The term “storytelling” is used in so many ways. Movie directors and screen writers are called storytellers. Authors are called storytellers. The word is used in advertising, marketing; there is digital storytelling which uses pictures to tell a story online.
Storytelling is an ancient tradition and art form that has been used for entertainment, to pass down cultural norms and to educate, often all at the same time.
Storytelling as I and other traditional storytellers tend to use the word is much more narrowly defined. The National Storytelling Network in the U.S. developed a statement defining storytelling. I will use four of NSN’s five points to give my own explanation. You can read their full statement here.
Storytelling is an ancient tradition and art form that has been used for entertainment, to pass down cultural norms and to educate, often all at the same time.
Storytelling as I and other traditional storytellers tend to use the word is much more narrowly defined. The National Storytelling Network in the U.S. developed a statement defining storytelling. I will use four of NSN’s five points to give my own explanation. You can read their full statement here.
Storytelling is interactive.
When you watch a movie, you will see the same performance every single time you watch it. It will be the same performance on your television when you play the DVD as it was when you watched the first release on the big screen at the theater. When you watch a play, the actors will (or should) give the same performance, using the same lines and timing, with every show. Not storytellers. Storytelling does not have a “fourth wall;” the storyteller directly engages the audience. The studies coming out in brain neurology confirm this* The storyteller does not have any memorized lines. The storyteller knows the story and has lived with it, worked with it, and is telling it to you, the audience. Your response to the storyteller and the story affects him and shapes how he continues to tell the story. This means that we as storytellers will connect with our audience. Our performance and our story will be a little different every time, because we co-create the story with our audience. Think of it as a triangle with the storyteller at one corner, the story on another and the story listeners at the third. The told story is what happens within the triangle. And, (this is very, very important!) we are not reading books to children. No. That is not what we do. At all. *More about this on my Benefits of Storytelling page coming soon. |
Storytelling uses words.
Storytelling uses words to tell the story, not dance, as in ballet, or scripted scenes, as in movies and theater, but words. The words are usually spoken, but they can also be one of the gestural languages, such as Deutsche Gebärdensprache or American Sign Language. Storytelling presents a story.
This seems obvious, but it’s important to say. The storyteller is telling a story, with a narrative arc. It may be funny, it may be serious or sad or thoughtful. But it is a story. Stand-up comedy is interactive and uses words, but there is usually no story. Improv is also interactive and uses words, but there is no story. Storytelling presents a story. Storytelling encourages the active imagination of the listeners.
I was once telling a story in several classes one day at the middle school where I worked. It was an intense story based on a ballad, with betrayal and rough justice served up at the end. Though it was a long story, these kids, who rarely sat still and quiet for very few things, scarcely moved for the whole 45 minutes. They ate it up with a spoon. I had several kids come up to me that day, excitement in their eyes, grabbing me by the arm without even realizing it, and say, “I could see it! I could actually see it!!!” They had never had an experience like that before, where their imaginations had created images like that for them. My story gave them the outlines and they filled in the rest. My response to them? I grinned and said, “better than tv, isn’t it?” |