THE ART OF STORYTELLING AND THE CHERRY TREE BUCK

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Some things are better said than read.

By Robin Moon

I MAKE MY LIVING AS A TRAVELING storyteller and an author of books celebrating the oral tradition. The questions I'm most often asked are: "How did you get started in storytelling?" and "Who taught you how to tell a story?"

I have never been able to come up with satisfactory answers to these questions basically because I didn't "learn" to tell a story any more than I "learned" how to crawl or walk or run. But I did have a lot of great examples of storytellers around me while I was growing up in rural Pennsylvania during the 1950s. My family, neighbors, and friends were always telling stories. Of course they didn't call it that. To them it was just talk. From this "talk" I eveloped an active imagination and a love of language. I guess you could say they gave me the gift of gab.

I realize that not everyone was as fortu nate as I was. I have been astonished to find that there are a lot of people who grew up without stories or storytelling. But whether you have storytelling in your background or not, I think just about anyone can be a good storyteller.

Here are a few simple steps for creating and telling a story. I'll use "The Cherry Tree Buck," found on page 64, as an example. I first read this story in a book, but you can develop any story that interests you, regardless of its source. It's easier to start with stories from books or other people; then, once you have the hang of it, you can develop stories from your own imagination or personal memory.

Step one. The story lives in pictures, not words. You may have noticed that while you were reading the cherry story, you not only read the words but saw pictures in your imagination. It was almost as if you had a movie screen in your mind and you were watching the events unfold on the screen. This is storylistening.

To be a storyteller, you have to convert the story into images. To do this, I simply close my eyes and "daydream" my way through the story. As I do, my mind is making a movie of the story, which I can later draw on in telling my tale. When you have completed your "movie," place it in memory and open your eyes.

Step two. Now that you have the images off a story in your mind, you can tell it. When you tell a story, look two places at once: Look at your listeners, making eye contact with them as you do when you talk to someone. But also look onto the imaginary movie screen in your head and roll the film you've made. Now, simply describe to histenets what you're seeing!

Incidentally, when the listener hears the story, their "movie camera" clicks on, and they begin to see similar images in their minds. This is the magic of storytelling—using words, gestures, and facial expressions, you can transmit an image from your mind to the listener's. One of the great things about this technique is that you don't need to worry about rehearsal, memorization, or dramatics. You simply describe what you see as you are seeing it. That means you don't have to worry about forgetting the words. There are no words—only pictures.

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