Storytelling

Storytelling

I recently had the privilege of speaking at the St. John’s Storytelling Festival. In the picture above, I’m talking about restraining a nine-foot-tall ostrich by putting a sock over its head. I’ve participated in literary happenings before but this one was a little different.

All the previous events that I’ve been at, involved me talking about my books and reading from them. Storytelling is another story.

The people who appeared with me at the St. John’s event were all known for their oral storytelling ability. In previous years the festival had brought in artists from across the country who were known specifically for their on-stage storytelling. Most of the show I attended consisted of recitations. I was the only one there who was known primarily as a writer.

I wasn’t sure exactly what to do for my performance. It was clear that the organizers had invited me because they knew about my books. They knew I was a writer, but I don’t think they wanted me there as a writer.

There are many ways we can communicate through art. My chosen genre is the written word, but ideas can be shared just as effectively through paintings, photography, music and spoken tales.

When I thought about storytelling, it occurred to me that one of the reasons I wrote in the first place was that people heard me telling stories and suggested I should write a book.

Storytelling may be the oldest of the arts. As long as there has been language, people have had a desire to share their thoughts and stories.

I first thought that one of the advantages of storytelling is that the teller of the story is freed from one version that has been solidified on a page. My approach to the festival was to take things I had written about in Creatures of the Rock and tell them with a new freedom. As I related the tales, I would be free to embellish and shorten parts of the story as I spoke. I could respond to the audience like a jazz musician.

Before going on stage, I spoke with another performer who did recitations, and he asked me if I memorized my stories. My first thought was that memorization was against everything I understood storytelling to be about. But as we spoke, I realized that people doing recitations have very rigid standards to meet. Their stories have rhythm and rhyme that may be ruined by improvisation.

I came to understand that just like in writing, there is a wide variety of types of oral storytelling. Sometimes a prewritten, memorized presentation is involved and other times the teller riffs on a basic idea for a one-of performance.

My approach was to pick two stories that I wanted to tell. I knew the details and I had written about each of the events. I didn’t reread my stories, as I wanted my performance to be more like the original tales that had inspired the written stories.

I practiced by telling the stories to a couple of friends and asking them what they thought was missing. The parts of the performance that I wanted to be solid were, how I introduced my talk, how each story ended and how I transitioned between the stories.  I didn’t memorize exact words for any of this, but I knew quite specifically what I wanted to say.

The talk went well, and I gained a new appreciation for storytellers who get up on stage. Performing for an audience is a completely different thing than sitting around spinning yarns with a bunch of friends. Oral storytelling from a stage is an art that most writers don’t get the opportunity to try. It’s wonderful fun.