My name is Yarns. Spinning Yarns. I don't just tell a story but loom it from the ground up using my background knowledge, books I've read, stories I've heard, tales I've written and adapted to create my own versions. Some tales are soft and fuzzy while others are wooly and scratchy - it all depends on you - the listener. I'll sometimes weave in magic threads, scary notions, or simple wisdom that winds throughout. I'll either have you sitting on the edge of your seats in tangled webs or have your stomachs in knots laughing so hard from my comedy. I am a storyteller, a spinner of yarns, and I'm stringing you along with me in this A-Z Blog Challenge. 

We all have stories to share. Stories connect us. They tell us who we are, where we've come from. Stories beg us to ask questions. They build confidence. They make us realize other points of view. Stories build imagination and color within us. Stories keep our past always present.

You will have listeners who will respond. When they ask to hear the story again, you know you are spinner of tales.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog posts each day. To learn more about storytelling, I encourage you to visit earlier posts.

What questions would you like to ask about storytelling and how to get started? Feel free to let us know how you incorporate storytelling into your business of family life. It could just be simple anecdotes you use as examples in your presentations or stories you makeup each night as you tuck your kids in bed.

Hearing stories and attending workshops filled my soul and boosted my enthusiasm to become a better story creator, story writer, and storyteller. The 29th Annual Texas Storytelling Festival was simply amazing!
Although I worked registration the Friday of the festival (and thoroughly enjoyed myself meeting the many folks coming to listen and tell) I was able to soak up the fabulous workshops and storytelling Friday night and all day Saturday.  I want to share with you two of the workshops I attended because I walked away from both of them with inspiration and enthusiasm regarding the ideas and organization of a narrative or as Craig Harrison says "Homegrown Story."
The first workshop is entitled "Prospecting Your Past to Uncover Hidden Story Treasures" with Craig Harrison and the second workshop is entitled "StoryCrafting: Retelling Folktales in Your Own Voice" with Janice Del Negro.

Craig journeyed from the Bay area of California to present this outstanding workshop. His handout can be accessed from his website: www.HackinBoo.com
In a nut shell, Craig reaffirmed that working with others on your generating of ideas for personal stories and the actual writing of your stories is so important. Connections and bridges are always made when there's more than one - the more the merrier! We worked in pairs at the workshop and were amazed at our own personal contributions made to the stories created!  Craig's handout gave us all an opportunity to interview each other on various fronts: First times (first day at school, first overnight at camp, first pimple, first kiss, first beer/tobacco chew, first trip overseas, etc. We then choose one of our ideas that had substance and tried it out in one of two story structures provided by his handout:
1. The Story Spine: 
Once upon a time…
Everyday…
But one day…
Because of that…
Because of that…
Because of that…
Until finally…
Every since then…
And the moral of the story…(optional)


2. Success Story format


Setting:
Several sentences to set the context and frame the action

Situation:
What is the challenge, the obstacle, the impediment or task at hand? (Several more sentences to set up the success.)

Solution:
How did you resolve the conflict? Accomplish the task? Utilize your skills, experience and judgement to help your client succeed? (Do tell!)
What does it say about you?

Janice Del Negro is a professional teller of folk and fairy tales, always placing her own twists on these tales. She's an award winning author, with titles that include a collection of supernatural tales for young adults, Passion and Poison, which received starred reviews. Co-author of the acclaimed book Storytelling: Art and Technique, Janice's picture book Willa and the Wind was an ALA Notable Children's Book. Featured at multiple festivals across the country including the National Storytelling Festival, she is an Assistant Professor at Dominican University in Illinois. 

Her workshop handout should soon be placed on the Tejas Storytelling Website but here's the gist of our hands on creations:

Janice spoke of the writing structure of a story we want to create: 

I - Introduction: setting and place: who, what, when, where
I - Initial incident which kicks off the action (problem or conflict)
R - Rising action of the story (plot development and logical sequence of events)
C - Climax - high point of interest
C - Conclusion: possible solution to problem or conflict (tie up loose ends quick!)


The hands-on part of the workshop: Students are very interested in variance and retelling of traditional tales that they know. Choose a well known fairy tale, folktale, or urban legend. List what has to stay and what has to go. Use the story structure above to create your own version of that tale. We read from her handout the story called "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" and then worked in groups of the magical #3 and created our own version to that tale. Janis added a few directions for us (can't use a form of transportation and no article of clothing) Wow, some of the stories that came out of that exercise were amazing.  I don't have permission to post "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" but her handout will have it.

Our San Antonio Storytelling Association meets at the Brookhollow Public Library the first Wednesday of every month from 6:30p.m. - 8:00p.m.  We would love to see and hear you, whether you are visiting our festive city or a resident who would enjoy listening to tales told and mini-workshops presented. You may want to try out a story you've been dying to hear feedback on. We welcome each and everyone of you.
Please check us out on Facebook for upcoming events, such as the Texas Storytelling Conference being held right here in San Antonio on July 26 - July 30, 2014! Our annual membership fee is $15.00.

The Tejas Storytelling Association is our Texas organization that houses itself in Denton, TX.  I always look forward to the Tejas Storytelling Festival each spring, featuring world renown storytellers, regional tellers, and swap tents for anyone who wants to share a story. This year, the Tejas Storytelling Festival will be held March 6 - 9, 2014. I'll be telling a ghost story Thursday night, March 6th. You'll have a chance to hear many tellers but also participate in several workshops for educators and want-to-be storytellers. Annual membership fee is $35.00. You can also keep up with TSA on Facebook.

Our National Storytelling organization is the National Storytelling Network. You can find its very informative blog on Facebook. I LOVE listening to their featured storytellers on their blog. I learn so much by listening to their words, inflections, beginnings, endings, and all in-between. NSN has great links to other sites that will help you out in every realm of storytelling, whether your an educator or a business person. NSN has their storytelling Festival during the fall in Jonesborough, Tennessee. The leaves are all the colors of fall, the town is the oldest in Tennessee with much history to brag about. You can't miss it!  NSN also has a summer conference, finding its way throughout the United States. This summer, it will be held in Arizona, July 24 - 27, 2014. I'm hoping I can make it this summer!

I'm preparing for my storytelling workshop held at Region 20 this Friday, Sept. 20th (20th annual Librarian Roundup). My workshop is integrating the new with the ancient - where digital storytelling meeting back porch telling.  There's a few links that I think are pretty powerful when it comes to using your creativity on line with your stories. I thought I would pass them on. Visit this website: www.symbaloo.com/mix/onceuponadigitaltime

If you haven't bookmarked Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything, then stop what you are doing right now and bookmark her because her site is amazing.  She's dedicated a very detailed page to digital storytelling and it really does have EVERYTHING on it. I'll definitely be highlighting her website on Friday. Check it out: http://www.schrockguide.net/digital-storytelling.html