{"id":1668,"date":"2015-04-27T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?p=1668"},"modified":"2015-04-27T16:12:45","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T16:12:45","slug":"tell-me-a-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?p=1668","title":{"rendered":"Tell Me a Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 27 is National Tell-a-Story Day in the United States. As you might suspect, that's my kind of holiday.<\/p>\n

A quick story about the\u00a0image on the right: Years ago, I was hiking with my young\u00a0daughters in Malibu Creek State Park one spring day, and, as we came upon a\u00a0little creek, I was so taken by the view of the mountains ahead, then and there\u00a0I had to\u00a0start sketching. The resulting drawing would serve as\u00a0my business \"cover letter,\" complete with the logo, \"Have cursor, will travel.\" We later learned the mountainous area\u00a0was the setting for the opening credits of \"M.A.S.H.\" (both\u00a0the movie and television series) with cameras rolling as a helicopter crossed the landscape.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cranking open a window to share your world view does take emotional muscle. What if your world view doesn't interest someone? What if you suffer from TMI and spill too much information, only to launch your audience into fits of coughing, checking the contents of their wallets, or otherwise body-language slamming you to, \"Stop, please.\"<\/p>\n

You could search for more tolerant friends. I listen closely to other people to discover what it is that makes good storytelling. For me, it is in the curious and the unexpected detail. I like moments that remind me, \"When I woke this morning, I had no idea I'd experience this.\" It is\u00a0surprise or excitement that moves a story along at a satisfying pace.<\/p>\n

Easing children into learning to refine the story-telling skill takes a village. I've found listening to children\u00a0as they share their unbridled observations often leads to revelations. Eons ago, a man named Art Linkletter amused television audiences in his conversations with children on \"Kids Say the Darndest Things.\" They still do. \u00a0(Of course, that doesn't give us free rein to tell a lot<\/em> of cute grandchildren stories.)<\/p>\n

Since laughter is a special gift we offer each other, timing seems paramount to storytelling. In her 2012 breezy bio, \"If You Ask me (And of Course You Won't),\" actress Betty White (now 93-years old) attributes timing to her comedic success. In this slim book, she conveys her love of animals to\u00a0promote pet projects with stories she might readily share at a fundraiser. The effect is charming.<\/p>\n

I do\u00a0enjoy being charmed, amused and engaged by stories of other people's lives. Whether you are a child or have survived several decades, you have stories to tell. Always, as the 19th Century writer Oscar Wilde said, \"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

For samples of my fiction stories and nonfiction,\u00a0check this site's Short Story page and its Essays: Boom.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Hiking<\/a>

Hiking in Malibu Creek State Park<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 27 is National Tell-a-Story Day in the United States. As you might suspect, that’s my kind of holiday.A quick story about the\u00a0image on the right: Years ago, I was hiking with my young\u00a0daughters in Malibu Creek State Park one spring day, and, as we came upon a\u00a0little creek, I was so taken by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1668"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1670,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions\/1670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}