Exploring Literary Recommendations and the Art of Storytelling

On episode #68 of the Speak Up Storytelling podcast, Matthew and Elysha Dicks talk storytelling!

In our follow up segment, we discuss last week's episode and plans for an upcoming episode. We also discuss a recent review of the podcast and decisions related to the use of profanity in storytelling. Elysha also congratulates listeners for their recent ukulele playing,. 

STORYTELLING SHOWS 2019-2020

November 2: Great Hartford Story Slam, Hartford Flavor Company November 9: Sara Kaplan: Champion of the World at Emmanuel Synagogue, West Hartford, CT November 23: Twenty-one Truths About Love book release, CT Historical Society, Hartford, CT December 14: “Crafty” at CT Historical Society, Hartford, CT January 11: “Still Life: Stories of Stopping and Slowing Down” at the Wadsworth Atheneum April 4: Speak Up at the Unitarian Universalist Society, Manchester, CT

STORYTELLING WORKSHOPS 2019

October 25-27: Storytelling workshop (beginners), Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health November 9: Storytelling workshop (Beginner), CT Historical Society November 16: Storytelling workshop (Advanced), CT Historical Society December 6-8: Storytelling workshop (advanced), Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health January 25: Storytelling workshop (Beginner), CT Historical Society February 22: Storytelling workshop (Advanced), CT Historical Society

In our Homework for Life segment, we talk about a strategy to find hidden stories in your life via seemingly microscopic moments, and an especially useful strategy to use if you're trying to find a story to match a theme

Next we listen to a story by Bobby Klau.

Amongst the many things we discuss include:

1. Humor in storytelling through word choice, tonality, and misdirection

2. Scene setting and re-establishing

3. Singing as a part of storytelling

4. The crucial "but" at the beginning of stories

5. Rounding out stories and indicating the importance of every word of the story by bringing early elements into later parts of a story 

RECOMMEDATIONS

Elysha:

• The Crane Wife

Matt:

• Nicholson Baker

Text from The Anthologist

"And then a man of forty or so, with a French accent, asked, 'How do you achieve the presence of mind to initiate the writing of a poem?'   And something cracked open in me, and I finally stopped hoarding and told them my most useful secret.   The only secret that has helped me consistently over all the years that I've written.   I said, 'Well, I'll tell you how. I ask a simple question. I ask myself: What was the very best moment of your day?'   The wonder of it was, I told them, that this one question could lift out from my life exactly what I will want to write a poem about.   Something I hadn't known was important will leap out and hover there in front of me, saying I AM—I am the best moment of the day.   'Often,' I went on, 'it's a moment when you're waiting for someone, or you're driving somewhere, or maybe you're just walking across a parking lot and admiring the oil stains and the dribbled tar patterns.   One time it was when I was driving past a certain house that was screaming with sunlitness on its white clapboards, and then I plunged through tree shadows that splashed and splayed across the windshield.   I thought, Ah, of course—I'd forgotten.   You, windshield shadows, you are the best moment of the day."   ~ Nicholson Baker, from The Anthologist

 

LINKS

Purchase Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling

Purchase Twenty-one Truths About Love 

Homework for Life: https://bit.ly/2f9ZPne

Matthew Dicks's website: http://www.matthewdicks.com

Matthew Dicks's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/matthewjohndicks 

Matthew Dicks's blog: http://www.matthewdicks.com/matthewdicksblog

Subscribe to Matthew Dicks's weekly newsletter:  http://www.matthewdicks.com/matthewdicks-subscribe

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