Storytelling

"Story" is a universal mirror that shows us the truth about

ourselves--who and why we are.Norma Livo and Sandra Rietz, Storytelling: Process and Practice

Universal MirrorLivo and Rietz

• We see daily routine and mundane circumstance transformed into something profound

• "Story" takes the ordinary and binds it into all of human existence, revealing the significance of the trivial.

Universal Mirror Livo and Rietz

• Through "story" we can transcend the experience of daily living and know ourselves as more enduring than the little occurrences than mark our individual existences.

• Inside "story" we can accept pain,find justice, and experience exaltation.

Universal Mirror Livo and Rietz

• Inside"story" we can recognize and understand our own motivations, because we are the people in the stories

• When we enter into "story" we find the story inside ourselves.

• "Story" defines humanity.

Story

• Structure• way of presenting that is different than

information, description, illustration• easier to remember because structured• Personal--we identify• commonality of experience extended

– we are part of the group

• provides order and meaning

Understanding the human need for stories. Bill Johnson http://www.storyispromise.com/

• A story is a world where every character, every action, every story element has meaning and purpose.

• fundamentally different from life, – life offers facts and ideas that don't necessarily have a clear

meaning; – events that generate emotional states that have no clear

resolution– events engage the senses, but not in a meaningful, fulfilling

way.– Real life, then, can be chaotic, or appear to lack a desirable

purpose and meaning

Understanding the human need for stories. Bill Johnson http://www.storyispromise.com/

• we can never predict the outcome of any action or series of actions.

• Most people have a need for something that assigns a desirable, discernible meaning and purpose to life.

• This is what a story does. • A story promises its audience a dramatic journey that

offers resolution and fulfillment of life-like issues, events and human needs.

• We organize the chaos of life

Who Tells

• First person• Narrator• Authority• Producer

Should Have

• Timeliness

• Proximity

• Significance

• Conflict

• Prominence

• human interest

• Make clear why it is worthwhile

Structure

• Beginning--set up

• Middle--conflict or problem

• End--resolution

• Hero--with whom audience can identify

Structure

• Conflict-- – with a nemesis– Self– society

• Plot-- the series of events

• Theme--moral of the story

• Denouement--order and harmony

How to tell it

• Showing is preferable to telling• Begin powerfully• unfold events

– reflect the plot and the theme

• through behavior reveal the character and conflict

• Keep it simple• Characters unique

How to tell it

• Modulate tempo, mood• Emphasize relationships• Unpredictable

What it’s aboutBill Johnson

http://www.storyispromise.com/

• A storyteller should to be able to perceive what a story is about at its deepest level, and how to move that to a resolution that offers fulfillment to a story's audience.

• Understand what about the movement of a story engages the interest, the needs of an audience.

• Create a dramatic movement of a story toward its fulfillment.

• Every element of a story works together in its characters, plot, environment and ideas to make vivid and potent a story's world.

What it’s aboutBill Johnson

http://www.storyispromise.com/

• At its heart, a story must have an issue at stake that is of consequence to the story's audience.

• Something the members of the audience will desire to experience in a state of resolution and fulfillment.

• Love. Courage. Redemption. Renewal. • Some issue that revolves around the aching need of

humans to feel they matter, that they have a place in the world.