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Producer Guidelines     |     Story Guidelines    |     Story Slam FAQ's


Stories Guidelines and Technique Tips

The audience and the judges are expecting oral storytelling (no reading or script). Real stories have a beginning, middle and end. And they have a point. You are clear about why the story is important to you and why you want to tell it. Retelling any folktale, myth or fable can be done if reworked to make it your original work. Copyright laws apply, poetry is not encouraged - unless the poem is original, 5 minutes long and tells a story.

A Workshop: Campus groups who would like help with a Slam Storytellers Workshop (1½ hours) prior to their slam date can contact the Connecticut Storytelling Center for a facilitator by calling 860-439-2764 or emailing us at info@connstorycenter.org.

Presentation - Your story presentation is important. It tells us why and how we should listen to you. Your voice and body are instruments of your art. Use your voice, gesture and movement to the best of your ability to make your story lively and entertaining.

Theme - Your story, not just the title or "punch line" connects in a meaningful way to the theme. This is wide open and helps you focus at the same time.
Theme Suggestions: (each campus determines its own theme): Campus Comedy, Is that in the course description?, Framed, Fouled Out, Pomp and Circumstantial Evidence, Literary Minions, In the Stacks, Dorm Life, Getting There, Make the Grade, Résumé Realities, Applications.

Practice - You have to practice. One tip is memorizing the beginning and the ending words of your story by heart. It helps with confidence and focus.
Practicing: before a mirror, into a recorder, in the car, when alone, in your head before you go to sleep, to a friend or family member all help. Do at least some of these MANY times. You will be glad you did.
Time yourself so that you do not exceed the 5 minute limit.

Storytelling Ideas: ( borrowed from Massmouth.com with their permission)
http://onlinecourselady.pbworks.com/w/page/12763785/50ideas

Storytelling Techniques:
Author: Laura Gibbs - (great stuff in abundance at her sites)

Every time a storyteller tells a story, there are an infinite number of different ways to tell the story. Below you will find a list of different ways you might choose to tell a story.

Even though this list is very long, it is not complete. There are still many, many more possible ways to tell a story beyond the suggestions provided here. So, you can use this list to get a specific idea for how you might want to retell a story... or you can use this list as a way to get your creative juices flowing, so that you end up with a completely new storytelling technique that is not even listed here.

First-Person Narration: Most stories you find in books are told in third-person. You can retell the story in first-person, choosing one of the characters in the story to be the narrator. You might choose one of the main characters as your narrator, or you can choose one of the marginal characters. You can even choose an inanimate object to tell the story: imagine the story of King Arthur and "the sword in the stone" as told by the sword - or by the stone!

Dear Diary: One of the most popular ways to create a first-person narration is to retell a story in the form of a diary or a journal, written by the one of the characters in the story.

Frame tale: You can take the story and insert it inside a "frame" which gives an added meaning to the story. So you can imagine a grandpa talking to his grandkids, a preacher who uses a story in a sermon, a reporter writing a story for a newspaper, etc.

Dialogue: You can really develop a story by adding dialogue, or expanding on the dialogue that is already there. Dialogue is a way to bring out the specific qualities of the different characters, allowing them to express themselves emotionally!

Interview: One way to create a dialogue scene is to stage an interview. You can imagine a reporter interviewing someone for a newspaper story, Oprah interviewing someone who is a guest on her show, a lawyer interviewing a witness on the stand, etc.

Television or Theater Script: In a more extreme form of the "dialogue" style, you can write out the story as if it were a scene, or a series of scenes, from a play or movie, expressing the plot of the story through the words spoken by the characters (along with stage directions, as necessary).

Poetry / Ballad: Some stories can be retold in the form of a poem, or in the form of a ballad. In fact, ballads are one of our most important sources for European legends and tales!

Dialect: If a story is written in standard English, you might choose to tell the story in dialect, such as Valley Girl talk, hip hop version, etc. If the story is already written in dialect, you can create your own version of the story by translating the dialect back into standard English.

Modernization / Change Setting: You can change the setting of the story to a setting you are more familiar with, adapting the story to a modern setting, such as a college campus, the business world, world of crime, Hollywood, etc.

The"Twist": You can change the ending of the story, telling "what really happened," ask "what if...?" etc.

Sequel / Prequel: You can use your imagination to describe events and scenes that take place before the actual story, or you can write a story that explains what happens after the final part of the actual story (what really happened when Beauty got married to the Beast...?)

There are all kinds of possibilities, of course - this list is just to give you some ideas if you are feeling stuck!

For more hints, see examples on You -Tube/MassMouth


Producer Guidelines     |     Story Guidelines    |     Story Slam FAQ's






CT Commission on Culture and Tourism Connecticut College League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling The National Storytelling Network The Graduate Institute The New Jersey Storytelling Network