Story Dynamics – Stories

The image of “trying to influence the direction of a rubber duck by blowing on it” has stuck in my mind with regard to storytelling.

After all, stories can lead people to create meanings. Is it possible to influence them toward creating meanings similar to what you have in mind, using only “rubber duck race” techniques?

A brief story about keeping hope alive, and a winter blessing for storytellers.

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 are “present,” we engage with our listeners and with our story. But how do we do that? How do we connect immediately – rather than half-way through a story or not at all?

Should we have standards for excellent storytelling? If so, does one size fit all? Or does each situation require different storytelling “behaviors” to enable us to succeed?

There are six “bosses” – six sets of expectations and needs – that we must respond to in any storytelling situation. Let’s begin our search for excellence by understanding who these demanding and sometimes capricious bosses are.

Too many storytellers adopt an artificial way of speaking that has nothing to do with communication or the peculiar qualities of the tale being told. This practice holds back the teller, the listeners, and the growth of storytelling as a whole.

Coaching a teller to drop this kind of “misdirected effort” is tricky, but possible. The coach must lead the teller through four important steps. Above all, we must treat tellers afflicted with this “performance virus” with patience, respectfulness, and genuine affection, for they, too, have great potential and are therefore precious to our movement.

The true comeback story of an abused forest in Ontario yields lessons for storytellers. What Peter Schleifenbaum has figured out about managing a forest ecologically teaches us 7 lessons about taking charge of our own futures.

Of all the books written about storytelling, can you think of a single one that opposes storytelling?

But now we have Christian Salmon’s “Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind,” published in March, 2010.

Salmon doesn’t just hate storytelling. He thinks storytelling is dangerous and disruptive to modern civilization.

That’s the best news I’ve heard in our decades of trying to spread the word about storytelling. Our movement is finally big enough to be someone’s target.

The power of stories comes through scenes. But finding them can be a problem. Interestingly, the problem is similar, whether you are searching for the scenes to tell in your own story or trying to elicit a story from someone else.

Part of the solution is to temporarily suspend worrying about including irrelevant details – so that you can focus completely on finding the details that will make your story memorable.

How do we describe different styles of coaching – objectively and clearly? This article sets out four pairs of roles. The way these roles are each assigned specifies important parts about coaching styles. As a bonus, these also help distinguish styles of directing and interviewing.