A journey from the page to the stage

I promised as President of the North Carolina Storytelling Guild, that I would do a monthly article on a topic of interest to storytellers. If I didn’t promise, then I meant to. And please don’t rope and tie me if I forget a month. But I will do my best to ramble on a somewhat regular basis on the lessons that I have learned as a professional storyteller. I do not claim to be a master by your definition. I do claim to have made a lot of mistakes along the way and feel it my duty to keep others from making them too. So look at this article (not too closely, good grief, I can’t be the grammar expert too) as encouragement, advice, and mutterings from a fellow storyteller. Sometimes you will already know everything in the article and more, and sometimes it may seem overwhelming. Just read it and email me if you have any questions or glowing compliments. If you have any complaints send them to Sylvia Payne. (Just kidding. Get over it. I do that a lot when I write. And I never can remember whether the period goes in or out of the parenthesis. Don’t tell me, I’ll only forget.) Today’s topic is creation.

Stop fanning yourself. I’m not going to start off with a religious discussion. We’ll save that for next month. I mean creation in the artistic sense. We are artists. We create. We tell a story. Whether we dance, paint, sing, or play Beethoven’s Fifth on the jaw harp, we tell a story. A story about life. And when we tell this story we evoke an emotion from our audience. We take them to places in their own life or to distant lands where cultures are different but the emotions are the same. We are given our gifts for a reason. Our voices were meant to tell a story. And as artists, we spend our lives finding out what stories are in us to tell. It is important that you find YOUR story, YOUR message to the world, YOUR voice. So for this article I will talk about that stage that happens before you learn the story. The part where you decide what story you want to tell.

Many beginning storytellers already have the passion and the courage to dip their toe into this exciting art form. But they don’t know what stories to tell. Where should they look? What stories are they supposed to tell? What are the rules of being a storyteller? Do they have to tell a Jack tale? And I think that many storytellers jump over a step in this process. They look at what others are doing. They pick stories, memorize them, and start telling. I know, because that’s exactly what I did. I’m a writer so I happened to pick stories that I wrote so I wouldn’t have to worry about legal issues. But I jumped in and started telling.

I think that there’s an important step you need to go through that doesn’t require great skill or manual dexterity. You must search inside yourself (an ongoing process by the way) to find out what messages you have to share with the world. What stories your heart speaks.

Professional speakers are taught to speak about what they know, what life has taught them. I encourage you as artists to do the same. And to do so, we must at least wonder what our lives have taught us. What lessons have we learned? What sage wisdom have we stored up? What do we have to share with the world?

If you’re like me, upon hearing this, you went “huh?” and wondered if maybe you should have filled out that Wal-Mart application after all. I went so far as to get out a piece of paper and write across the top, “Things I have learned in my life….” And I stared at it for like fifteen minutes and then went to get some chocolate and an aspirin for my brain cramp. But I came back to it and decided, oh what the heck, just start writing. And my list was started. I gave myself no rules, no limits, no boundaries. I told myself it could be serious, funny, religious, earth shattering or silly. The point was just to write and keep writing without thinking. To write about what my life has taught me. And I knew (I was right of course) that in this process some things would start to take birth.

I came up with four pages of things I have learned in my life. Number one: Life is too short to eat okra. Number two: Big hair will make your thighs look smaller. Number nineteen: Ten years from now I will not remember who headed up the hospitality committee at church, but I will never forget that group of ladies who brought me a prayer shawl when I had a miscarriage. Number thirty-two: You can’t always change the road you’re on, but you always change the way you see that road. I can go on, but I’m sure you’re already thinking of your own life lessons.

When you have finished your list (which you never will) you will see the messages (i.e. the morals) that you have to share with the world. These are the things that life has taught you and now have become your passions. These are the things your stories should be about. I have heard so many stories where plenty of things happened, but the story was not really about anything. Does that make sense? If not, email me and I’ll explain further.

But to make sure you understand this I’m going to say it again. In your search for the perfect story to tell, start with the message YOU want to tell. Then find the story that has that message. Or write one! It’s easier than you think.

And when you tell the story, make sure that the listener knows the message. I am surprised at how often the teller isn’t even clear on the message, much less the audience. I know it sounds weird and maybe hard to understand. But nobody said creation was going to be easy. But you will be glad you went to the trouble because this is how you begin to find your voice, your attitude, the kinds of stories you want to tell. Shoot, you may even have the courage to start writing your own stories.

I want you to get a journal. Today. By journal, I mean a notebook with paper in it that can not be used for grocery lists or notes to yourself. Call it your life journal. This is not a diary. I repeat, this is not a diary. This is a place to start recording stuff. By stuff, I mean anything that gets your attention. I mean scenes that touch your heart, descriptions of people on the subway, funny ways to describe a drooling dog with three legs, what it feels like to get older, rants about voice mail and customer service, whatever you want to write. You don’t even have to write in complete sentences.

Keep the journal with you at all times. If you’re like me, you’ll have several in different places - your car, by your bed, in your purse. And I’m warning you to write this stuff down as soon as you think of it. You will not remember it tomorrow. What we’re doing here is recording the details in life so that when we sit down to write a story, we’re not trying to think of things off the top of our head. We can refer to our notebooks which over time will grow to be grand collections of material to use in our art.

This is not going to make sense to you right away. It didn’t to me. And sometimes I will write things down wondering where in the world I will ever use that. But that’s not the point. The point is to write. The point is to get used to looking around you for you material. Life is filled with more material than you could ever hope to make up.

On some of the pages of the journal, give yourself a topic and write about it. Here are some of the topics I have used in mine:

Categories: Term paper writing
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Politeness is of one most important qualities when we are talking about living in society and interacting with different people. Politeness is showing your level of personal development and shows your respect to the person you are interacting with. As a result of that writing in a polite manner gives a major plus when you’re addressing anybody by a letter, e-mail or other sorts of correspondence.

There were special systems of addressing in writing to show your politeness, for example in the end of a letter using word combinations like “Sincerely/ Looking forward to hear back from you/ Truly yours/ Looking forward to serve you” or in the beginning combinations like “Sir/Madam” etc. When a person receives a letter with “marks” like that he/she understands that you are taking him/her seriously and respecting his/her personality. Also being polite in writing means avoidance of the usage of words and word combinations that might seem rude. If you are addressing a person whom you don’t know do not try to be friendly right away using combinations like “What’s up?!” etc.

Another aspect of politeness in writing is spelling and being grammatically correct. Your relation to these matters might hint the receiver about your personality and about your personal relation to him/her. If you are spelling words incorrectly and misusing words or anything like that it will seem that you are not really taking what you are doing seriously and correspondently not taking the receiver seriously. He will do the same thing to you. And of course it’s a lot easier and more pleasant to just read a grammatically correct letter, e-mail etc.

Categories: Term paper writing
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Is there anyone who is not confused with the proper usage of the verbs “lay” and “lie”? I know I am from time to time. So that’s why I developed a “visual aid” to help myself remember what is what. It works for me and I hope it’ll be helpful for you as well.

and it is a transitive verb. That is, it needs an OBJECT to make sense. You always lay SOMETHING.

Imagine the letter “a” in “Lay” as someone bending over to place a heavy object on the ground.

“Our engineers will lay the foundation of our new headquarters building.”

Both the past and perfect tense of “Lay” is “Laid.” Lay-Laid-Laid (1-2-2).

“Our engineers have laid the foundation of our new headquarters building.”

Imagine the DOT on the letter “i” in “Lie” as the head of someone resting/reclining on a couch or bed.

But watch out — the PAST tense of lie is also lay! That’s why it can get pretty confusing.

“The puppy would not lay still even for a second!”

So when you see “lay,” you have to figure out whether it is to “put/place” or “recline/remain” from the context.

However the perfect tense of “Lie” is “Lain.” Lie-Lay-Lain (1-2-3).

“The overturned truck had lain in the ditch the whole night.”

Its past and perfect tenses are “Lied” and “Lied.” Lie-Lied-Lied (1-2-2). Usually it’s easy to tell this form of “lie” from the other.

(”Puppy lied.” Correct? No. Puppies don’t talk. It should be “Puppy lay.”)

Categories: Term paper writing
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In the next couple of months I will be writing a number of articles about how you can break into the children’s market of writing. This will be a considerably long series so I suggest you keep checking back for the newest post.

Writing children’s literature is a great way to break into the writing market. There is an opening for a wide range of topics because the readers range from toddler to young adult. It’s up to you to figure out what best suits your writing and your ideas. You just have to figure out what you want to write about.

Magazines

Magazines can be the perfect place to break in with your short stories. When you write in magazines it’s the perfect way to build your writing credentials and it also helps to establish you as a professional writer. You don’t just have to publish short stories either. You can publish poetry, verse, puzzles, fiction or non fiction. Books can take for ever to hit the market but with magazine articles you can have your work published in months if not weeks sometimes.

Magazines are a perfect place to get specialty pieces published. As we all know most magazines limit their focuses on specific content.

Magazines aren’t only limited in their content. The intended audiences of most periodicals are limited to particular age levels and genders. Babybugs intended audience is toddlers while the Keynoter is aimed at high school students. Boys Life is geared to boys and Hopscotch is a magazine for girls.

Some magazines devote entire issues to a focused topic or theme. It’s in your best interest to read a magazine that you intend to publish to. Make sure your familiar with the magazine and what kind of content it will accept. Make sure you understand the publisher’s contents. You also want to make sure you know when the magazine publishes. This way you can plan ahead with your stories.

Many writers have gotten their start by writing in magazines. Writing for children can definitely be the easiest genre to follow if you want to follow your dreams.

Categories: Term paper writing
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When it comes to some writers, publishers, and readers, there are two categories of fiction: General Fiction and Christian Fiction. If you’re an author you may sometimes wonder where your work fits, so let’s define the two.

-General Market

Most often these books are written with what is most termed as a secular world view. The target market is much wider and from my observations includes anyone who reads books. Content can be graphic but that is not always the case.

-Christian Market

What earns these books their section of a bookstore is their Christian world view. The target market here is readers who want some faith in their fiction. Content can be honest and at times gripping but is not usually graphic although that is changing.

As a writer (and a believer) I spend time and money in both sections because reading is my continuing education.

While I try to stay true to the story I’m given to write, I’m also a writer who wants readers, so I study the market on both sides of the aisle. I can spend hours learning from book covers. I will take time to write the title, author, and publisher in my notebook so I can check back and see what intrigued me enough to pull the book off the shelf when it’s time to design my next cover. I read the back cover copy - the blurbs that sometimes are just enough to make a reader buy the book. I check out the opening lines to see if I’m drawn in. Then I may take in the first chapter. If I enjoy the pace, language, and over all writing, I will either buy the book or add the title to my wish list. (I have a very long list!)

The first time I read a book is as a reader. No highlighter or pen although I might dog ear a page I know I want to come back to when I begin the reading as writer phase. The second reading is faster as I search for key spots the author delighted, scared, or disappointed me.

I’ve developed my own “code” for these places I’m drawn to and therefore learn from. A smiley face for places I found funny or that made me smile. A heart for a phrase I loved. A cross for a faith moment and a black dot for a spot that scared me spit-less. A sad face for a where the author disappointed me. An arrow means this is something I want to ponder, argue, or agree with. Question marks means there’s something there I didn’t understand and may want to learn more about. An exclamation mark means “right on!” in my short hand. Highlighted passages are those I want to remember either because they taught me something about writing or myself. I use a cross when the author is exceptional at writing about faith. These symbols become a word-less journal within the book.

As a reader and a student of writing, I’m picky about the books I purchase. If the books I buy can be both entertainment and text book, I get to double my pleasure.

As a writer and seller of my own books, reading books from both sides of the fiction market shows me what works for readers. This is not my main driving force when I sit down at the keyboard. The love of writing, the passion for my story, and staying true to the characters is far more important than writing for the markets. If a story is well-written, readers will cross-over.

I’ve also come to believe from reading that writers can put their faith all over their fiction. Bold authors are respected and read. Readers are savvy and unafraid of being converted. When an author writes a compelling book, people will buy it and read it if only to disagree. This kind of writing stays in the hearts of the readers and on the sales reports of bookstores for years.

Categories: Book reports
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