The final class of the three-week Art and Craft of Storytelling for Writers at Casa Libre included a fabulous mini-performance. Each student created, prepared and rehearsed a 7 to 10 minute story. They had rehearsal time in class and time on their own to practice their stories alone or with someone else.

There are many ways to work out a story and one way is to hear yourself say the story over and over. Not only do the concepts sort themselves out with repetition but the rhythms become apparent. I have a few ways I do this and most of them are (or can be) embarrassing.

When I was telling a story at Porchlight in San Francisco I took a long walk around the Berkeley neighborhood where I was staying, saying the story aloud quietly to myself. The slower I walked, the slower the words came; as I picked up the pace with my feet, my breath and speech got faster. After about a half hour I came out of my reverie to realize that I’d been emulating a crazy old lady wandering the streets rather aimlessly, muttering to myself. I was glad that I didn’t know any of the people I marched past sitting on their porches wondering about my sanity.

I told this to one of my students and she suggested that if I held a phone to my ear I’d look like everyone else who carries on one-way conversations in public. Brilliant!

Another way I like to practice is while I’m driving. I recite the story when I’m alone in the car; the passing scenery seems to be conducive to the flow of the story. Of course, I’m alert to the traffic around me. Maybe the combination of being aware of my surroundings and being in the story are similar to being on stage and being sensitive to the nuances of the audience. Again, passing motorists might think that I’m talking to myself (which I really am!) but I like to imagine that they think I’m singing along to old rock and roll music.

How do you practice your stories?

Journalist Sheila Wilensky has a gift.  Her in-depth interviews get right to the core of who her subjects really are and, as the assistant editor of the Arizona Jewish Post (AJP), she’s had lots of opportunities to sharpen her listening and writing skills.  Now Sheila is bringing her talents to the general public with her new business, Spinning Family Stories: Writing Your Life.

Her flyer explains that she can “weave a narrative from your life into a chapter / book / work of art” with photographs, illustrations, digital stories, or a memory quilt  “based on in-depth, friendly interviews”.  Anyone who has wanted to write an autobiography or the story of their family but is daunted by the task and doubts their abilities would benefit from this service.  Sheila can craft a creative, witty, literary legacy of their life stories by asking questions that people haven’t been asked before that really makes them think about the story.  She says, “My favorite thing that readers have told me about my AJP profiles is “You really got it right.”

Our lives are all interesting to our families — what they don’t know about us, what they think they know but got wrong. I want to “spin” well-written — even literary — witty, insightful stories of people’s lives. Not the chronological boring stuff that you often see in family histories. I want readers to stop, maybe even gasp, and say, “Hot damn, that’s what it was like.”

Sheila has more than 35 years experience as a writer, editor, high school social studies teacher and owner of Oz Books, the oldest children’s bookstore in Maine, from 1982-1997. Besides the AJP she has been published in Publishers Weekly, New England Reading Journal, Bangor Daily News, Tucson Weekly, Zocalo and other publications.

You can contact her at sheilawilensky@gmail.com to find out more about writing your life.  Or become a fan of Spinning Family Stories on Facebook.

“As you tell a story, you make stuff up along the way … and when you ask people for ideas they give you good ideas. Then you can write a story.” – anonymous 4th grader.

I’m teaching a class at Casa Libre called “The Art and Craft of Storytelling for Writers” and I had a lot of fun doing research so I could talk intelligently about the differences between storytelling and writing and the way one enhances the other.  It all boils down to storytelling being an active exchange between teller and listener and storywriting being a passive exchange between writer and reader.

The dynamic flow over a live connection is what sets apart a told story. The basic meaning of the story remains the same but each telling is a reaction to the audience and their responses.  The teller can change content or presentation dependent on the feedback she gets, thus the listener affects the outcome.

The written story is fixed and unchanging.  Although the reader may derive different meanings from re-readings, the story is static after it’s on the page and there is no interaction between reader and writer.

Practicing one of these arts can enhance the other.   Some storytellers organize their thoughts by writing out the story, some use outlines, some repeatedly tell the story to themselves or to others; it all depends on ones learning style and how the story is going to be used (i.e. telling to your grandchildren v. performing on stage).  Writing out a story can help develop the underlying meaning and establish the structure.

Conversely, a good way to develop a writers voice (the author’s style, the quality that makes his or her writing unique, and which conveys the author’s attitude, personality, and character) is to tell the story aloud and hear yourself speak (you can even tape record yourself).  Telling is also a way to recall stories and story elements and to identify important details.  Then, as our 4th grader tells us, you can write the story.

“There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories”.    ~ Ursula K. LeGuin