Story Dynamics - Stories

Contents
1) GIVE YOUR STORYTELLING SOME MUSCLE
2) TWO-MINUTE STORIES - THE MASTER’S TOOLCHEST (SPECIAL)
Read the details about the Two-Minute Stories course

1) GIVE YOUR STORYTELLING SOME MUSCLE
(Kinesthetic Imagery, Part I)Years ago, my friend Charles told me about the first time he heard a certain rising executive speak to a group. Charles said, […]

Have you ever seen a juggler start to juggle plates?First, the juggler takes a plate out of a bag and puts it on a stick. Then she pays intense attention to it, gets it spinning until it needs just a small motion of her hand to keep spinning, and then turns her attention to the […]

In times of recession, competition increases for storytelling jobs. To earn a living when times are tough, you need to look for additional sources of income. One source is the growing demand for recorded stories on the internet. But you won’t make much money from story downloads unless your recordings are excellent enough to […]

Stories are made of images, not words. Therefore, I recommend against learning a story by memorizing the words. But if you don’t start with the words, how will you practice your story? I recommend you practice by telling to live listeners. But suppose you have a willing helper to listen to you. How […]

This 1895 version is by Jame Baldwin, an educator and author from Indiana, USA. I include it to illustrate what I call the “Shallow Bowl Syndrome,” in which we teachers and communicators provide others with the kind of bowls we ourselves like to drink out of. (I mention this in my description of the Beginning […]

(This translation from the Grimm Brothers is by Margaret Hunt in 1884. It is in the public domain. I post this here as an example for eTips from the Storytelling Coach #80)
Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by every one who looked at her, but most of all […]

By and large, storytellers are unselfish. Compared to some who practice other artforms and other livelihoods, we tend to be cooperative, sharing, and generous.
But there’s a way in which I think we may be selfish - unintentionally.
How?
We don’t demand good enough help with our storytelling.
You’re kidding, Doug, right?
I’m not kidding. Of course, being “undemanding” is […]

If you want to get storytellers arguing, just mention “standards.” Some people claim that storytelling is suffering for lack of performance standards; others say it will suffer even more if we have standards.I’m not even talking about what is a suitable story or how to tell it. Rather, I’m talking here about PROFESSIONAL standards: how […]

This is an adaptation of an inspirational anecdote which has circulated for years, the source and author are unknown. This story can give us remarkable insight into just how well our imaginations can work for us, and for others, if we will allow them to do so.
Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same […]

It was a normal day when a normal knight went on a normal quest for a normal dragon. Even the knight’s name was normal—Sir Lancelot. He wasn’t the Sir Lancelot of the Round Table. “Lancelot” was just a popular name for the times like how today a lot of girls are named […]