Storytelling elements (fwd)

[Carol J. Cannon]

   I took the liberty of asking one of the Society's senior statesmen 
amongst storytellers the question below, which appeared in this forum 
earlier.  Here is his Grace's [Cariadoc of the Bow] response:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 1996 13:58:58 -0800
From: david friedman
To: "Carol J. Cannon" <cjcannon at neuheim.ucdavis.edu>
Subject: Re: Storytelling elements (fwd)
      >Basically, how far may I stretch the C of SCA?  If I manage to contain
>the important elements of plot, maintain the atmosphere, and tell it 
>well, how much do these little "atoms" of tale matter? 
      It isn't an issue of "may"--the SCA tolerates all sorts of terrible 
things. It is a question of what you want to achieve and how well you want to
achieve it. If what you want to achieve is a convincing representation of a
period storyteller telling a period story, then you should start by reading
lots of period stories from whatever culture you are using and trying to
tell them. That does not mean memorizing and reciting verbatim--doing that
does not work unless you are a very good actor. It means reading the story,
telling it as best you can, telling it again, reading it again and noticing
neat bits you had forgotten. Putting them back in. Telling it again. ...
You don't ever expect to be perfect, just to get better. And if you are not
entertaining your audience you are doing something wrong.
      If you start by telling "perioid" stories of your own invention, you
will never learn anything about the real medieval ages from the process--just
recycle whatever you now believe. And you will only teach your hearers what
you now believe--much of which may turn out to be wrong. On the other hand,
you will fit in very well, since that is the average level at which most of
the SCA is done. 
      One other suggestion--start with short pieces. They are easier to 
learn, and less of a catastrophe if they flop. When people make it obvious by
their response that they are enjoying your performance, shift to longer
stories.
David/Cariadoc
David Friedman