Values
add substance to awareness and tradition.
If, at first, you have qualms about striking out with your own memoir or
family history, try giving your version of a well-known myth, legend or
folk story. They already have a well-defined plot, characters, and
settings. You can replace and rephrase parts with how you would like
the story to appear. Use the stories and essays in this book or the public
library as models or points of departure for your storytelling letters and
experiments.
Stories to the World
One way to get into storytelling is by giving your own version of a well-
known folk tale, a popular myth, or even one of Aesop's fables. The
plots, characters, and structures of these stories have been handed along
from one generation to the next for centuries, and have already passed
the test of time. As soon as you start your story you join a historical
procession and launch yourself into the new and wondrous world of
imagination.
Storytellers are occasionally asked how the story just told to them, came
to be. Here are a few paragraphs from my version of an old West
African folk tale about the source of all stories and how they came to be.
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