Story Telling

photo by Shirley King

 STORY TELLING

             Many eons ago, people  sat around a fire on a cold winter nights. They listened to a story. On summer evenings they did the same. On lakeside, beach, mountain, desert  or river bank, it didn’t matter. Stories were remembered, invented, created. Young and old enjoyed listening.

             People have gathered to hear stories for thousands of years.  The first storytellers had only their voices, their memories, and their imagination, but their stories were cherished, remembered and passed on.  Stories were told before pencils, books, television, radio, computers, tablets or cell phones were even imagined.

.           The Story Teller was a special person in the community. His or her task was not only to entertain, but to answer big questions. Humans have always had big questions to wonder about.

            They wondered about the big fireball in the sky. Why did it appear every day and go away every night?  They watched that other light, too. They wondered why that big silver light came in the night. Why did it come sometimes as a silver crescent, and other times as a complete round disk?

            Whenever people wondered about mysterious events in their lives, they hoped the storyteller would help them understand it. 

            Story Tellers were special. They had to remember every detail of the story and be able to invent new stories. To be a story teller was a special calling.

            As time went on, story tellers, discovered they could draw their stories on the walls of caves. Later, people who wanted to remember stories made paper from papyrus. Papyrus was a plant with fibers that could be woven together. Story tellers learned to use thorns, and tips of feathers to write on paper with vegetable dyes,

            Other story tellers used clay tablets. Papyrus and clay tablets could be carried and shared with others.  Stories were passed on for hundreds of years in this way.     

            Then, in 1440, a German man, named Johannes Gutenberg, invented a machine that printed letters on paper. The first dated book known had been printed in China, but Gutenberg’s  Press launched modern printing. Stories were available for reading by many, many people. More and more people learned not only to tell stories, but to read then, too.

            Later, radio and television brought stories to even more people.

            Today, we have computers, tablets, cell phones and many varieties of these. Many more people have access to stories.

            Now we know many facts about that fireball, the sun, and the night light, we call the moon. But there are still many big questions which scientists still wonder about. Story tellers still try to answer them.  In fact, some of our modern inventions were first spoken of by story tellers and then invented by others who thought about the ideas of the story tellers.

            Leonardo Da Vinci, a famous artist, in the 1480’s, watched how birds flew. He thought there was a way for people to fly. He put his thoughts and drawings in notebooks which are still read today.

Chester Greenwood, a 13-year old boy in Farmington, Maine, thought about how cold his ears got while he ice skated. He made little ear covers for his ears. At first, his friends laughed at him. Then, they noticed that, he played outside long after their cold ears sent them inside. Later, Chester obtained a patent and made his fortune on ear muffs

Many people tell stories today. Sports announcers tell us the stories of games and athletes. News reporters tell us stories of what is happening in our world.

Authors and writers create stories to entertain us. These stories are called fiction.

Stories can be about things that are going on right now or that have happened in the past. When the story is about one of these events or people, or things, they are called Nonfiction.

While fiction may not mention the name or tell the details of an event as it happened, fiction often tells us very important truths.  For example, if you want to read a story about how life actually was when Charles Dickens, a great writer, was alive, read A Christmas Carol, or David Copperfield.   Mr. Dickens lived then. Terrible things happened to poor people. He might have gotten into trouble, been put in jail or even put to death if he gave the names and addresses of people who were responsible for the awful things that happened.  Instead he created fiction stories. Everybody understood what he was writing, even though he did not mention actual names and addresses.

In the United States of America we are very fortunate because we have freedom of the press. Mr. Gutenberg made the first “press.”  Since then there have been many new kinds of printing presses. However, when we refer to the freedom to write, we call it freedom of the press. That is any type of written material that anyone distributes.

If the story, news report or whatever is spoken, then the person is exercising freedom of speech, too.

These rights are very important. What is said to be nonfiction must be factually true. We cannot use our freedom of speech to lie about anyone, or misrepresent what has happened.

Fiction writers can create a story about actual events, but they may not name actual people or cite events, actions, or situations. They have to change names, addresses, and sometimes even the event.  Nevertheless, they can tell the story, just as Mr. Dickens and many other authors have by creating names, places, events.

My book SECRET MELODY is an example of fiction based on actual events. I could create the story because it is well known that people are fleeing from terrorists, that child immigrants are being brought across borders, I told the story of a boy and girl who were separated from their parents by terrorists, how it happened and what happened to them. I did not name the terrorists. The children had fictional names. Their adventures were described without giving names of actual people.

I like being a storyteller.  Storytelling continues today as it began eons ago. Let’s create stories that will entertain and inspire others on cold winter nights and on warm summer days. Stories can delight us, cheer us up when we are sad, and help us think about this wonderful world. Write a story today!