The Act of Storytelling

"If you look at the world in terms of storytelling, you have, first of all, the man who agitates, the man who drums up the people — I call him the drummer. Then you have the warrior, who goes forward and fights. But you also have the storyteller who recounts the event — and this is one who survives, who outlives all the others." ~ Chinua Achebe

According to Walter Benjamin, storytelling reveals lived experience. He says, "Every story contains openly or covetly, something useful . . . a moral, practical advice, a proverb or maxim. In every case the storyteller has counsel for readers."

An act of storytelling arrives from the combination of what we know or perceive and what we add to it. 

It might begin with an observation then involve a query, wonderment or a concern. A transformation results from the addition of ingredients. Characters change or they remain the same.

Set a scene. Two individuals meet for dinner. One has a problem. Add a secret shared or previously unknown disclosure. Create conflict between them.

Pursue the story from a variety of angles.

Add more action. Something else happens.

A third party rushes in.

Create additional commotion.

Pause. Let the reader breathe and wonder.



Start in again.

Unnerve your characters.

Let it play out.

Alter the conclusion for variety.  Begin at the ending and write forward.  Let the words fly.

Celebrate Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day occurs on February 2 each year. Arriving at the midway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox, it launches a celebration of Candlemas.

Punxsutawney Phil, a resident of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, has predicted the weather since 1887. Men volunteer as a part of the Inner Circle to care for him.

Believers feel that whether or not the groundhog sees its shadow indicates how much longer winter will last. If Phil sees his shadow, it suggests six more weeks of winter. If the groundhog doesn't see its shadow, spring will arrive early.

  

The Groundhog Day celebration begins early in the morning with thousands of people gathering to see if the weather-predicting groundhog spots his shadow or not.

German immigrants brought the tradition of Groundhog Day in the late 1800s. At that time members of Groundhog Lodges, meant for socializing with others and enjoying meals, planned the "unburrowing" ceremony. They originally used badgers or bears as their forecasters since both animals hibernate and awaken when days become longer and the sun's angle becomes higher. 

Today Phil did see his shadow at 7:31 am which means six more weeks of winter. Phil squealed as they pulled him from his burrow. He was hoisted into the air and played on a stump before his official prognostication. "He's squealin', he's hollerin'!" the emcee said before concluding, "Phil is feisty today." A light snow fell as Phil made his 131st prediction.

Think About Change

Hope requires us to learn to the embrace uncertainty over certainty, to recognize that the future is unknowable, and to admit that we have the power to change the world if we choose to act. The future is not set in stone, but it is malleable, porous, and shifting. The future contains a multitude of possibilities, some of them wild and not quite realized yet and some beyond what we can imagine right now. -Rebecca Solnit

“People,” Solnit explains, “have always been good at imagining the end of the world, which is much easier to picture than the strange sidelong paths of change in a world without end.” 

Imagining ends feels easier than imagining and working toward a better version of our world we have now. Solnit shows us that we all have the ability to bring about change, but that change might not end up being what we imagined it to be. 

Go for positive change today.