Storytelling and Reading

Hi Everyone,

As it is National Storytelling Week, I’d like to explain the difference between storytelling and reading.  You CAN tell a story by reading  a book.  But storytelling began long ago, before books were even written.  Stories were passed on by word of mouth, by dance, by acting out. Sometimes props were used to help the storyteller show their audience what happened. Sometimes the props were an aid to remind the storyteller what to say. (When you’ve watched my film you can tell me what my props were, so that I didn’t forget!) Story sticks were a way of remembering the story of a journey. Even bees tell stories – when they return to the hive they dance a story to tell where the best flowers are for pollen to make honey.  Because stories were mainly spoken they would often be very slightly different every time they were told. Like a recipe, passed on through the generations or to friends, everyone adds their own tasty ingredient or takes out the bits they don’t like. And that’s ok, as long as the main idea of the story is kept.

So, when telling a story, sometimes it’s good to read a book and show the pictures. Pictures are a great prop! But sometimes when telling a story it’s  good just to retell the story, in your own words. The parts that were exciting or interesting to you are the parts you remember best. Those parts become the parts you pass on to your audience in an exciting and interesting way and that’s what they will remember, to pass on to the next person.

You can tell true stories that really happened to you. Or you can tell someone else’s story. I hope you enjoy the story I tell in the film. It is part of a bigger story, by one of my favourite authors, Douglas Adams.