Comments on: From personal experience

By: John

John — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:03:54 +0000

Just a little follow-up on this.

I contacted the Storytelling Centre who were most helpful, added me to their mailing list for the new courses starting in the Spring and also provided me with costs if I wanted to book a group into a session (was thinking about candidates). I also forwarded the email to 121 who have also now been in touch with them with a view to including some sort of session at a candidates' conference..

So, thanks again Iain for the nudge in that direction.

By: John

John — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:46:48 +0000

Hi folks,

Thanks for all the encouragement and pointers. Perhaps I'm simply even more aware of it at the moment as my supervisor's style is very much about 'story-telling' and so it's even more of a contrast than I have previously noticed.

Iain - that's a great suggestion about the Netherbow workshops. I think I'll follow that up and see what they have. Thank you.

By: Iain

Iain — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:31:48 +0000

This is really interesting because it is exactly the same problem I have in what I am training in and feel called to do… conducting orchestras and choirs. I was at a course a year or so ago and the tutor and his wife are also into psychology and looking at how things from your life affect what your strengths and weaknesses are when leading a musical group. One of the main things which they identified for me, and is something others have commented on, is that to convey how I want the music to come across I need to speak more in non-musical terms. I feel very comfortable explaining to musicians what needs to be done technically, and making gestures which correspond to that, but coming up with a story is not as easy for me, even though I know it works. Speaking about how a passage represents the death of a great hero and the grief of those around him as his life slips away will create a greater musical effect than me saying that the passage has to fade away and sound sad. The ironic thing about this is that my Dad is very involved in storytelling, maybe that’s what puts me off. Anyway, that probably comes across as a very random response but I just wanted to share that with you because it sounds like you have the same issue as me but in a very different area. One thing I’ve been considering doing to help is doing storytelling workshops, perhaps that’s something you would find useful too – I think the Netherbow might be the place to look for that http://www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk/

By: Shuna

Shuna — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:24:48 +0000

I have also been retelling the story in the passage – setting it in its cultural/historical setting. I have found retelling it with another slant does help – like David suggests retelling it from another charaters view point – for example – how did it feel to be blind Bartimaeus? Doing that encourages you to story write.
Then you can bring it up to date with a modern setting – here the anecdote/illustration comes in. Leaving you with the lesson learned to push forward.
I too love preaching/teaching and as time goes on the whole getting balance right does come.

By: Stewart

Stewart — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:21:04 +0000

I find myself retelling the passage quite often in a sermon. Trying to set a scene, give it context.
One of the thinks I learned from telling my kids bedtime stories is that they love to hear the same one, over and over and over. Obviously that can become dull and familiar but they notice when something changes…
And I’m not altogether down on using other people’s stories. People like stories. Stories contain truth and often expose it in a way that exposition can’t. I think bad anecdotes are worth avoiding but there’s nothing wrong with an illustration, a story within a story or even using someone else’s experience. If there was we’d never read books or watch films or listen to music or look at art.

By: David

David — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:19:34 +0000

Sometimes the greater point can be hidden in the story. The humorous point that sticks in the brain because they got the joke. A teacher has to be able to tell stories. I can think of one who did rather a lot of that kind of thing …
As for finding your hidden story teller… Did you ever tell your kids stories at bed time ? Sometimes the way to tell the story is to retell the passage in a different way, that contemporise thingy. Or tell the story from one character’s point of view, and then maybe switch to another character to get something else out of the story.
I’m sure you know all this already !!