StoryQuest

These tips are not about making up stories, they are about retelling a story you heard from someone else, you found in a book, or something that happened to you.

Whether gossiping at the bus stop, recounting a bad day at work, or telling stories of our families, we all tell stories every day. There is also the magical world of traditional tales: a global heritage of jokes, folk tales, urban legends, ghost stories, fairy tales, myths and more.

• Only tell a story you like
• The best place to find a story is from someone else, so if you hear something you like, tell it to someone else as soon as you can. You will gradually make it your own.
• Spoken stories are different beasts to written ones: so if you find a story in a book, remember that you don’t have to tell it the same way as it is written.
• Different stories are suitable for different ages. You have to develop a sense of your audience.
• Storytelling is improvised. You don’t learn any words to tell a story, you just need to remember how the story goes.
• Do NOT write the story down. The way you tell a story, is not the same as how you write it.
• First you need to get what happens in the right order. Make sure you can do this before you worry about adding detail.
• Don’t panic about forgetting the story. Just start at the beginning and start telling it. It’ll probably all come out.
• To practice a story, you have to tell it. Tell it out-loud to yourself, go for a walk and talk to the trees, or tell it to a friend or someone in your family.
• Try telling the same story with a friend and take it in turns, but swap over to make sure you don’t each keep retelling the same bits.
• Use your imagination. When you tell a story, say how you see the story happening in your imagination.
• Be playful with your language. You can repeat words or phrases, use rhythm and rhyme or alliteration.
• The language of storytelling needs to be clean and clear. It doesn’t need very many adjectives or adverbs to describe things.
• Use facial expressions and gestures as well as your voice.
• See if you can use sound effects in your story. It’s a fun thing to do, but it can drive the people listening mad!
• Use your eyes. Meet your audience in the eye: Don’t be shy.
• Be playful with your language, your characters your timing and your relationship with the audience. You can tease them a bit when only you know what’s going to happen next.
• The biggest tip is to ENJOY YOURSELF!