An Industrial Mindset?

, ,

Why don't storytellers make better plots?

, ,
Why don't storytellers make better plots?

Why don't storytellers (and even many story-writers) make better plots?

Here are a few "plot confusions" that might contribute to the problem:

  1. For many storytellers, plots don't always seem as interesting as characters, places, and points of view—so we aren't as motivated to understand their essence and ways to help them grow;

  2. Indeed, plots often seem abstract and mathematical (they aren't really), whereas most storytellers care more about emotions and experiences. So we don't enjoy good relationships with the world of plot; and

  3. We've been told to "assemble" plots (examples range from misunderstandings of Aristotle to the Hero's Journey, Freytag's pyramid—and many more "plot formulas"!)—so plots don't seem as "artistic" as the other elements of story.

In truth, plot is intimately interwoven with characters, the physical world, and character emotions.

So why do we believe those misleading falsehoods and half-truths?

, , ,

Why Do We Accept Untruths About Storytelling?

, , ,
Why Do We Accept Untruths About Storytelling?

Does March really come in like a lion and out like a lamb?

Why do we believe things that, if we were to think carefully about them, we’d realize are false?

What pressures does society put on us, to get us to oversimplify—and, therefore, to accept questionable ideas about how stories are formed—and how they affect us?

,

How to Become a Natural-Born Storyteller!

,
How to Become a Natural-Born Storyteller!

One day, toddler Thomas came to his mother. He was holding a dripping-wet Teddy Bear in one hand. He had a broad smile on his face.

His mother said, “Thomas, what happened to Teddy? Goodness!”

Thomas replied with a broad grin and one word: “Plop!”

In response to a series of questions, his mother got the whole story:

  • Thomas had accidentally dropped his Teddy Bear into the dog’s full drinking-water bowl;

  • Thomas had delighted in the resulting sound (Plop!)!

Was This a Story?

Thomas’s mother, professor of developmental psychology Monisha Pasupathi, informally describes this episode as “Thomas’s first story.”

Does she really take one word, “Plop,” to be a full story?…

, , , ,

The Living-Shape Model of Storytelling

, , , ,
The Living-Shape Model of Storytelling

What do I mean by growing a story? I mean allowing a story to develop through the process of telling it. This is what conversational storytellers have done since we began telling stories back on the African savanna.

And yet we forget what we once knew: how to grow a story by telling it to listeners…

All this can be summed up in a simple but powerful analogy: creating a story is like creating a "living fence."

What’s a Living Fence?

Most of us who need a fence in our lives (to give us privacy, prevent our pets from danger, etc.) build fences. We build them out of non-living materials, such as metal, wooden boards, or vinyl.

But there is another method, usually cheaper if much more gradual: the Living Fence. To create a living fence, you guide a living tree, bush, or vine to take the shape of a fence. You don’t assemble it. You don’t build it. But you guide its growth…

Such fences are magnificent when complete—but take a while to grow. In return for that patience, the fence-planter ends up with something magnificent and unique. It fences the area that the gardener decided to enclose, but in a way that the gardener could never entirely predict.

In short, a living fence is a partnership between the gardener and the organic world.

, ,

"The Most Important Storytelling Advice NOT to Follow"

, ,
"The Most Important Storytelling Advice NOT to Follow"

What are the most common problems of beginning storytellers? Nearly every struggling beginner has urgent concerns like these:

  1. Practicing is hard. I put it off, then get more and more desperate as my performance date approaches.
  2. How do I remember the story? What if I forget in the middle? How can I memorize?
  3. What if they don’t listen to me? Aren’t there some tricks I can learn, to guarantee their attention?
  4. For me, the only word that follows “performance” is “anxiety.” My mouth is dry, my palms are sweaty, my voice is unsteady. Instead of telling this story, couldn’t I just die?

I believe that all these common storytelling preoccupations stem, at least in part, from the same causes! In fact, they can all be cured (and, even more easily, prevented) quite simply. 

, , ,

Is Conflict Necessary in Every Story?

, , ,
Is Conflict Necessary in Every Story?

So many experts tell us that every story must center around a conflict. Is that “sage advice,” or just bad advice from would-be sages?

If it’s not true, what else could a story center around? Isn’t conflict essential to life—and therefore to stories? Are there really other centers for a compelling story?

,

Model Airplanes, Storytelling, and Creativity

,
Model Airplanes, Storytelling, and Creativity

When I began learning to assemble plastic models of airplanes as a child, I didn’t understand that I was being cheated.

Now that I’ve spent decades studying how storytelling is taught, I see that many of us are being cheated in the same way.

That’s a shame, because it’s actually easy to turn “assemble by the numbers” storytelling into a deeply engaging, satisfying, and successful set of creative acts.

, ,

Plot Confusion?

, ,
Plot Confusion?

As a long-time professional storyteller, I had never been able to make sense of “plot.” The various theories always seemed too vague (“beginning, middle, end”) or too specific (the stages of the “hero’s journey) to be useful with a wide variety of stories.

So what’s a better way? What if plot is not a series of “stages” but a set of processes that you can apply in your own way?

,

I Object! The Voice of a Storytelling Dissenter

,
I Object! The Voice of a Storytelling Dissenter

I searched in Google recently for “elements of a story.” The many results were dominated by topics like:

  • The 3 parts of a story;
  • The 4 elements of a story;
  • The 5 steps of a plot;
  • The 7 (or the 8 or the 12 or the 17) stages of the Hero’s Journey.

I read quite a few of these articles (and even a few books on Amazon) about the parts of finished stories. Interestingly, they all seemed to assume that knowledge of these parts is essential to making a story.

Don’t get me wrong: I am not saying that these lists of story elements are useless. But I object to the idea that simply knowing them helps us create stories. In fact, they can easily get in the way.

,

Days of Darkness

,
Days of Darkness

Many of us feel darkness surrounding us socially, as well as physically. We feel the lengthening shadows of intolerance, scapegoating, and bigotry. These dark forces seem ascendant. How can we possibly remain hopeful?

South Africa’s Desmond Tutu, no stranger to such situations, said this:

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness."

So where is this reputed “light”?

Precious Brightness

Novelist Kate DiCamillo, in her acclaimed novel (later made into an animated film) The Tale of Desperaux, points to a form of light familiar to every reader of this article...

,

Interchangeable Storytelling Parts?

,
Interchangeable Storytelling Parts?

It’s seldom remembered, but an event in Paris in 1790 introduced a concept that made possible nearly every manufactured object sold in the world today. And, oddly, it led indirectly to unhelpful practices in teaching storytelling.

An Astonishing Feat

In Paris's historic Hotel des Invalides in 1790, Honore Blanc, an inventor and gunsmith, staged a daring demonstration in front of a crowd of prestigious politicians, academics, and military men. Until that time, firearms were built individually. Each part of each gun was separately shaped by hand; no two were identical, so replacement parts had to be laboriously crafted to match each unique broken one. This made repairing a gun almost as difficult as making one in the first place.

But Blanc had a bold, new plan: he had manufactured 1000 gunlocks (the critical part of the gun, which causes the gunpowder to explode, firing the bullet) that were made of identical parts. In front of the startled crowd, he chose one of each gunlock-part randomly from bins, then assembled them into a working gunlock. Then he repeated his feat again and again for the astonished crowd. Blanc had just demonstrated the potential of interchangeable parts...

,

How Storytelling Has Infected Society—And Vice Versa

,
How Storytelling Has Infected Society—And Vice Versa

Storytelling Enters Society’s Bloodstream

When I began calling myself a professional storyteller in 1976, I found myself riding a wave that others had created, a wave that was later called the “storytelling revival.” That very year, eminent child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim had just published The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. Three years before, the first National Storytelling Festival had been held in Jonesborough, TN.

...as I began this endeavor, I saw storytelling as a possible antibody to the commercialism, competition, and materialism that had infected the bloodstream of our society. We were few, but we believed our effect on society would be good.

Fast forward to 2016...