Tell Me Something Good

Saturday Morning - Blog by Diana Dinshaw

Have you ever had a morning where your mind is fully awake and your body is saying, “I am not ready to get up”?

Well that is the kind of morning I had this past Saturday and after I had made all kinds of lists in my mind while I lay in bed very still, I realized that I did not have a story to run through in my head. It’s like the feeling you get the morning after final exams. Don’t get me wrong. While I love crafting and telling stories it was a relief to have a break.

Most mornings I will wake up and have a part of a story that I am working on, running through my head. It may be a part that I am not happy with and am still working out. Or it may be a part that I have crafted and really like the choice of words and want to make sure I remember to say it just that way. Sometimes it is seeing if there is a repetition that can be structured. And sometimes it may be more than one story depending on what events are coming up. But on Saturday morning when I woke up there was nothing.

I had ideas for two stories but had not started my story cycle yet. When I work on a story it starts with the thought, “I want to tell this story” and most times at that initial stage I don’t know the “why”. But over the years I have learned that if a story wants to be told I need to listen and start preparing for it. 

Research: My process for folktales, myth/legends and fact-based stories starts with research. Are there other versions of the story? What details do I want to include in my version? For fact-based stories the research is more intense and time consuming. Personal stories don’t need the traditional way of doing research but research may be needed to support or give context to a detail in the story. Growing up when I was told the story of how I was named the information given was that I got really sick a few days after I was born and had to be taken to the hospital. I asked a friend of mine, who is a pediatrician, what the “really sick” may have looked like given the circumstances of my birth so I could add that detail in my story.

Craft and Learn: For me these two steps go hand in hand. Once I have a fair amount of material I start crating the story. Depending on the type of story I will use a story structure that fits. I will confess that the String of Pearls structure is my favorite structure to use for personal stories. As I am crafting it I start learning the story organically. I like to storyboard the story drawing each scene on a separate piece of paper. This helps me to change the order of events, if I need to, as I am crafting the story. I also learn the story by saying parts of it to myself on my walk. Especially the parts I am struggling with and more often than not I will find the word/phrase or what to move in the story before I get home.  This is a never-ending process and could be a loop in itself.

Tell: Finally, it is time to tell the story to an audience. But this is not the end of the process. Based on the feedback and questions the process starts again with doing the research to find the answer to the question(s), seeing where that would best fit into the story, learning the piece and then retelling the story.

And the cycle starts again.

So now you can understand why I was relieved when my mind was blank and there wasn’t a story running through my head while I lay in bed Saturday morning!

From Storytelling to Healing by Roxanne de la Rosa

I still have so much to learn about myself as a storyteller but through the experiences I’ve had, storytelling has felt very freeing for me. It has become an outlet for me to express myself and who I am as a person in a way that I never could before. Telling stories onstage is a feeling like no other. I recently told a story for Storytellers Project and I was so engrossed in my story that I lost track of time. It was truly a feeling I had not felt before; it felt like the story flowed out of me and it was as if the story deepened within me.

I rehearsed my story in front of an Arizona Republic coach before telling at the Storytellers Project and I received feedback on my story. My story was about how I struggled to accept myself and my struggle to speak Spanish growing up. I wasn’t sure if the feedback would improve my story, but I wanted to try it. The reaction I received at my next rehearsal when I integrated the suggestions by the coach were met with smiles and laughter. I was very pleasantly surprised, and I felt so much gratitude for the feedback. While receiving feedback from the coach he shared a personal story about his struggle to speak Spanish as well and he gave me an idea. I was able to incorporate it into my story which helped make my story even more meaningful. I feel that there is an exchange of energy when we tell and share stories even when we are just rehearsing them. Storytelling makes me feel connected to the people around me in a way that is truly unique.

Another aspect of being able to produce Storytellers Project is that I have the opportunity to help coach people through telling their own stories. A couple of the tellers were so nervous, and I was able to help and provide reassurance and guidance while coaching them. This felt immensely rewarding to be able to give back and seeing the reaction from the audience after hearing the tellers was an indescribable feeling of joy for me. I realized that I love coaching and helping tellers bring their stories to life. It feels just as good to help someone with their story as it does to tell.

Through sharing and telling stories I feel it can be used to chip away at some of the preconceived ideas and stereotypes we may each carry within us. As a budding journalist, storytelling is a way to add another layer of meaning into my work. I know the skills I have gained in Storytelling courses will only help me become a better listener and journalist. Storytelling can be used as a tool to break down barriers and misconceptions we may think about others without even recognizing them. Structuring and connecting the dots of my life to share my stories has healed me and helped me process some of the challenges I have faced in my life. Storytelling has become my therapy.

Cootie Catcher: Sparking stories and breaking ice by Bryce Barraza

A ‘cootie catcher,’ a story prompt, and a group of strangers walk into a room…

No, this is not the start of an ill-attempted joke. This actually happened… and it was fun!

In February of 2022, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop titled, “Playing for Keeps,” facilitated through the South Mountain Community College Storytelling Institute. The workshop introduced participants to the use of toys and games as a tool to help “spark memories that lead to stories.”

While participating in the workshop, it was one toy and game in particular that not only helped spark memories but was also described as a good “ice-breaker” for groups of people in a variety of settings –the cootie catcher!

Yes, the cootie catcher! The strategically folded piece of paper that you remember from childhood sometimes called a ‘fortune teller.’ This cootie catcher, in lieu of omniscient fortunes, was prepared with story prompts to help spark memories that could later be crafted into full stories.

For example, one story prompt read, “Tell me about a time you survived…” and the participant would subsequently conclude the thought.  In my case, I recalled surviving the crippling anxiety of waiting in line to ride my first upside down roller coaster, loving the ride experience and since conquering roller coasters in several other amusement parks!

Breaking the Ice

While not-so-meticulously folding my piece of paper to create the cootie-catcher-story-sparker, I latched onto the workshop facilitator’s statement of how this toy could be a great ice-breaker for newly acquainted teams.

The workshop experience was fortunate timing. I had the opportunity to leverage the cootie catcher during a team building event for work just a couple weeks later. This team building event brought the entire team together, in-person, for the first time in over 18 months. There were approximately 20 of us, a few new faces to the team, and we had only really engaged via video meetings as a result of the pandemic. So, this in-person team building event was long overdue.

As I introduced the activity and distributed the cootie catcher templates, I was met with curious smiles. But the team was up for the game! After breaking into groups and reading the first prompt, the room erupted with energy and sparked stories. And while we connected through play, here are a few things that I observed:

• It’s Kinetic: It gave the team something to do with their hands when initially folding the cootie catcher. And the toy requires hand movement throughout the activity. If you’re like me, sometimes you need to bounce or move to release nerves until you’re comfortable. No bouncing necessarily required for this activity, but you get to use your hands as a nice consolation.
• It’s Collaborative …and competitive: Off the bat, team members were leaning into one another to offer reminders to their partners about how to fold a corner –collaborating in the creation of the cootie catcher. But in the spirit of play, we walked away with a vivid memory of one team member proudly declaring they had been the first to complete their cootie catcher –and subsequently, who was the last. Friendly competition is part of games and play after all.

Additionally, by design, the game requires at least two people –one individual to use the cootie catcher, and the second to respond. The cootie catcher helps facilitate the dialogue between the two people or larger group.

• It’s a Tool to Celebrate Unique and Common Experiences: Diversity is a characteristic of a strong team. It’s people’s unique experiences, life lessons and skill set that add to a team’s ability to manage challenging situations and be more creative in developing and testing solutions. Story prompts help celebrate the diversity in team members’ varied experiences –no two stories seemed quite the same.

On the other hand, story prompts helped highlight common human experiences. More than one team member referenced skipping school or sneaking out of the house in response to the prompt, “Tell about a time you got in big, serious trouble…” A common experience –but also different.

The team reconnected after 18 months through play and sparked stories. Just as I pinched this activity from the workshop, several team members asked for the template so that they could deploy this activity again in the future with their teams.

Make Your Own Cootie-Catcher-Story-Sparker!

In practice, the cootie catcher is not overly complicated to enact. You can find a free template online to download and customize with your own questions or prompts, and then you play! And if you’re like me who needs a little extra instruction, you can find numerous videos showing you how to fold the cootie catcher template.

As for the story prompts, get creative! You can customize the questions to your specific team or event. Below are the story prompts that pulled me into the game!

• Tell me about a time when you survived…
• Tell me about a time when you saw something super crazy!
• Tell about a time you got in big, serious trouble.
• Tell about a time everything changed.
• Tell about a time when you experienced your first…
• Tell about the first lesson you learned from your first job with the department.
• The silliest thing I ever did was…
• Once upon a time, not long ago…

I hope you have fun. Go play, go spark stories!

Story Infographics by Liz Warren

Story Structures Infographics by Liz Warren