Knowledge Discovery & Community Development By Elizabeth A. Doty http://storytellinginorganizations.com/EDotyTransformingCapabilities.pdf

You can help in improving this presentation! Write me at c.ruberto@ifad.org

I hope it has been useful!!! (for me it has been, and I am looking forward to tell my story!)

Cecilia Ruberto (Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning -MEL Consultant) Visit also http://scampisblog.blogspot.it/p/telling-story.html