The Craft of Telling Stories - Selecting and Rehearsing your Story

Telling stories is an art form. Like any other a good performance needs thoughtful rehearsal

In some communities across the globe there are people who are designated as official storytellers for the community. Usually however, anyone can tell stories, all that's needed is the teller, the audience and a good story. When telling stories though, every teller should be aware that they need to adapt their approach to their audience. Good storytellers don't imitate someone else's style when they're telling stories, they develop a style and a delivery of their own. They will also develop a repertoire of stories for different events and will select appropriate stories for different audiences.

If you have been requested to entertain a group of children - or indeed any group of people with a story, then it is worthwhile undertaking some preparation. When telling stories you have to have an understanding of your audience's requirements and expectations. You can only use stories you are comfortable with and know that you can tell with full understanding, feelings and belief. Telling stories is an art form and you will almost certainly find that a certain form or genre of story suits your style best, in the same way that painters use particular techniques or musicians prefer a style of music such as folk, hip-hop or soul. You may choose to tell traditional fairytales, tales from a particular society or era, amusing tales, ghost stories or adventure tales. Whatever form of story you choose, it must be right for both you, the storyteller, and your audience.

Watch for these points when telling stories ....

Understand your own limitations and don't even try to tell stories well outside your own experience.

Be careful if selecting stories from another culture, especially if they need a certain accent, or method of delivery. Unless you are very good at impressions, such stories are likely to fall flat and your audience will be disappointed.

Many inexperienced storytellers have decided upon well-known tales as a source of inspiration, and discovered that some don't work when told aloud. Telling stories aloud is very different to reading them in a book - consider traditional tales like "Little Red Riding Hood" or "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" - these can be told by anyone, but stories such as A A Milne's "Winnie the Pooh" tales are really difficult to share with a big audience. These are stories for a small intimate group of up to, say four maximum, but not with a larger group. When telling stories, why not take a look at some exerpts from "The Hobbit" by J R R Tolkien? This book is meant to be read aloud and is generally successful when told to larger groups.

So, selecting stories for telling is a personal matter. The craft of telling stories varies so much between individuals and audiences and occasions that it's impossible to judge for another which stories will work on a particular day in front of a particular audience.

Visit my website www.scruffysbookshop.com to find some great stories to tell, and a new e-book "How to Tell Stories to Children" to ensure your storytimes are always successful.

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