Liz Warren | Storyteller

Here are the top ten things I learned in The Art of Storytelling in the Fall of 2025 at South Mountain Community College. 1. Let your body tell the story I learned that storytelling isn’t just about talking — apparently, my arms, eyebrows, and entire spinal cord need to get involved too. Before this class,…

“You should take storytelling.” Storytelling?! My face probably said it all: perplexed, confused, maybe even a little skeptical. “Yes, storytelling,” the advisor repeated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Sounds freaking whack,” I thought.But after what felt like an eternity of debating with myself, I said, “Ok, sure… let’s do…

I’ve been telling!  Lies.  Stories. Fables. Myths. And the occasional cautionary tale. [i] I’ve told stories on stage for over ten years, but I hadn’t received any formal training.  I’m a lawyer – we craft narratives.  I’ve done veteran advocacy and spoken with members of Congress and held press conferences. Along the way, I’ve had…

I love to perform, although I can literally feel butterflies starting to form in my belly just thinking about it. It makes me so nervous but once I find my groove it’s like I take off. I’ve been performing for as long as I can remember. I remember being a young girl between five and…

So, you’ve spent the last several weeks crafting and learning your story, but now you find the thought of telling your story in front of people terrifying –and you’re actually thinking you may not tell your story. Do me a favor: drop that thought! You can overcome that sense of terror and tell a great…

“Everything happens for a reason.” I’ve never believed in that saying. Some things that happen to us are cruel and senseless, and no amount of reflection will ever justify them. But through the process of working with personal stories – my own and those shared by others – I’ve found myself shifting toward a new…

Today I was reading Margo Leitman’s book Long Story Short, and she has an activity that she asks storytellers to think of a movie or television program and a character that they identify with—not a character they wish to be, but a character they identify with. This really struck me because I think if you…

Retirement is soon upon me ! While some people make think retirement looks like anything from “Active retirement living on your own terms.” to ” Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”. I didn’t know my grandparents, and my own parents raised their tenth child in their 50’s. Dad retired to care for her…

Finding clarity, confidence, and freedom through storytelling.Last week in class, I shared a story I’ve carried quietly for the last year, the story of being fired. For a long time, even saying the words felt heavy. Growing up, getting fired wasn’t something people talked about openly; it carried a quiet shame, a belief that Imust…

Storytelling Began in the Clouds I have always loved storytelling. As a child, my favorite and earliest memories with my dad are of us laying on our backs in the backyard grass, finding objects in the clouds and telling stories. He had a handful of good ones that I would ask him to tell me…

Storytelling is magical and healing. We all have more than one story inside of us. It seems as if our soul is the gatekeeper of what story is meant to be shared. The gatekeeper then somehow knows what people to bring together to hear the story. There seems to be some sort of alchemy between…

What can I say? Personal storytelling is harder than I expected. It asks a lot of the teller: to recall memories, to shape them in a way that is coherent and engaging, and to consider how an audience might receive them. It asks us to share parts of ourselveswith others, which on the surface sounds…