Finding Your Story

Storyteller Anna Marie TresterOne of my favorite things about teaching storytelling is helping people find their stories.  Often, I will hear from would-be storytellers “but I just don’t have any good ideas” or “I just have no idea what on earth I would talk about onstage.” Thus, addressing the question of “storyfinding” has become the first order of business at every workshop that I teach.

Having been a teacher now for more years than I care to count (and the daughter of teachers before then) I know that people have different learning styles, so I try to engage a few different kinds of ways of helping people find (remember) their stories. Here in this post I will describe a few of them.

If these sound like fun and like something you might want to try out– sign up for my workshop on the 18th and we can give them a go!  Have other ideas about good ways to find stories?  Bring them with you! I would love to hear them. 🙂

1.  What stories do you like to hear?

I ask students to come to the workshop having listened to a few stories ahead of time.  If they are already aware of podcasts like The Moth, Risk, or Snap Judgment, I will ask that they come prepared to talk about one that resonated with them recently.  If they have been to a recent show, I ask them to reflect on what they heard there, or I will send the blog post from the most recent BSTD show and ask them to listen until one story particularly strikes them!

Some of the first seeds of insight are in these reactions.  The stories that speak to you do so for a reason.  What aspects of the stories can you discern that speak to you in particular?  Is it about the theme, the storyteller’s style, the characters?  Why?

We always begin every workshop with a bit of reflection and discussion along these lines.  I find that it is also a great way for people who do not yet know each other to start getting to know and trust one another by getting some glimpses of insight into their personalities and ways of thinking.  Understanding your own point of view involves learning to appreciate very different ways of seeing the world!!  And the work of storytelling is built on a foundation of trust – learning to trust your point of view – and learning to trust others to help you identify and clarify it.

 

2.  What stories do you see?

Then I break out the Rory’s story cubes!!  These are a set of 9 cubes with pictures painted on each face.  When you roll them, you are supposed to try to short-circuit the overthinking mechanism in your brain (technical term), and just start talking about the first story that you see in the images in front of you.  I set a timer and ask that you share no more than 3 minutes of this story nugget.

And of course, these are just the beginnings of stories, but there is a great deal to appreciate in what emerges from the subconscious mind:

Re: topic – often people are surprised “I haven’t thought about that person for YEARS!!”

Re: structure – you would be amazed at how beautifully symmetrical these little “off the top of your head” stories can be.  What this tells me is that we already know ho to tell stories.  We just don’t know that we know.

Re: theme and voice– I ask storytellers to quickly compare that mini-story to the one that they have brought for the day to workshop.  There is always some connection.  Ideally, this informs the crafting of the “big story” of the day.

 

3.  What stories do you write?

As a final “warm-up” we do a timed writing activity, just to get the creative juices going.  I often discover surprising details that I have long forgotten when I get into the flow of writing, and so this is yet another way to bypass that judgmental inner critic, who is best avoided when we are trying to nurture the inner creative spark. So we set a very short timer and just do a free writing activity “everything that you can remember about X” – can be your first day of school, a trip that you took, when you met the man/woman of your dreams….etc.

It won’t matter what you write about, you will re-discover some sense memory or image that will surely enrich your storytelling.  I ask participants to share just one idea, image, character, etc. from this discovery.

And then, having engaged all of our senses (and learning styles), we dive in with the business of storytelling!!!

 

And while we spend the rest of the workshop focusing on one story (the one that you brought with you, or one that you suddenly remembered and decided that you wanted to focus on), you leave the workshop with ideas for at least two more.  We all have many many many stories to share.  It is my honor and privilege to be the one that gets to remind you of that truth!!

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Storytelling Coach Anna Marie Trester

Anna teaches storytelling like it’s her job!!  Cause it is.  At the FrameWorks Institute she teaches social change advocates how to use social science research to tell more compelling stories about things like the science of Early Child Development.  When she puts on her glasses, she analyzes stories, and has recently been published in Signs and Society with her article on Narrative Leadership.  In her spare time, she shares Linguists’ stories about and for Career.  Follow her @CareerLinguist, or read her blog at www.careerlinguist.com

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