Others on their side receives the story their way.

The hope of a story is to invoke a vision for a word, stating visual accounting of what is in a scene. Sometimes the visual account is a word list. An example in this sentence, “Rhyonna’s had mud mixed with hairy gray fluff on her hands, yellow dress, and wings.” Hopefully, the reader/listener inside their visual mind travels through the list to Rhyonna’s muddy hands, then to her muddy spotted, crumpled yellow dress, and to her tattered, gray hanging wings, the way the reader/listener saw the scene.
The reader/listener fills in the details they imagine and see in their mind. This is the magic of writing and storytelling. The other on their side receives the story their way. Like the two ways of setting up a website, the back end is what the technicians set up, the front end is what the viewer sees. Or, the computer with its programs has a special language and many experts created the programming for everything we do with the computer on on the web. This is also the magic of video games children love. Many created the visuals, pixel by pixel; a child intently plays the game as an interactive adventure to pursue. The child builds a visual story. Much as we drive a car knowing little about the motor, gears, brakes, use of fuels: we turn a key and guide it going on our adventure story.? And how much went into the work for a book held or story hear; the back story is not read. Much as a piece of art! a sewn quilt, a house or apartment we live in, the tap water we drink, and on and on.


The simplified front story is the magic we play and live in everyday. Who can or wants to measure the back story that created all of this for us to enjoy? No me, just enjoy!

The director throws the image!

SUCCESS!

The reader, listener, or viewer need a stage. An artist paints images within or around a frame to bring the viewer inside and hold them, same with a photo. The writer has written words symbols that pull together and create images of person, voice, and scene/place on a flat page. The storyteller, who faces the audience, has that audience looking at them while acting the voices and gestures of characters. A storyteller directs the voice, words, gestures, and body movements.  The goal is to keep the listen/viewer in their own minds while the storyteller directs the video/movie of the story. The place, the clothing, the character the viewer/listener supplies to the story. Writing a story is like this and depends on a voice in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person and in present or past tense to immersed the reader into the scenes. The readers lifts the story off the page to play in their minds as they read. A writer need to fill in the image with more word symbols while the storyteller uses tones of voice, face expression, hands, and body gesture to direct actions. The character is not on the stage, or painted on canvas, or worded on a page; character and plot are in the mind of the listener/viewer. When the viewer looks at a picture, one is in for the moment and makes-up the story, most times without a plot. 
Using all three is an exciting way to process a story journey. The joy is creating the story.

The Producer for BobbieTales

Clarion's write-a-thon June 23 to August 3, 2013

Another Clarion write-a-thon came and is gone. Book III of the Elfin Letters finished! AS IT IS Now, Magic,

After intense writing for 28 days, plotting, characters sorted, corrected names, and the Lassies' letters in order, very important, I finished 22 chapters of AS IT IS, Now MAGIC. The letters from the Lassies tell of the Elfin magic in Rainbow Village and the spirited folk around the gardens. The hardest decision was what villagers to be in the story. One winner was Alfegar the pixie, he does bring his special magic and humor to the Member's Circle. Also for spice a few seedy spirits arrived via the INBetween into the gardens.

The point of the story is that the Elves learn about their magic, good and bad; and what they give to the Lassies, good and bad; who else is attracted by this magic. 

The thinker at work on the 'where'!

The where! Here I am again in my head going over and over the place of the story - this voice and that voice of the characters here and there. Oh! there's the character.

WHERE IS this character?

I see her dancing in the sky. I'm carefully observing what the character looks like, and how does she move, what age. Opps! That's me! I'm looking around thinking. Where? There she is, young about 10 years old, dancing on a dry dirt path, yes, with her friend. Or, is that her brother? Yes, her brother who is younger. They run to catch huge green grasshoppers. The dirt path is dusty and long. Now I see the overview: the long dirt road through the field of tall dry grasses in front of them, the old brick train buildings behind and to the left, and the trees and creek to the right. They are running on the old train road in the old forgotten train yard.

Okay that is the physical place?

How is the character feeling about the path, her brother, and the grasshopper? How she feels is the emotional place for the reader or listener --- the audience.

Where is her mental place?

Okay, I'll float awhile gathering the moment. Happy, tired, excited, or maybe mad? No, she is happy running and dancing. The air is hot, she is sweating. No breeze, still and hot! Only for wind created while running. Opps! the grasshopper she holds spits on her hand, now she jumps, screaming, ICK! No, water to wash he hand. Her brother, much younger, comes over to help. He wipes the 'tocacco' off. She feels love and trust for him. They are on a journey alone with no mom and dad to their grandma's house. They run fast afraid of many bums, which live there. They have seen them and hear the stories of their gangs. The girl is very thirsty and getting tired from the running, now dancing. Although happy to be with her strong brother, they are in a race to reach Grandma's and to enjoy her fresh baked cinnamon rolls with butter which always wait for them.

Now the story unfolds.

Next, dear writer, what do the characters look like?

Storytelling helps the writing!

Oral story, the oldest form of storytelling, vibrates
in our bones. We tell stories all day to many
people. Writing the stories follows the same
structural processes of plot, characterizing, and
scenes as a verbally told story but we use word
symbols for the voice symbols. In verbally told
stories we can use body movement and facial
expressions for the characters. For both crafts,
concise, clear words paint images and bring the
characters alive to hear and see.

When crafting the ‘oral story’ the first sentence is
the set-up -- the when, where, who, and what:

Once upon at time so-and-so lived somewhere and felt something. In a picture
book the first three illustrations are the set-up (when, where, who, and what). In
a chapter book or middle-grade novel it's the first page, and in a young adult or
adult novel the first chapter is the set-up for the story. Then the listeners or
readers are lead by words to the emotional event -- the why: a conflict, problem,
or puzzle to resolve.

Clear, accurate words direct and focus the journey. Plotting starts. For the
youngest audience, one character interacts with someone or something in three
to five scenes. For the more mature audience, many characters interact in the
main plot with subplots traveling an A to Z path with many emotional events.
The storyteller or writer intrigues the audience with twists and mystery to
enhance the story.

Carefully selected written or verbal words focus the characters in action. The
characters move, react, and talk -- not telling but showing the characters in the
scenes. Words connect images to the listeners or readers. The present or simple
past tense makes the drama stronger. The characters push the plot forward.

The emotional actions, reactions, and dialogues of the characters reach out and
emotionally cord, bonding to the listeners or readers, who then plug into motives and feelings of the characters’ or their own. The charge is the emotional impact of conflict, adventure, or the puzzle. The audience is glued into the story waiting for the final charged event -- the how. Satisfying stories have a solution for the audience. The conclusion shows change in the characters, and the ending brings the audience back to their world.

A story can be told in five sentences or written into hundreds of pages to enjoy
for days. To know how your written story affects readers, tell the story to
listeners and watch their expressions. The facial expressions will tell if the story
is good, or needs more work.

STORY seems so simple, however; STORY is complicated on many levels.
Here are websites that post events and classes, fests, and workshops for
storytelling, ultimately helping in crafting the written story.

Stagebridge is a school for seniors in acting and storytelling. In one semester you'll experience teachers and their special skills and styles.You learn how to have fun while developing stories. Check their website stagebridge.

Storytelling Association of Alta California has a calendar of events for storytelling. STORYLINE (SAC newsletter) is a $30 yearly subscription, which lists all upcoming
storytelling events. Check out SAC,  Facebook

SAC Storytelling Festival, 2010 was the 25th celebration Bay Area Storytelling Festival, which is a feast of stories told by selected professional storytellers. Check out BASF for next years events.

National Storytelling Network, NSN for a listing of event and storytellers.

A MUST! An archive of stories since September 2006! A feast for the ears! Jackie Baldwin's radio show, Story-Lovers World!, airs every Sunday from 5-6 p.m. Pacific time on public radio station KSVY in Sonoma Valley. Contact to Jackie visit her website story-lovers.

Bobbie Kinkead is an illustrator, author and storyteller, can be viewed at following web addresses to learn more about BobbieTales and her work:

Welcome to Story Tells 2009

YouTube
Professional Storyteller
National Storytelling Network
LinkedIn
Follow Bobbie on Facebook
Twitter Bobbie!