INSIGHTS INTO CHOOSING AND TELLING A PERSONAL STORY

By Don Herald

PART ONE

At the April, 2014 meeting of Peterborough Storytellers, I facilitated a workshop discussion on one aspect of personal storytelling. To help guide the discussion, I provided the twenty-two participants with a list of fourteen key elements that appear to be important in choosing, preparing and telling a personal story. I put this list together after doing some research on-line, from storytelling publications I have in my library and my own experience in telling personal stories in a variety of tell-around settings.

Below is my list of the key elements.

A GOOD PERSONAL STORY…

·         Is one that you really love and so you love to tell it to others.

·         Is not so personal that it’s embarrassing to you or to identifiable others.

·         Is perfect for your audience’s interest while appealing to individual curiousity.

·         Conveys a strong sense of truth, sincerity and authenticity to the listener.

·         Has a clear beginning, middle and end.

·         Has ‘good bones’: a strong skeletal structure, plot direction and purpose.

·         Has well-defined character(s) that can be human, animal or machine.

·         Has some kind of trouble or conflict that is encountered by the main character(s).

·         Has an understandable resolution to the conflict.

·         Has a ‘hook’ at the beginning that grabs the listener’s attention.

·         Encourages a relationship between the characters and the listener.

·         Has an ‘ah ha’ moment or opportunity for personal growth or  change.

·         Creates vivid, memorable images in the mind of the listener.

·         Moves the listener in some way during the telling. Or stimulates thinking about the story afterward.

I asked each participant to think about their own experience in telling or listening to personal stories and choose four of the above elements that they felt were the most important to them as a teller of and/or listener to personal stories. Each person recorded their selections on a chart and the following five elements were the most selected.

• ·         Moves the listener in some way during the telling. Or stimulates thinking about the story afterward.
• ·         Creates vivid, memorable images in the mind of the listener.
• ·         Has a clear beginning, middle and end.
• ·         Conveys a strong sense of truth, sincerity and authenticity in the listener.
• ·         Has some kind of trouble or conflict that is encountered by the main character(s).

I provided a short, personal commentary for each of the most important key elements that the group had selected and then invited comments. And what a rich, insightful and lively discussion it was! It seems that everyone has opinions and ideas about the telling of personal stories, whether they enjoy just listening to the stories or telling them.

In Part Two, I will share some of the ideas that came out of our discussion of the five key elements and a couple of additional topics that also stimulated interest about the choosing and telling of personal stories.

Don can be contacted at peterboroughstorytellers@cogeco.ca

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