Story Guidance for Writing and Performance

HEART! That’s what Tell Me On a Sunday is about: stories told from the heart to touch the heart of everyone listening. And although it’s a live performance event, stories really are the living, beating heart of the project. So we are looking for wondrous stories and great people to tell them.

Do I need to be a professional performer or writer?

No. You can be a plumber or a childminder or whatever! But you will need a true life story that fits the theme, and you must feel (or know) you have the confidence to stand on a stage in front of a room full of adults and tell your story without notes and within a time limit.

What kind of story should it be?

It has to be a true story, and it has to be essentially your story. You need to be the main player, not a bystander. A useful question to ask yourself is what is the point of this story? Telling a story is not a literary exercise. It is about connecting with other people and stirring their emotions. For a few minutes, you will take your listeners on a journey into your past – and they will expect something to happen there. Something unexpected or wondrous or amusing or scary… If nothing happens, they will feel disappointed. And then they will be the ones asking what was the point of that?!

Your story doesn’t have to be about a life changing moment – though some people will have extraordinary tales to tell. It simply needs to be important or special in some way. True life stories are often about change or transformation. After this incident in your life, were you different in some way? Why have you remembered it? Why do you feel the desire to share it now?

Your story must have something in it worth sharing. Something that will move minds or touch hearts. You will have these stories in you, so don’t seize the first one that comes into your head. Keep digging, keep asking the questions. Eventually you will find one that demands to be told. You couldn’t possibly tell another. And that is the one we want to hear!

NO shaggy dog stories, retellings of urban myths, stand up routines or cliffhanger endings! Your story will need a satisfactory resolution or the audience will feel disappointed. It will also need to fit the month’s theme.

Structure

Oral stories work best when they have a clean, straight narrative line. If someone loses the thread of a story in a book, they can go back a few pages and re-read. They cannot do that if they are listening to a live story. There is no rewind button! So you need to be clear. Be careful with description too. What is beautiful on the page can sound unnatural on stage. Imagine you are talking to a friend, telling him about a landscape you saw last weekend. Would you say: ‘The mountains brooded in rain-soaked silence, and the leaden clouds raced across the sky, as if harried by an over-eager sheepdog.’ Probably not! When we tell each other stories, we tend to talk in terms of how we felt at that moment we’re describing: ‘It was so wild up there… So desolate… I felt I was the only man left alive in the world.’ Even if you are telling your story to fifty people, imagine you are telling it to just one friend, and the language you use will sound far more natural.

As a general rule, professional storytellers never write their stories down. They might make notes, but they work up their stories by talking out loud, in private. Tramping the hills is a very popular pastime with storytellers!  They tell themselves the story, listen to how it comes out and then tell it again, keeping what they like and re-working what doesn’t feel right. Some storytellers will keep this work entirely in their heads; others use digital voice recorders.

This approach will give a more natural sounding story than one that has been crafted on a computer or with pen and paper.

Telling on the day

Using the microphone  Everyone will be using a microphone. It’s up to you whether you hold it in your hand or keep it in the stand. Microphones are powerful things; you don’t need to hold it right up to your mouth. You will get a cleaner sound if you hold it around chest height – and then we will see your face clearly too.

No notes allowed! Storytelling is an intimate art. Even in a packed room, you can make people feel you’re telling directly to them, one to one. It’s all done through eye contact – and this is why you can’t read your story on the day. You will have to tell it. Imagine you’re a spider, casting invisible threads to each and every person in the audience. You cast, they catch. Now you are connected and the magic begins. But if you keep lowering your eyes to read, the threads weaken and break. At the very least, you lessen the emotional impact of your story. And at worst, you lose your listeners completely.

So lose the notes! Practise until you can tell your story without them. You will not be allowed to take paper onto stage with you – guaranteed!

How will I remember the story if I can’t have notes?

Professional storytellers don’t learn their stories word for word. They don’t recite. They learn the shape of a story – the bones – and then flesh out those bones in performance. You will need to reduce your story down to the bones eg Me at eighteen. Entering the factory. The legend of Billy C. Meeting Billy C. The fire. The aftermath. The end.

Remember these bones and the order they come in. They will be your memory prods on the day.

Then you need to practise, practise, practise. You will need to know the story inside out. This is how you will put the flesh back on the bones in front of an audience. And because you will be doing it there and then, it will have infinitely more life and spirit to it than a memorised recitation.

How long will I have to tell my story?

Up to 7 minutes – no longer! You will be timed on the day, and you will be stopped if you run over time. This rule has to be adhered to, for everyone’s sake, so please respect it. Time your story as you practise telling it. A kitchen timer is great for this! Set the timer to seven minutes and start telling. Allow yourself a safety margin too. Some people speed up on stage, but others slow down, and we want to hear the end of your story.

Stage craft 

Storytelling audiences are generally warm and supportive – not gladiatorial, like in some comedy clubs! So take a deep breath, relax and enjoy your moment. Pacing up and down the stage will irritate people; shifting your weight from foot to foot will make you look nervous. Plant your feet evenly on the stage, allow your body to settle into balance, breathe, smile and begin. And here’s a tip from the pros: focus on the smiling faces – the ones who are clearly with you – rather than trying to win over the ones who seem distracted. There can be endless reasons why some individuals aren’t ‘with you,’ from indigestion to work worries, so don’t take it personally!

Respect!

Although Tell Me On A Sunday is a place for personal stories, it’s not a support group for people with issues: emotional, political or otherwise. We want our audiences to feel lifted, inspired, moved, humbled – not uncomfortable or depressed. Or offended! Please be mindful of swearing and strong sexual images. If in doubt – leave it out!

Check this out!

Tell Me On A Sunday has been inspired by The Moth – a massive successful true-life storytelling club in New York. It has a brilliant website, packed with storytelling tips and audio/video clips of people telling stories. Please take a few minutes and check it out. It will give you a great sense of what we are hoping to bring to Birmingham. www.themoth.org