Storytelling Skills: The Basics (an overview) 1. Visualization: Let your whole body in on it. There are other images besides visual images. Let us see these as well. You have five senses (or is it seven?), not just one. Do not visualize small “models” of scenes. Be there! All stories have wonderful worlds that must be experienced by the teller. Only when the teller has a complete and specific picture of the world of the story can he/she present that effectively to the audience. This includes the visual environment, smell, taste, tactile and physical sensations, hearing, and even intuition. For instance, if your story takes place in a meadow, you must see the green grass and the flowers and the bees buzzing around and the trees in the distance. You must feel the wind on your cheeks and in your hair. Smell the scent of the meadow: the flowers, the pollen, the damp earth. Taste the mountain air and listen to the insects and the trees rustle in the distance. Use your intuitive sense to feel upcoming incidents and emotions and other feelings. If you visualize all of this accurately in your own mind, you won’t always need to “show” us everything. We as an audience can really tell if you are “there” by the subtle way your body and voice reacts to the stimuli around it. If your pictures are present and accurate in your own mind, your body will not need to delve into artifice to paint these images for us. This all takes work and time! And practice, practice, practice! 2. Characterization: Let your whole body in on it. As with visualization, you must see, and know these characters: what do they look like—be specific. How do they talk, how do they smell, what is odd about them, what is normal about them? How can your body portray these attributes? You don't have to go crazy in showing these attributes. Many of the best tellers are quite subtle. As you visualize them completely, your mind will tell your body what to do. Try “placing” your characters using off-stage focus techniques. This is accomplished by placing your characters in specific areas in front of you. One slightly on the left and one slightly on the right, for example. As you take upon yourself the attributes of each character, focus your eyes on the character being spoken to--who will always be in the same place (unless he or she climbs a tree or falls down or something). This will also help clarify your characters to your audience. Experience has shown that you do not always have to use other voices unless the story demands it. Alterations in speech rhythms, pitch, speed and tone also help and aren’t as distracting. If you can give different voices, great! But make sure the rest of your story matches the level of animation found in your voices. Again: as you visualize the characters in detail, your mind will tell your body what to do. 3. Mood: Mood is created when the teller feels the mood of the story. It is very difficult to really feel the mood of a story and not have your listeners feel it as well. As you feel the mood, you will be using your whole body to relate it as well. Use visualization techniques for mood. Though there may be a general mood to the story as a whole, remember that each individual scene in a story may have its own distinct mood. Let us have this variety. 4. Professionalism: While many stories require a very friendly and congenial presentation that invites a camaraderie with your audience, you should never treat yourself or a story lightly. As you perform, you should give your audience the feeling that this is the most important thing they will ever hear so they had better listen very carefully. 5 Introductions: Many stories need an introduction. Your introduction should let us know where you are going with your story and what we should expect in a general sense. It is possible for your “introduction” to come at the end of a story, but this is a very rare occurrence. If you do want to start your story right off the bat to establish a particular mood, one suggestion is to begin the story and after a line or two, give us your introduction, then continue with the story (much like a movie begins, then after a few minutes the initial credits begin to go by). You should always have a bit of you in the introduction: why did you choose the story, why is it important to you, do you have anything in common with the characters or situations in the story? etc.. Your introduction should help establish the mood of your story. A sad story should probably never start out with a joke in your introduction, etc. Don’t give us red herrings. Make sure all of the information in your introduction is relevant to the story or to your reasons for telling it. It is often helpful to tell us where the story came from and a bit about that place or author, especially if the culture or author is unfamiliar to us. Never apologize for your story, your telling of it, or yourself. That is not for you to decide, even if you are deathly ill. As far as you are concerned, you are going to succeed wonderfully in spite of any problems you may secretly have. 6. Gestures: Use them. But make them count. As with most things in storytelling, as you visualize clearly and completely, your mind will tell your body what to do. When this happens, you are usually about 75% or 90% there! As you practice your story, you’ll be able to fine-tune your gestures so that they all work and so that they are all effective and not just present because you happen to “speak with your hands”. This does not mean that you cannot have any spontaneity in your performance. Rather, this denotes a well-rehearsed story that is delivered with loving care. It merely focuses your attention on some of your performance techniques so that your story will appear polished. Working with gestures will occur during the rehearsal process in which you will not only internalize the images and characters of the story, but the gestures as well. This means that your gestures and body posture will be natural during your performance, since you have internalized the images and the ideas that motivate them. 7. Structure: Your story will always have a definite structure. Often, there is a moment when things really start to happen. Then the action will rise and get more and more tense until a climax. Perhaps your story has numerous episodes that are quite repetitive. Find the important images and the important incidents. Often your story will be composed of several smaller scenes. Each of these will have a climax as well. Again, find the important occurrences and emphasize them somehow. This is often done with your body and your voice as the drama increases your body’s tensiveness. This in turn will urge the audience to become more involved. This is all part of visualization again. Discover your story’s structure, find the climaxes and build to them. This means that you may start out quite leisurely but you will portray more tensiveness as you progress until you explode when you get to your climax. Usually, during the climax of the story your voice and body may get more tensive, perhaps even louder or faster. 7. Practice, Practice, Practice! Yes, it takes WORK to produce things of beauty.