THE ART OF STORYTELLING AND THE CHERRY TREE BUCK

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Here are a few tricks of the trade to help you in telling your stories compellingly:

Keep it simple. You don't need to describe everything in infinite detail. That would leave nothing for the listener to do. The art of storytelling is not so much about what you include as it is about what you leave out. Leave some things up to the listener's imagination; let him fill in the blanks. Better to tell a simple tale well than a complex tale poorly.

Don't rush through it. Slow down. Most stories improve by telling them at about half speed. Storytelling is a spoken art, so remember that both the ear and the mouth need time to savor the words. While there are some parts of stories that call for a quicker pace, use this fast-forward speech sparingly. If you start out at 90 miles an hour, where can you go from there?

Slowing down also lets silence come into your tale. Silence is to the storyteller as the darkness of the night sky is to a fireworks expert. If there were no darkness, the fireworks would not be nearly as spectacular.

Develop your own style. We all have a certain style of doing things. As in life, there are no rules about the style in which you tell a story. What works, works. Listen to other storytellers and emulate what you admire in their style in order to develop your own.

Editor 's note: If you'd like to learn more about the revival of the ancient art of storytelling, write the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling (P 0. Box 309, Jonesboro, TN 37659; tel: 615-753-2171). Storyteller Robin Moore has presented more than 2,000 storytelling programs and work shops at schools, museums, conferences, festivals, and on radio and television. He is the author of two historical novels for chil dren, The Bread Sister of Sinking Creek and Maggie Among the Seneca (Harper Collins), as well as a book and tape package, Awakening the Hidden Storyteller: How to Build a Storytelling Tradition in Your Family (Shambala Publications). Those wishing information about his programs and courses can contact Moore through Groundhog Press, Box 181, Springhouse, PA 19477.

THE CHERRY TREE BUCK

Now, I know you've all seen those old flintlock rifles. My grandfather had one that he had gotten from his father and, undoubtably, he had received it from his father. One day he took me deer hunting with that old-fashioned ri fle.

We got all the way up in the woods when we realized that something pretty crucial had been forgotten. We had the rifle and the gunpowder, but the bullets had been left behind. So there we were, sitting pretty stupid.

Now, fortunately, my grandmother had packed us some chernes for lunch and we were eating those cherries and sitting underneath the tree, trying to figure out what to do. I spit out a cherry pit and said to my grandfather, "Could we use these for bullets?"

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