The Funky JB’s, the back-up band of the late James Brown, has a song with one of his lyrics, “If you don’t get it the first time, back up and try it again."
That happens to me when I look for my next personal story. I can read prompts again and again, but nothing triggers it, so I stop in disgust. I do something else. Sometimes a few days will pass and I read the same prompts again. Well, something did catch my imagination a little, but I find myself on a bridge to nowhere. I stop for a moment and read some prompts again. Somehow, in the middle of those new prompts, I have an ah-ha moment. The moment this time isn't on the new prompts but one that I read yesterday.
That is how I got my personal stories including my first one from the personal stories class I am taking this semester. I wish I could say that it was a piece of cake after I saw a prompt that I could work with. The one that stuck with me this time was tell about your first pet. Oh, that was easy. My first pet was a brown chihuahua named Penny, but I could not get any further than that she lived in a box in the kitchen, I played with her and after a while she died. I did not think that would be an interesting story. However, it did lead me to think about my other pets. I eventually thought about my dog named Holly Belle and how her death affected me and taught me a life lesson.
My next step was crafting the story. I had to decide how to craft it. I decided to first write out a rough sketch on what I remembered. I did not dwell much on the details just what happened. Next, I thought more about the place and the people involved. The next step was deciding the importance of the people in the story. I gave four of the characters names, included others in a grouping and some a description such as my friend who lived across the street. Then I decided to use the formula of the inverted world. I had to think back what my world was like before the incident, the trouble that came and what I learned from it.
After that I thought about each part in more detail: what it looked like, what was said by the major characters, including myself, and how I should express the lesson learned. That gave me the chance to add description and texture to the place so the audience could make a picture. In the dialogue, of course I did not remember the exact words, so I thought about what each person might have said dependent on my knowledge of them. This also freed me from having to remember exact words. Since the story was not a happy one, I did want to add a small amount of humor. I decided to add an eight-year-old version of how I bought the items for my dog.
Then, when all of this was done, I practiced, practiced and practiced until I was satisfied with my story. I knew that it would go through some small changes during the telling to make sure that the audience and I were building a satisfying event together.
Now for the next story. Again, I read a list over and over until I decided to tell about a time that some friends and I (mostly me) got in trouble.
Click here to hear the Funky JBs perform, “If You Don’t Get It the First Time, Back Up And Do It Again.”
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