Stephen Hollen – Improvisational storytelling with children.

Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #008 Stephen Hollen [wp_eStore:product_id:29:end] for $2.23 Improvisational storytelling with children; Creativity and Children.

Stephen Hollen writes….
Improvisational storytelling is a teaching tool that is a cross between storytelling that I have been doing for years and improv techniques I learned in my college days. Instead of aiming at oral tradition, it goes into the creative writing classroom to put “meat” on the three “Ps” – Person, Place and Problem plus one “P” of my own – Props.

By using these 4 “Ps” I help children in 3rd-5th grade unlock their creativity and develop the basics of Read more »

Jim Flanagan – Storytelling and Writing are Intertwined.

Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #007 Jim Flanagan [wp_eStore:product_id:28:end] for $2.23 Teaching writing to children with storytelling and working with state benchmarks.

Jim Flanagan writes…
To tell a story, you must write it down.
Before you tell it, you must have a point of reference, an outline, and hen scratching a script.

After you tell the story, you refine, and you refine your written story too.

Writing a story leads the teller to be able to see if the tale flows, if it makes sense,

The writing defines the beginning, middle and end. You look at the words and play with the vocabulary and the phrases. You see where in the story, you will have to add emphasis. (You might even insert the directions to change your voice)

I would suggest you read it to someone, they act it out. This acting helps you see what you left out or the jumps in the story.

You tell the story and see how it relates to the written tale. If you revise or change a part put that into the written story. Read more »

Doug Lipman – Marketing Outside the Storytelling Community.

Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #005 Doug Lipman [wp_eStore:product_id:26:end] for $2.23 Selling Ourselves Outside the Storytelling Community.

Why is marketing hard for storytellers?

For one thing, we’re up against a hard situation. Like all artists, we do important work: imagining and communicating what human beings are like and can become. Yet, as invaluable as we are to society, we are not rewarded well or supported well. We are even expected to be both artists and marketers. Few people master two such careers!

Also, like many in our society, we misunderstand the nature of marketing. Because many of us think that marketing is “selling things to people who don’t want them,” we are often reluctant to take the steps that would let society benefit from our work.

Once we understand what true marketing is and does, we can Read more »

Lyn Ford – Breaking into Storytelling

Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #004 Lyn Ford [wp_eStore:product_id:25:end] for $2.23 Breaking into Storytelling.

Lyn Ford Writes…
“Breaking” into storytelling isn’t quite the description that fits the beginnings of my career. It was more like leaping off the edge of a cliff, with all the materials to build a strong glider that would carry me wherever I should go, but no blueprint or directions on how to build the thing. I had to trust that I would create both the blueprint and the directions, and be able to make the glider, as I headed toward solid ground. Scary, exciting, and very educational!

My mind and heart were filled with stories from my family’s oral tradition, but storytelling as a career hadn’t occurred to me. Our kids, now grown, volunteered my stories in their classrooms (bless their little hearts!); the experience Read more »

Jonatha Wright – Cross Cultural Storytelling

Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #002 Jonatha Wright [wp_eStore:product_id:23:end] for $2.23 Cross Cultural Storytelling.

Jonatha Wright writes…
Probably we are all aware of the cultural confusions and misconceptions that become evident daily in this world of instant updates. It has become the stuff of novels, movies and the nightly news. These errors in sensitivity can hurt feelings, and cause outright insults and rage in the offended.

*How can we avoid some of these mistakes?

As storytellers, we often aim high at bridging these cultural gaps with an appropriate and well-told story. This is a worthy goal and an attainable one. However, we must do Read more »