Most of the time, my stories end in a "so.... yea.." leaving everyone feeling awkward and without anything meaningful to say. Ira Glass has a storytelling gift. In one of the videos we were assigned to listen to, Ira tells the most mundane story about a guy waking up and his house being quiet. This is how I would tell the story:
"So... this guy woke up this one day and his house was really quiet and he was really creeped out by the quiet.."
See? Not very great. Ira tells this story in a way that creates suspense and keeps the listener interested. Even though Ira Glass tells us his secrets to story telling, I would find it hard to apply them in everyday conversation.
The other reading we had was about the basics of using public radio to make it personal. Like the article states, this was written in the 1980's when public radio stations probably broadcasted more stories and reports and probably played less bad pop music. I actually like to listen to NPR more because of the way they broadcast not only (good) music, but also radio shows such as "All Things Considered" and "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" and, of course, "This American Life". These shows involve the listener more than blaring sexist tunes every half hour (I'm looking at you, Robin Thicke). I believe there is an incredible need for more stations like NPR, and probably less duplicate stations (Do we really need ten country stations in the same area, Nebraska?).
Isabel,
ReplyDeleteI like that you connected your status as "a person who's never been able to tell a good story" with your (and many other's) tendency to use filler words when retelling a story or explaining a situation. The difference between a good storyteller and a great storyteller is, in my opinion, the ability to craft language in order to create depth and vivid detail through words. Syntax, sentence structure, and even voice inflection can add entire new dimensions to an otherwise humdrum story. Your example describes a situation as "quiet," but I would guess that a talented storyteller such as Ira Glass would play around with adjectives and verbs and nouns so that his listeners could understand that the house was not just quiet, but the "silence covered the still house like a heavy blanket."
Great post!
Isabel,
ReplyDeleteI do believe that story telling really is an art and isnt easy for everyone. There is alot more into then just splurting out the basic story and expecting people to like it. It has aspects like flow and description, etc. the list goes on and on. I do agree though that Isa does a pretty good job at that too. It keeps to listening and stay in-tuned with the story. If you can manage to grab your reader than it tends to be a good story. I also enjoyed her style.