Mabel McKay
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Live Life Like Everyday It’s Bean Boozled by Gail Kimzin
Spalding Gray wrote,“I have to live a life in order to tell a life.” This statement sounds like an approval stamp for an all-out, risky, provocative, life style. Do I have to jump through fire hoops or take on near-death dares in order to be a successful storyteller? Absolutely not. This quote means that one needs to take a…
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Exalting Strength by Brooke Graves
Recently while crafting how I was going to tell “The Wild Swans” for a class presentation I found myself sinking into the depths of a genre that silences the female character, expecting her to complete her domestic tasks without complaint, leaving her helpless at the mercy of a society willing to execute her. Although Princess…
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Fee-fi-fo-fum! by Kathy Eastman
It is hard to think of Jack and the Beanstalk without hearing "fee-fi-fo-fum" in your imagination. As a storyteller, it is of course, really fun to have the giant call out: Fee-fi-fo-fum I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive or be he dead I'll grind his bones to make my bread. Fee-fi-fo-fum…
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The Storyteller’s Crucible: Finding a Personal Story by Mark Goldman
Crucible: 1: a vessel used for melting a substance with a high degree of heat 2: a severe test 3: a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development [My note here – a good story!] “More weight.” These are the last words of Giles Corey in Arthur Miller’s play, The…
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Just Tell It by Marian Giannatti
Just tell it! That’s what I have been pushing myself to do this season. I have a real discomfort with telling personal stories. Like a lot of people, I thought my little world just isn't that interesting. Why would anyone want to hear stories from my life? I’m a rather ordinary person and I have…
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A Familiar Heartache by Diana Dinshaw
In eighth grade I came home one afternoon after school and proudly showed my mother my math test on which I had got 99%. She looked at the test and said, “Why didn’t you get 100%?” As a child I was upset that my mom had not recognized my achievement but as an adult I…
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The Greatest Gift by Kim Robinson
How the heck do I remember what comes next? My efforts to tell my story, my whole story, and nothing but my story . . . I recently crafted and told my first “official” story, The Greatest Gift. I’m a thinker and a writer and as such, my story ended up being significantly complex. I…
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How do you write a “good blog post” on a week like this? by Ann Cothron
Merriam-Wester’s dictionary defines “good” as a (1) :of a favorable character or tendency good news (2) :free from injury or disease (3) :well-founded, cogent good reasons (4) :true holds good for society at large (5) :deserving of respect :honorable in good standing (5) :legally valid or effectual good title. Sunday, October 1st, 2017, 59 people…
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“If You Don’t Get It The First time . . . ” by Myranette Robinson
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…
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A Superior Path by Marilee Lasch
My favorite movie of all times is The Wizard of Oz. I remember seeing it as a little girl. My big sister was forced to take me, and then complained to our parents that all I did was cover my eyes, and scream. Looking back on that time I realize the information being shown in…
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Finding Memories for Stories by Liz Warren
Several years ago, Marilyn Torres and I began developing a list of memory prompts to help people in our classes and in the workshops we conduct to find story ideas. We've learned that an effective story prompt brings a memory that documents a moment of learning, discomfort, emotion, awakening, resolution, understanding, or shifting perception –…
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One Storyteller’s Process for Crafting a Story by Nirit Simon
Before I took the course on personal storytelling, I had no idea how to begin to create a story. My method was to wait until a story that sounded entertaining occurred to me and then I would tell it to someone. This happened very rarely. Throughout the course, I learned strategies and techniques for crafting…