The First Event - Thoughts & Advice for First Time Storytellers

Scroll down past my recent thoughts for tips & tricks ↓

We are now into the depths of winter and for Scotland and most of the Hiberno-British islands have been covered in snow and frost. The air is sharp here and I have to wrap up warm to go outside. The temperatures are not reaching above zero and for many this season is filled with fear, for many reasons.

 I am focusing on how beautiful the sunlight is in the mornings, a honey orange that drips over the frost. I can often find a patch of sunlight to stand in most mornings on my walks and I always take the time to close my eyes, face the sun, and feel its rays.

This season is a season for consideration, evaluation and analysis, preferably in a warm room with a warm glass of something nice. Of course, real analysis doesn’t wait for us to get comfortable. Instead, it often comes during the judderingly cold train journey or the walk when you’ve just slipped on the icy ground. It is only after the moment that shocks you that the RE-evaluation comes, when everything shifts a tiny bit and suddenly you’re standing in the patch of sunlight again.

 I sit here, attempting reevaluation, and never being quite sure if I’m really in the sunlight. But I do know that everything has moved on a little bit.

 I was lucky enough to hold my first storytelling session in Edinburgh the first weekend of December. It was a small event, kept to family and friends, a chance to show them the work I have been developing and to test my strengths and limits.

 My mother was deeply encouraging and frankly excited and, as an artist herself, helped create a veritable fairy mound for me to sit on and entertain the adults and children alike. My father and husband helped record the event and in the new year I will be going through this footage and hopefully sharing it with all of you.

I’ve had time now to consider the event in depth and as such I thought I would share the things I have taken away from the experience.

 Tips for First Time Storytellers

1.     Location

One of the most importnt things for any storyteller is where you are telling it. We do not always have the luxury of a separate room, or no noise, but for a first timer I would recommend choosing your location with these things in mind. The smallest thing can distract an audience from the story being woven and removing distractions can help massively.

2.     Atmosphere

Do you use the “big light” in your sitting room? My husband tends to turns it on and I loathe it. It removes any softness from a room, casting its light across everything indiscriminately. I always prefer this unusual little light which casts its warm yellow light down towards the walls and the floors creating a puddle of warmth that hides the rest of the room in soft shadows.

You can see these difference in these two lights in the way I’ve described them, and a storyteller should be very aware of lighting and ambience when setting up their space. For some storytellers, the “big light” works best with their style, for others (like me) you may prefer candlelight or softer lamps, things that create interesting shadows as you tell your story.

 Lighting is just one part of the atmosphere. Do you use music? Should it be recorded or played live? I received one bit of advice which I thinks holds true whatever you are thinking of doing.

 Everything you introduce has its own electricity, its own energy, its own current. Will this enhance, or will it distract? If you’re not sure, it’s likely a distraction. Less is more with music, lighting etc.

Remember that the performance itself, you as a storyteller, will fill the space with most of the atmosphere.

3.     Audience

It may not be possible to choose your audience for every session, but especially for a first-time storyteller I recommend two main things.

a)     Supportive people – whether they are people you know or don’t, make sure they explicitly know before time that they are coming to a your first storyteller event. Explain it may be rough in certain parts, but like all things this is part of the process. Make it explicit about the process and be confident in your assertions. You are valid for being new at this and hopefully people will recognise the need to be supportive. Remember to thank them for coming along.

 N.B. if your audience are children you don’t need to do this, but I would recommend it with adults as often they can give great insight after the event.

b)    Small groups – limit groups to 6 people or less. This may sound strange, but as a storyteller part of your work is to engage the audience, to see how they are reacting, where their interest is captured and where it is lost. Starting small makes it slightly easier to pick up on these cues. It also helps people hear you better!

4.     Stories

On that note, lets discuss the stories that you might tell. There are many different ways to tell stories and they will change depending on the audience, the space and the medium.

 For this storytelling session, I ended up doing two different stories as I did two sittings, the first for a group of 6 adults and the second for the children’s group I had prepared for.

 This in itself was a challenge as the first story – the Norse tale of How Thor got his hammer, Mjollnir, was less prepared and researched. However I had a strong feeling the day of that I needed to tell that story and would you believe it things transpired that led to the tale being told.

 The tale for the children was the beautiful Bulgarian tale of The Girl and The Whirlwinds. I deeply enjoyed researching and uncovering this story and it was so fun to tell the tale. One mum told me she had never seen her 6 year old son sit that still for 20 minutes – the ultimate success in my eyes. One little girl kept looking behind her, as if she was hoping to see Father Frost himself.

Make sure the stories you tell are ones you know well, that will work with that audience, and don’t be too scared to do something unexpected if it feels right.

5.     Unexpected moments

With any performance there is always something that will go wrong. Someone might have a terrible cold and sniff all the way through. Someone might not be able to stop shaking their leg. There may be drilling in the walls or crying babies or an ominous heartbeat from below the floorboards.

 All of this is part of the story. The difficult bit is finding the balance between ignoring it and addressing the (hopefully not literal) elephant in the room. If you can build it into the story and improvise, then do. The beauty of the oral tradition is that it is amorphous, waiting for the spoken word to become corporeal.

In this session, my parents beautiful cat Ossian demanded to come in during the adult session. He was let in to inspect the room, and as with any sort of latecomer to an event he distracted the audience. I could have ignored him, but the distraction was already clear. Instead I told a short story of Freya, the Norse Goddess of Fertility and War, and her great cats who draw her carriage. Ossi became part of the story then, a messenger sent to see what was going on before leaving as imperiously as he came.

I would definitely not have Ossi interrupting every story that I tell, but in that moment he enriched the experience. That is the way to look at every interaction, every annoying noise, every difficult moment. And if you are finding it too tough to do so it may be the time to step back.

6.     Rest

The sessions are done, you have told the tales brilliantly and everyone leaves with a new tale in their hearts and a spring in their step. Well done! But the story isn’t over yet.

 At this point, the most important chapter begins. This is the chapter of recuperation, rest, and the removal of the mantle of storyteller for now. Too often we forget ourselves in the space of performer, forget the impact is has on the body, spirit and mind. This is the point to remember that impact.

I recommend to change clothes as quickly as possible, as the costume of storyteller is the biggest physical part of the role.

If you can, leave. Leave the space, go outside for a walk, get some fresh air, pack up your bags, say thank you to the host, and skedaddle. Your role is done and if you hang about you can risk an uncomfortable lingering of the storyteller alongside your own identity.

 As my first event was happening at my parents place, I could not in fact leave and I learnt the hard way the difficulty of coming “back down to earth” without appropriate time and space. I got changed and we all had a nice lunch together but afterwards I was entirely wiped. I went to lay down and ended up sleeping through most of the family afternoon.

 It was a great lesson, I learned very quickly just how tiring a storytelling session can be, and that you cannot underestimate this part of the process. Heed this warning and make sure you give yourself time to understand your personal needs. Perhaps you need to be surrounded by people. Perhaps you need to be alone. Perhaps you exercise, or smoke, or go up a big hill and spin in circles.

Whatever it is you do to feel like you, then make time for it. Consider it a reward for revealing so much of yourself and your journey. Now is the time for you to be you.

If you have made it this far in this surprisingly long list of advice then well done, I hope these things I have learned help you as you are developing your practice. I will leave you with one small thought. If all of this feels like “too much”, if it feels impossible to arrange something on this level, then that is ok.

Storytelling is a beautiful medium because it is so portable. All you need is your voice and a willing ear.

With love,

Sx