I wish I could say this was something I celebrate every year but I think this is the first year I’ve noticed it! National Storytelling Week is from the 30th Jan to the 6th Feb and it’s a society interested in spreading awareness for the tradition of oral story telling.
Verbally telling stories is something I love. I’m not just talking about listening to audio books. If I’m quite honest listening to someone read a story out loud isn’t my idea of fun. Don’t get me wrong; I love the story-ness of it but I get distracted by the voices. Y’know?
One of my favourite memories of growing up is my dad making up stories for us at night, a tradition me and my sister continued when we were growing up and sharing a room. We’d re-tell the stories from movies but in our own words and they were always hilarious to us. To me that’s the beauty of oral story telling; the connection to any kind of emotion.
Writing stories and reading stories are all based using you inner ears… does that sound silly? Oh well! I like how telling stories to one another adds that sense of interaction; sharing is caring guys.
There is a Youtube channel I love, love, love called One Time Stories. Curated by Leslie, it’s a series inspired by the art of sharing verbally. It’s hilarious, honestly! I always look forward to the new episodes because it makes you realise how many different tales there are to tell.
Check it out and let me know how you feel about storytelling; did your parents make stories up when you were younger? I am sure that’s why I find it so easy to come up with book ideas now!
Sam
Pretty Thoughtful Blog 