{"id":1183,"date":"2016-10-30T20:53:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T00:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/storytelling\/?p=1183"},"modified":"2016-11-07T14:02:05","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T19:02:05","slug":"new-tips-from-doug-lipman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/storytelling\/2016\/10\/30\/new-tips-from-doug-lipman\/","title":{"rendered":"New tips from Doug Lipman"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found this very helpful! \u00a0I hope you will too.<\/p>\n

Banish Your Fear of Forgetting a Story (by Doug Lipman,\u00a0http:\/\/storydynamics.com\/)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s common to worry about forgetting your story. But that worry can lead you to memorize your stories, in the hopes of having the exact words to hold onto.<\/span><\/p>\n

But memorizing the words<\/b> of a story turns out to be the most risky way<\/b> to learn a story.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why? If you\u2019ve memorized each word and then forget one while telling, it’s as though you\u2019re guiding your listeners through a narrow tunnel and suddenly come upon a boulder.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything has to stop, and your attention\u2014not to mention the attention of your listeners\u2014focuses on the boulder in front of you. That can be a terrifying experience, so I don\u2019t blame you for being afraid!<\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately, there\u2019s another way, with four easy steps:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Focus on the images<\/b> of what happens in the story: the sights, sounds, gut feelings, smells, tastes, pangs of hunger, etc., in your story.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. <\/b>Practice<\/b> by telling<\/b> to an individual, willing listener. Tell the story just as you\u2019d tell a friend what happened to you last weekend.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. As you tell, focus on the reactions<\/b> of your listener and respond to them along the way. If your listener looks puzzled, for example, add some information to help her understand.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. <\/b>Repeat<\/b> this process several times with a series of individual, willing listeners. If you need to be sure that your story will succeed at a particular event, I suggest telling it in advance 15 times.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Be Free of Worry!<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

    Using the above method (the \u201cNatural Method\u201d for developing stories) you don\u2019t have to worry about boulders in the tunnel.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Why not? First, your tunnel isn\u2019t so narrow, so you can always detour around any large rock in the way. That is, you can find another way to describe what you\u2019re imagining.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Second, the \u201cboulders\u201d in the natural method are smaller, more likely to be pebbles that you and your listener can step over easily, scarcely noticing them as you proceed along the path of your story. That is, when you\u2019re engaged in imagining what you tell, it\u2019s natural to pause as you imagine the next moment of your story. Your listeners, watching your face and eyes as you imagine, will likely be more interested in what you say next.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Will you still be nervous? Probably, at least sometimes. But you\u2019ll be facing this nervousness with the confidence<\/b> that comes from having told the story several times successfully, from feeling the successful moments when you and your listeners were fully engaged with each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

    In other words, you\u2019ll become a seasoned teller of even your first story<\/b>. Before you ever tell it in public, or to a group of restless children, or in a job interview, you\u2019ll have experienced<\/b> a series of listeners connecting<\/b> to you and to this story. With such confidence to buoy you, your perceived anxiety will turn into simple excitement.<\/span><\/p>\n

    What is there to worry about? After all, you\u2019ve felt success with this story before, and you\u2019ll feel it again now.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I found this very helpful! \u00a0I hope you will too. Banish Your Fear of Forgetting a Story (by Doug Lipman,\u00a0http:\/\/storydynamics.com\/) It’s common to worry about forgetting your story. But that worry can lead you to memorize your stories, in the hopes of having the exact words to hold onto. But …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2991,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[44423],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2016","column","twocol"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7RVTr-j5","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/storytelling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/storytelling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/storytelling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/storytelling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2991"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/storytelling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/storytelling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/storytelling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/storytelling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/storytelling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}