The storytelling gift is innate: one has it or one doesn’t. But style is at least partly a learned thing: one refines it by looking and listening and reading and practice – by work. – Donna Tartt
I was once called a storyteller by a person I respected. I think it was one of the nicest things anybody has ever told me to my face. I want to be a storyteller. I have always wanted to be a storyteller. I like stories whether I’m telling them or listening to them or reading them.
In the photo here my husband was listening to his aunt who had many stories to tell. Not the kind I tell. Her stories were about things she’d done, times she’d lived through, people she knew. Her father, my husband’s grandfather, was an entertaining storyteller. His stories had a basis in fact, but I have to think he may have found ways to make his tales entertaining with some storytelling gifts. I think Darrell’s Aunt Annie stuck to the facts and shared what she’d seen in her ninety plus years. I’m sorry I didn’t take more time to listen. My mother had some great stories too. I did get her to tell me some of them before age related dementia robbed her of those wonderful memories. If only I’d asked more questions sooner.
In this picture is one of the next generation of storytellers in the family. Several of my grandchildren show a love of stories. This one’s stories spring from the imagination unlike her great aunt’s telling of the truth she’s lived. Maybe it’s good to sit down on a storytelling couch and listen to what someone in your family from the older generation or from the younger one has to say.
In the days of long ago, storytellers entertained people gathered around campfires. Today we still have stories to tell and stories to hear if we only take time to listen.
I’m listening and trying to hear what my characters are telling me in my new story as I try to keep being that storyteller I want to be. I have to accept the challenge of writing a fiction story with truth in the background.
Thanks for reading. I hope you have a storytelling couch at your house and that you can ask the right questions to bring the past of your family to life and to help your young ones dream their future.
Do you like listening to the stories of your family?
Do you share with others the stories of life experiences you’ve had?
(Some of these words and the pictures are gleaned from a post I did in 2011. This post is my 1,205th. That is a lot of words to share with you all, and I do appreciate each of you who stop by my on-line journal here.)
Comments 10
Well…you know me…everything reminds me of a story. As you know, I grew up in a family of eight children…if these lips could talk… . The interesting thing, to me, is that I’ve hard “their” stories so many times that I sometimes think whatever they are talking about, happened to me. However, just try to steal one of their tall tales…go ahead…try. 🙂
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My husband and his brother often have mild disagreements about what happened when they were kids. I’m sure you do have many stories you could share about growing up with your siblings, Sandi. Sometimes I wonder if something I remember did really happen or was it just something I imagined once for a story. LOL
One day we recorded my Daddy and his brother answering questions we asked them. They were 2 of 8 raised in the country during the WEI era.
Author
I’m sure you treasure that recording and that time when you got to hear their stories, Carol. I’m guessing there was much laughter and perhaps some disagreement on that actually happened between the brothers. It’s funny how people can remember the same event or happening so differently. I’m also surprised by how I may have forgotten something completely that my husband remembers well and vice versa.
Love listening and telling stories, especially yours! My grandchildren are a treasure trove. ( is thAt a word?)
I wish I had recorded all I’ve heard
I’ve noticed that wakes and funerals stimulate stories and that’s a good thing because most make us smile and some bring cleansing tears. Keep up story telling and I’ll do same
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So fun that you’ve enjoyed some of my stories, Helen. Indeed, treasure trove is a correct saying. I looked it up on line and thought it was neat that this was the example usage it gave. “your book is a treasure trove of unspeakable delights” I’d like my books to be treasure troves, but definitely time spent with our grandchildren is a treasure.
I’m not a good story teller. I wish I were! My husband is a great story teller having made up a character he called Sickl—-short for icicles I’m sure. He told his stories to our two older children and then when our youngest one came on the scene 12 years later the saga continued. I told him it would make a great children’s series, but, of course, he never ran with it. Glad there are those out there who enjoy telling stories because I love to read them.
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My son tells great stories to his kids and he had a saga like that going, Karen. I too told him he should record those stories if he didn’t want to write them down, but I guess that’s not easy to do with bedtime stories. I am not a great oral storyteller, but I hope I do better with the written ones.
I’m so glad my mother published a book of her memoirs two years before she passed away. ( two weeks ago at 101 years 1 month and 10 days) A man at church bought twenty copies and is handing them out! Mother was a missionary kid, born in China and had many tales to tell! Growing up, we heard many more tales that she didn’t put in the book. Like the time my Grandmother stepped into a “ heavenly well” ( open sewer) in the dark or the day the pig came to church! We need to preserve those memories. Mother ended her book after telling of her arrival at college. She said the stories from my generation were for me and my siblings to tell! Wish my memory of my childhood was better.
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Sounds as if you have a treasure with that book of stories your mother wrote about her growing up years, Paula, but I’m sure you wish she’d kept going and written more. I’m so sorry about the loss of your mother. She lived a very long life, but that won’t keep you from missing her. But may your sweet memories of good times together be a comfort and bring you smiles when you think of her. And maybe you can write those times down the same as she did.