PNLA Quarterly, Vol. 63 No.1 Fall 1998

Stirring, Stimulating, Stories

There is treasure waiting to be discovered in the 398.2 folklore section of the library. These legends and folktales were once so engaging they could inspire entire villages to survive winter food shortages, train children in the ways to a good and decent life, and provide listeners with the gift of laughter. Once folktales are taken from real live storytellers and written down, however, they can become static. These tales were meant to live on in the hearts and minds of tellers and listeners, inspiring and instructing us as they once did. The keys to making them irresistible again are the imagination and emotions.

The first step to engaging the imagination and emotions is finding the one which is right for you. Don't be surprised if you have to read and read before a story will grab your attention. Professional teller, Steve Sanfield (Holt and Mooney, 1996) has a habit of reading three or four stories every day. He may read hundreds before finding one that works for him. Look for stories that tug at your heartstrings. It may be one that you continue to think about long after you have put the book away. You can't quite forget it or figure out its meaning. It may be a story with characters so lively, they appear clearly in your mind's eye and may even speak in different voices as you read the dialogue. Margaret Read MacDonald believes strongly that there is a big difference between stories rewritten by authors into a short story format and those recorded on paper from an oral telling. She recommends that beginning tellers look for stories that are close to the words of good storytellers. Sometimes a story is found when you hear someone else tell it, but even then, it is important to let the story percolate through your own imagination and life experience.

The second step to enliven a written story is to tell it. Imagine the events of the story as a sequence of pictures in your mind, then try it out. Jay O'Callahan recommends finding a safe audience such as loved ones or a small group of children. By telling the story out loud, you can hear the flow of language and begin to test whether it fits you. I once expressed dismay over my slow progress of gathering stories to traveling storyteller, Papa Joe, of Fremont, New Hampshire. He asked me how I go about learning stories. I replied that I find them, then imagine them, then practice, then research them, then add voices. "But when do you tell the story?," he interrupted. I mumbled something incoherent. "You gotta tell it! You should be telling stories every day."

Reread the story then tell it again. And again. Many storytellers read the tale aloud to hear the rhythm and flow of the language. As the story begins to formulate itself, keep in mind the question, what is the most important thing about this story? Hold off on adding fancy details and dressings until you can answer this question. Lipman (1994) emphasizes the necessity of working with the bare bones of a story by remembering the process of making a plastic letter opener in junior high shop class. After the openers were cut with the saw, the nicks had to be smoothed with coarse, medium, then fine files. Each successive file made the edge cleaner, but it still looked cloudy and scratched until the final step at the polisher. The instructor pointed out an opener which was not taken through all the steps, asking what happens when the filing process is left out. Lipman answered, "You get shiny nicks!" So too, stories must be clear about their main messages before they are polished with fancy details.

Developing a story involves visual, auditory, and kinesthetic channels of learning. Telling the story out loud calls upon auditory input and feedback as words are heard, improvised, and revised. Some storytellers use a back and forth exercise of telling and writing the budding story to develop strong and beautiful language. To engage the visual aspect of learning, it helps to fill the mind with images of the story and its origins. Research the culture and people represented by the tale. Learn about any animal characters. Familiarize yourself with the land forms surrounding the story. Now take a sensory walk in the imagination. What do you hear? What time of day is it? What is the weather like? What do you see, smell, touch, or taste in your mind's eye? Cogan likes to find an open field where he can sit quietly staring into green space while imagining the scenes of his story. Continue to tell the story and notice if your language changes as the mental pictures become stronger. Cabral accesses kinesthetic learning by telling the story while moving with his whole body. Burch records herself telling the story, then moves about the room trying out gestures which enhance the meaning of the story. (Holt and Mooney, 1996) It can be helpful to move like the animals who appear as story characters. Try adding music as you move. Walk as you would imagine the characters to walk. Pass by a mirror and catch yourself making gestures or facial expressions. Along with these visual, auditory, and kinesthetic exercises, keep in mind that "the story becomes your own, if as you work with it, you try to find out for yourself why you like that story(Holt and Mooney, 1996, p. 25).

Now the story is ready to be dressed up. Rhymes, voices, gestures, and music can be added if they honor the story and serve to enhance the message. These extra details may come into your thoughts as you go about your daily routine. I have discovered that if I set off alone on a walk with a particular rhyme or song to create, the answer often comes by the time I return. Does the story have repetition? This is an ideal place for rhyme and companion gestures. It can be an invitation for audience participation. Stories often have a pattern of three repetitions with a variation on the fourth. The element of change can be surprising and entertaining. Novak recommends that storytellers look for a way to replace the expected fourth repeat with a variation. Dressing up the story is often a fun and pleasurable part of learning a new tale, but keep in mind the most important message of the story so the embellishments do not become distractions.

Endings are significant parts of the tale. They are a concrete form of what you love about the story. Once the ending lines have been chosen, many storytellers memorize them. It is often helpful to slow down the pace of speech as the ending lines are delivered, and follow them with an effective bit of silence. This gives listeners a chance to shake themselves, breathe deeply, and return from their imaginary journey.

The 398.2 folklore section of the library contains thousands upon thousands of stories from every part of this rich and varied earth we share. The true treasure, however, may well be that each of the stories contains a tiny sample of a culture, a glimpse of how others view the world, a kernel of wisdom, a seed of truth. No matter how old the tales are, the storyteller's body and voice give breath to them once more and they live on again through our brilliant imaginations. Best of all, the work of the imagination is play. What a wonderful way to live and learn!

Joy Steiner travels extensively throughout the west performing stories, teaching storytelling, and training others to teach through the arts. The recipient of several grants and awards, Joy has produced two collections of stories, Polka Dots on Crow Mountain and Four Funny Folktales for Little Folk, and is at work on a third recording, Across a Surging Sea.

P.O. Box 2134 Boise, ID 83701 208-383-9053

Bibliography

Lipman, D. "Finding the Most Important Thing." Storytelling Magazine 6(1994): 16-18.

MacDonald, M. The Storyteller's Start-Up Book: Finding, Learning, Performing and Using Folktales. Little Rock, AR: August House, 1993.

_____. Twenty Tellable Tales: Audience Participation Stories for the Beginning Storyteller. New York: The H.W. Wilson Co., 1986.

Resources for the Classroom