Monday, February 28, 2011

The Core Art of Storytelling


[Jan Morrison always manages to get me thinking. This post is inspired by her fantastic post on 'The Core Art', which she posted over at Burrowers, Books & Balderdash. Do head over if you haven't read it yet, but only after spending a minute reading this!]

"Mamma, tell me the story of the monkey that stole your friends' oranges." I oblige.
"Did the monkey peel the orange before eating?" "Yes, it did", I guess.
"And what did the monkey do with the seeds?" "It spat them out", I improvise.
"Did the seeds hit your friend?"

The kids love old stories- new details are added, old ones embellished, the stories evolve, and yet remain the same. They love new stories too.

All these months when the kids have left me no time to write, they have been challenging the storyteller in me. I shouldn't complain, should I?

_____
drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.

11 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Kids have such active imaginations.

Anonymous said...

Kids have thousands of stories in their heads every day. They are a real inspiration!

Anonymous said...

Rayna - I think it's so important to tap that creativity, whether it comes out in the stories we tell our children or it comes out at the keyboard. Harnessing that is an important part of life :-)

Jen said...

Your kids have the best imaginations. I love reading about their adventures :D

Have a great week!
Jen

Dorte H said...

The wonderful Swedish writer, Astrid Lindgren, began her career by telling stories for her daughter. Later she wrote them down and achieved world fame.

Not quite sure I can follow the same route from goodnight stories to crime fiction, but who knows? :D

Sueann said...

I love story telling. I consider it an art form and the children never tire of it!! Adults enjoy it as well!
Hugs
SueAnn

Jane Kennedy Sutton said...

Being able to tell a story is as good as writing one. Maybe you can turn them into a series of children’s books someday.

Saumya said...

Another great story about your kids :) I wish I had that imagination at their age!

Hart Johnson said...

No, but maybe you should record yourself to capture them later!

Unknown said...

If I wrote more YA books, I would run my stories by my son. He would tell me what I needed to add.

Natasha said...

@ Alex - that they do.

@ Fiona - absolutely. They are the real inspiration.

@ Margot - in my case, I seem to tap into my creativity only when it comes to making up stories for the kids. But that's better than not doing so at all.

@ Jen - thank you. They do have a great imaginatio, both of them. Or maybe I listen to their stories more than is good for me!

@ Dorte - that's how she began, is it? I love Pippi Longstocking, and can't wait till I read it with my kids.

@ SueAnna- I love kid lit too. It is so refreshing.

@ Jane - someday :-(
But yes, that is on my radar, someday.

@ Saumya - how do you know you didn't? Education seems to have the objective of killing imagination- that could be what happened to you too.

@ Hart - or just write them down. Why I am so lazy, I really don't know.

@ Clarissa - when I was a little older than your son, I was addicted to mysteries. Just saying ;-)

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