Initial Lecture Outline
- Ubiquity
of storytelling - innate human impulse to tell stories
- Story Structure
- Teach
elements of a good plot
- Generally
the same as for written work
- Structure
of the narrative
- Types
of stories – genres in oral tradition
- Personal
Experience – usually can provide more detail; however, often good to
extrapolate on actual events (lie to make them more interesting)
- Gossip
– character-driven story – Ex: soap opera
- Hero
Saga – fictional hero journeys and fights toward some end
- Ghost
Story
- Exercises:
- Dissect a Story - listen to a story told in class and break down and analyze its plot
- Link Up a Story - take 3 events and merge them into a short story
- Performance
- Intro:
What makes a hearing a story told different from reading a story in a
book (or seeing a film)?
- Gestures,
inflections, and other non-verbal communication
- Consider
the differences between a conversation with a person and that same
conversation over AIM
- Pace
/ Pauses / Punch-lines
- Relationship
between teller and tale
- Each
storyteller has unique style – same story can be told completely
differently by different people
- Variation
upon material and deliver to suit current environment
- Improvisation
– recognizing needed changes on-the-fly and thinking on your feet to
enact those changes
- Different
types of people listening (parents, friends, teachers) alter the way a
story is told
- Different
physical settings / number of people – Ex: small group vs. stadium