Story Dynamics – Stories

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for students in US public schools emphasize thinking skills. But they lack something essential that storytellers can help provide. We are in the enviable position of knowing things that teachers are desperate to learn!

This makes storytellers like pickaxe-sellers in a gold rush. We have meaning-related tools that teachers desparately need.

Much of what is hard for us as storytellers and artists stems from how important—and dangerous—arts can be.

For all the difficulties, we live in a great time to be a storyteller, not because rivers of money are flowing to us or because we are prominent in society, but because it’s a great time to become the storyteller you are capable of being – and therefore to help nudge society ever closer to what it, too, is capable of becoming.

In many ways, we performing storytellers don’t live easy lives.

So, why do we do it? What’s in it for us?

Could it be something about the mysterious ways that stories pass through us, conveying meanings of which we may be unaware?

We are moving day by day toward the longest night of the year (in the Northern hemisphere.)

I wonder: Are different kinds of stories required for this phase of our yearly cycle? As you approach the longest night of the year, what stories are you hungry for? And where can we find such stories?

When we storytellers talk about the power of stories, we usually think of the stories we ourselves tell. To be sure, those stories are important and powerful.

But there’s a trend emerging that features another kind of story: the kind told by ordinary individuals about events or things that have affected their lives. Let’s call those “personal encounter stories.”

Personal encounter stories have some very practical uses. At the same time, they are easily overlooked…

Stories are powerful. They have been used since prehistoric times and have an important role in the modern organization. But most business leaders have been trained not to talk in stories. Instead, they have been trained to talk in bullet points, to “cut to the chase,” to get to the core concept. As a result, [...]

Here at my home near Boston, we just had our first major snowstorm. The nights are long now and the days are cold.

Given how dark and cold it feels, it’s easy to ignore the solstice, which occurred without fanfare yesterday at 5:45 pm. Nothing flashy happened. It was dark before 5:45; it was dark afterward. And, after all, the solstice happens every year.

But the solstice can be a reminder that events go in cycles, undulating like waves. And story can be a powerful reminder…

Oklahoma has taught me lessons about storytelling, including to avoid “traffic,” to not be fooled by the appearance of sameness among my listeners, and to learn from Native American tradition to tell stories instead of haranguing.

This is part 2 of “7 Lessons Storytellers Can Learn from Oklahoma“.

Last weekend, I had a chance to meet and work with an extraordinary group of people. Let me tell you about one of them. One Day, They Arrest You… Can you imagine being unjustly accused of murder? At first, you might not be too worried, sure that the truth will set you free. If you’re [...]