Sunday, October 4, 2009

7 Magical Ways to Bring Out the Storyteller in you

September 21st I was honored to give a presentation for the new North Bay series of SCBWI workshops (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators). What a great group of writers, artists, and creatives gathered at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. It was great fun. A number of people in other areas far from the North Bay were interested, but couldn't attend, so I'll share here. I won't be able to give my entire hour talk, but I'll share the best part - the 7 magical ways. :-)

First, I started with a quote from one of my favorite movies, AUSTRALIA. At the beginning of the film, the narrator, an aboriginal child of mixed-race, begins in this way: "My grandfather, King George, he takea me on walk-abouts, teach me black fellow way. Grandfather teacha me most important lesson of all - tellum story."

There are massive changes happening in the literary world, but no matter how things change, the world will always, in some form, have stories and storytellers. So, let's spin some magic...and some stories.

MAGICAL WAY 1
Quieten
Hush-sh-sh. Be still
Let silence surround you.
Then shout out, loud and clear!
Can you feel it? Can you hear?

I talked about the importance of truly listening to the wonder around us and also the importance of reading our work out loud.

MAGICAL WAY 2
Weave
A labyrinthian path
To find the way,
Move out, Move in,
And once again Move out.

This magical way is all about giving your story an outer adventure and an inner adventure.

MAGICAL WAY 3
'Trouble, oh we need trouble.
Right here in our stories!
With a capital "T"
That rhymes with "C",
And that stands for Conflict.
We surely need trouble!"

With great apologies to "The Music Man" and Meredith Wilson. :-) This magical way is about having conflict in your stories. The trouble can be with yourself, with others, with society, or with nature. It doesn't matter with what as long as it's there.

MAGICAL WAY 4
Be patient. Push forward.
After hours of spinning ideas in the air.
You've got to put bootie onto your chair.

Being a writer is all about patience. At the same time we must persevere. E.B. White, the author of CHARLOTTE'S WEB spent a year studying spiders before he started writing about one.

MAGICAL WAY 5
Study the craft.
Be open to the art.

The muse is a tease.
She plays hide and seek.
So study your craft
Or your future is bleak.

If the muse, the art, ever does show up, it will probably be when we're practicing our craft. So study your genre, know it inside and out.

MAGICAL WAY 6
Stories need resolution.
You must resolve as well.
If you don't make it to the end
There'll be no story to tell.

Resolution of the story is how the problem gets solved. You get to your story resolution by knowing where your story is headed. By having a goal. You get a story resolution by knowing your character.

MAGICAL WAY 7
There is no magical way.
There's only your way...and the story's. ;-)

This doesn't mean you shouldn't practice the previous ways. Nor does it give you permission to let your ego guide the way. Ego just gets in the way of your story.

Think of your story as an entity and let it lead the way.

So, Storymagicians, now that you know some magic, go "tellum story".
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