Tips for Telling Stories
EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE TELL STORIES ALL THE TIME, CREATING A STORY, ESPECIALLY WITH OTHERS,CAN FEEL DAUNTING AT FIRST. HAVE NO FEAR! STORYTELLING CAN BE VERY SIMPLE. ANYONE CAN TELL A STORY USING THE FOLLOWING FIVE STEPS.
Step 1
Identify the main character and setting.
Identify a main character. Take some time to describe this person, animal, or spirit. What are their likes and dislikes? How old are they? What is one interesting detail about them? You may want to have other characters in your story, but it is easiest to have a single main character that drives the narration.
Describe the setting. Where and when is this taking place? Are there important background events or people?
Step 3
End the story.
Most people are used to a story ending with a main character resolving their problem. It is good practice to try to end at least some of your stories this way. As soon as the group feels it has fully described the problem, they should start resolving it, even if this takes a while. If you spend too much time creating things for your character to do, it will be challenging to wrap up all the loose ends.
A story doesn't have to end with the character resolving their problem. Some end with a commentary about what the character learned – or did not learn — from the process. You can also signal the end by repeating something that happened in the beginning.
Step 2
Describe an issue that the character is facing.
Describe an issue that the character is facing. It could be an internal struggle, or it may be a problem that is external to the character, like an act of nature or something happening in their community. The issue should be important to the character and be able to drive the story forward. However, it does not need to be monumental. It can be as simple gathering ingredients for dinner. If you are telling a group story, everyone should be aware of and agrees with what the central conflict is.
The majority of the story will be the character dealing with their problem. It may evolve with the story or remain the same.
Step 4
Get creative.
It is OK to break the rules.
There are so many kinds of stories. Some may meander and may be more about creating a feeling than moving through action. Some stories may happen entirely within the interior of a person’s mind, while others may have several characters of equal importance.
You can also decide ahead of time to tell a story using a certain type of structure, like a folk tale, myth, or current event (real or invented).
Last but not least...
When you are starting out, we encourage you to begin your story with a card that has at least one person. Keep drawing until you get one.
When deciding what to include in your story, you can just use the card for inspiration. This might mean using one single element from a story card.
Until you have developed strong storytelling skills, we recommend not using more than four cards per story.
