Story Telling - Getting Started
Most of the story material on this site is written to be told rather than read. Some of the material (for example the reflective Christmas and Holy Week stories) can be used for personal reflection and prayer but most of the material comes alive in the interaction between Story Teller and audience.
Story telling is much more than reading a story. It is the art of communicating the essence of a story to an audience so that the story is conveyed, not from paper to ears, but from heart to heart and imagination to imagination.
As Story Teller you can stick to the script but the script needs to have become more than words to you before you begin the telling. Remember when you tell these stories that the Bible was once an 'oral' tradition. Its stories were developed to be told and reacted too with hisses, boos, gasps, applause, laughter and heckling. Your telling needs to invite your audience into the story and give them permission to react to what they are hearing and seeing in your story.
To do this you need to enter into your story yourself. Spend time reading it through. See the characters, hear the sounds, smell the smells, enjoy the scenery. Think about the story - how would you have reacted if you were there? Who might you be in the story? What is it about the story that really means something to you?
The story needs to become a series of images in your mind, images that your telling describes. When you do this you will be amazed at how your audience will pick up the same images as you move from reading words off the page to sharing a journey and adventure with your audience.
Finally, remember that when you tell a story you are giving a gift, a personal gift to each member of your audience. It's a gift that you want them to take away and treasure and share with others. The story teller not only gives away the story as it is told, but part of themselves as well. The part of yourself that the story has inhabited. Story telling can be costly and exhausting but, when filled with the life of the Holy Spirit, one of the most rewarding things you will ever do.