The National Storytelling Network

The National Storytelling Network(NSN) is an organization of storytellers. Five times a year they publish Storytelling Magazine. On the About NSN page is says that:

“The American storytelling revival was jump-started in Jonesborough, Tennessee, by the first National Storytelling Festival in 1973. The success of that first festival led to the founding of the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling (NAPPS), which changed its name to the National Storytelling Association (NSA) in 1994.

In 1998, in an effort to serve the needs of the diverse storytelling community better, NSA divided into two separate organizations, the National Storytelling Network (NSN) and the International Storytelling Center (ISC). Both organizations are dedicated to advancing the art of storytelling, and both jointly own the annual National Storytelling Festival, although ISC alone produces the event. NSN produces the National Storytelling Conference…”

Under the Resources tab in the Knowledge Bank the very first article answers the question What is Storytelling? It begins by stating that:

“Storytelling is the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagination.”

Then it continues by noting that storytelling:

1. Is interactive.

2. Uses words.

3. Presents a story.

4. Uses actions such as vocalization, physical movement and/or gesture.

5. Encourages the active imagination of the listeners.

Thus storytelling and great public speaking often have much in common.

A Storied Career: Kathy Hansen’s blog about applied storytelling

Underneath the title it says that A Storied Career is Kathy Hansen's blog to explore traditional and postmodern forms/uses of storytelling. So far I've just explored a little of her blog.

If you look at the very right as you scroll down the home page past CATEGORIES to PAGES, you will eventually find a list of interviews with about 50 practitioners of storytelling.

There also is a link for downloading a free 88-page ebook called
Storied Careers: 40+ Story Practitioners Talk about Applied Storytelling. The ebook collects most of her interviews.

What’s Your Story? is a blog about storytelling

Greg Morris writes an interesting blog about storytelling called What’s Your Story?, that is subtitled Reinventing Yourself and Your Business.

Yesterday he even mentioned Boise’s Story, Story Night in his post covering local events.

Every day or two he posts a long list of curated stories prefaced by an image of a bookstore. Yesterday’s curated stories had about 68 items. That is long enough to require a keyword search rather than just skimming. You can do that quickly, by typing Ctrl-F (the Find function on your web browser) and then entering a key word or two in order to jump directly to an interesting item.

Leading by a tale: Caren Neile

The February 2009 issue of Toastmaster magazine contains an article by Caren Neile, Ph.D., called Leading by a Tale. She discusses how to put storytelling to work in an organization and how leaders use storytelling. She briefly mentions that according to Annette Simmons there are six types of stories that leaders tell:

1. Who I Am

2. Why I Am Here

3. The Vision

4. Teaching Stories

5. Values in Action

6. I Know What You Are Thinking

In the first chapter of her book The Story Factor Simmons discusses these types further. Her book is one of the references in this magazine article.

You can read an interview with Caren about storytelling here.

Caren also had an article in the August 2008 Toastmaster about Small Audiences: dos and don’ts of speaking to children. She also has discussed this topic in a 40-minute podcast. Also, she has discussed how You must be kidding: tall tales are a tall order in the November 2007 Toastmaster. Caren directs the South Florida Storytelling Project at Florida Atlantic University.

Glory of a story: Craig Harrison

Craig Harrison wrote an article called the Glory of the Story in the March 2010 issue of Toastmaster magazine. He is a Distinguished Toastmaster and the founding chairman of the National Speakers Association’s Storytellers Professional Emphasis Group (NSA PEG).

Craig notes that Toastmasters (and other public speakers can learn five things from storytellers:

1. Vocal Variety
2. Stage Presence
3. The power of the Pause
4. Imagery
5. Setting the Stage

Conversely, storytellers can learn five things from Toastmasters:

1. Speaking “in the moment”
2. The Value of the Introduction
3. Developing One’s Internal Time Clock
4. Live Audiences
5. Immediate Feedback

Craig has other articles about storytelling posted on his web site. There is a long handout from his 2009 presentation at the NSA PEG on the Speaker as Storyteller.

Story, story night

Next Monday evening, April 26th, there is a public storytelling event in Boise at the Linen Building. The theme for this month’s ten-minute featured tales is Busted!: Stories about getting caught. Featured storytellers will be:

Nick Garcia, a comedic actor and associate director at Alley Underground.

Beret Norman, an associate professor of German at Boise State University.

Phil Gordon, the principal attorney at Gordon Law Offices.

Following an intermission there will be a story slam in which audience participants whose names are chosen out of a hat also can tell a five minute tale on the theme.

The next event will be on May 24, and the theme will be Crushes: stories of sudden infatuation.

The Story, Story Night web site doesn’t bother to explain where the name came from. I guess that it is borrowed from the opening line of Vincent (Starry starry night), a Don Maclean song about Vincent Van Gogh.

The joy of storytelling

Public speaking is closely related to storytelling, which is one of the 10 oldest human pastimes or professions. In alphabetical order (not including the usual stereotype) the other eight might be: brewing, cooking, farming, herding, hunting, motherhood, tool making, and trapping.

This post begins a series about storytelling.

In his Free-Range Thinking newsletter Andy Goodman proclaims that there are 10 Immutable laws of storytelling, which are:

1. Stories are about people
2. One or more people has to want something
3. Stories need to be fixed in time and space
4. Let your characters speak for themselves
5. Audiences bore easily
6. Stories speak the audience’s language
7. Stories stir up emotions
8. Stories don’t tell: they show
9. Stories have at least one “moment of truth”
10. Stories have clear meaning

He also asks the following 7 questions to sharpen your stories:

1. Who is the protagonist?
2. What’s the hook?
3. What keeps it interesting?
4. Where’s the conflict?
5. Have you included telling details?
6. What’s the emotional hook?
7. Is the meaning clear?