Liz Warren | Storyteller

 This past fall I was blessed
with the opportunity to take a personal storytelling class at South Mountain
Community College.  I was amazed at the number of times I felt
some sort of connection to someone else’s personal story.  I am certain you have felt it at one time or
another, that “me too” or “aha moment” revelation you feel when you hear a
story from someone else’s life.  That’s
the power of personal storytelling; it reminds us of our connection to one
another. 

There is a difference however,
between a personal story and the short stories we share during those
brief encounters throughout the day with our family, our friends and the
strangers we interact with at the checkout counter, bus stop, or on the
elevator.  Those short stories are really
anecdotes.  A personal story is so much
more: more detail, more imagery, and more meaning.  Anecdotes tell us about an incident that
occurred, but they do not provide us with the rich details that unveil the common
humanity between the teller’s life and our own.

In his book, Telling Your Own Stories for Family and
Classroom Storytelling, Public Speaking and Personal Journaling, storyteller
Donald Davis guides us through transitioning anecdote to story.  Davis offers a simple story structure
formula, the 5 P’s.  Including the People, Place, Problem and
Progress creates a Picture that
connects the listener to the story.  Adding
LynnAnn Wojciechowicz’s sixth P, Point,
gives the personal story its meaning. 

Jack Maguire’s, The Power of Personal Storytelling: Spinning
Tales to Connect with Others, is another great resource for crafting
personal stories.  I like Maguire’s book
because at the end of each chapter there are activities to help you craft
better personal stories. 

If you are one of the many
people who would like to craft personal stories to tell, but struggle with the
“I don’t have anything interesting to tell; nothing ever happens to me” mental
block, both Davis and Maguire provide excellent tips on how to overcome it.

I took the personal
storytelling class, because I want to be able to share my personal story with
other women.  I want them to know that I
have had some struggles and some
triumphs; but most importantly, I want to let them know that my story is not
that different from theirs.  That’s the real power of personal storytelling!