Improving Your Storytelling: Beyond the Basics for All Who Tell Stories in Work and Play (American Storytelling) [Paperback]

Doug Lipman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0874835305 | ISBN-13: 978-0874835304 | Publication Date: December 15, 2005

The first steps in storytelling are often easy, because we tell stories informally every day. Once you take storytelling into the more formal contexts of performance or occupational uses, however, you may be faced with challenges you hadn't anticipated. You need information that goes beyond the basics. And you need it in a form that does not just tell you what to do but helps you make your own informed decisions.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Aspiring storytellers will be pleased to know that Lipman's down-to-earth approach allows for flexibility rather than an emphasis on memorization. A professional storyteller who has appeared at such prominent venues as the National Storytelling Festival, he presents a thoughtful framework that can apply to anyone whose livelihood depends on keeping an audience rapt, including lawyers, teachers and salespeople, although his remarks are more specifically tailored to performing artists. Advising the would-be speaker to "think in the present" when performing, Lipman articulates basic concepts in the use of oral language (tone of voice always prevails over meaning, he says) and of imagery and gestures. He believes that retelling a story informally many times helps the speaker determine what is most meaningful about it--a connection he terms the Most Important Thing (MIT), since he firmly believes that a story's meanings flow from the speaker's MIT. In addition to a sensitive discussion of how to build a relationship with an audience, he also focuses on the importance of warm-up techniques, including the use of a "healing yawn" to reduce tension and get an oxygen boost, and numerous anti-anxiety techniques. The best result? In storytelling as in life, one must "combine the knowledge of how to work toward transformation with the patience to let it happen out of your control." (June)

Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Lipman uses theory, practical suggestions, and personal examples in this in-depth study of the relationships among story, teller, and audience. He delves into the definition of "story," structure and meaning, and models for learning a story. The author discusses the appeal of a tale to the teller; the conflicts, fears, and other psychological issues it may raise; and the emotional work that must be done before the telling. He explores the transfer of the tale's imagery by means of oral language, facial expression and body language, and voice. The book is easy to read and has an engaging and personal style. Lipman's guide is based on his own experience and that of other professional tellers. It is a must for those who strive to gain a higher level of skill, and who wish to make the story a transforming gift to the listener.-Judy Sokoll, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: August House (December 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874835305
• ISBN-13: 978-0874835304
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Education & Reference > Encyclopedias > Mythology & Folklore

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Falling in Love with a Story, October 27, 2000

By 

Artist Barbara Garro (Barbara Garro at http://www.ElectricEnvisions.com in Saratoga Springs, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Improving Your Storytelling: Beyond the Basics for All Who Tell Stories in Work and Play (American Storytelling) (Paperback)

Want to learn how to tell a story straight from your heart--read this book!

Like some targeted readers, I am a professional storyteller. How intellectually stimulating it was for me to experience Doug's story-learning process. It felt so good for Doug to take me with him as he showed how he makes each story his own.

Doug Lipman seamlessly wove together three concepts: honoring your audiences, telling only stories that you can love and that speak to you, and practical story-learning techniques. He found methods to engage both my right and left brain as I voraciously chewed and swallowed each and every page. This book is rich with no extraneous wordiness or meaningless trivia. This author makes every word count within a logical whole cloth of thought about ways any teller of tales can enrich their audiences by becoming one with their stories and their audiences.

Kudos to a master teller!

54 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to tell stories which have "dynamic balance", September 13, 2005

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Improving Your Storytelling: Beyond the Basics for All Who Tell Stories in Work and Play (American Storytelling) (Paperback)

Frankly, I was unaware of Lipman until I read his Foreword to Annette Simmons' The Story Factor. Favorably impressed, I then read Improving Your Storytelling which was first published in 1999. Of course, people have been telling stories for thousands of years. My own list of history's greatest storytellers includes Homer, Plato, Aesop, Jesus, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Joel Chandler Harris, L. Frank Baum, and E.B. White. All of the great storytellers are guided and informed by the same basic principles: They use compelling language and powerful images, establish an appropriate context (physical, intellectual, emotional, and social) within which to place a story, and then develop a relationship with both their audience and their story. As Lipman suggests, the storyteller, audience, and story "form the three corners of a triangle -- the storytelling triangle."

He offers material "beyond the basics for all who tell stories in work and play." Obviously, "play" includes situations in which stories are told to "children of all ages" primarily to delight and entertain them. But what about "work"? While reading Lipman's book, I soon realized that his insights and advice are at least as relevant to "work" as they are to "play." Effective storytelling skills are indeed valuable in all forms of communication between and among people.

Only in recent years, however, has there been significant interest in what is generally referred to as "the business narrative." I shudder when recalling countless formal presentations I made in the past when droning on and on much as then Governor Bill Clinton once did at a Democratic national convention. Thousands roared their approval when he said "In conclusion...." and then groaned as he continued on for another 35 minutes. He indicated little (if any) respect for his audience. Had Lipman been given the opportunity to help Mr. Clinton to prepare his remarks, presumably the length of his speech would have been reduced by half, if not by more. Lipman would also have formulated an interesting "story" to be told with authentic passion or at least enthusiasm while investing the narrative with vivid images and compelling details and, in countless other ways, enable Mr. Clinton to establish, immediately, a close bond with his audience and then nourish that relationship with empathy, respect, and (yes) humility.

The material in this book is carefully organized and developed within five Sections after Lipman briefly reviews "storytelling basics and beyond." He explains how to transfer imagery. How to establish relationships with the story told, with the given audience, and with yourself. Then in Section Five, he explains how to integrate each component of the storytelling event, noting that "the components are only important insofar as they contribute to the overall effect" of the event. That is, as "an invisible whole." The focus in Chapter 18 is on the four "layers" of attention. In the next chapter, Lipman explains how a storyteller can direct her or his attention "in a way that helps to connect each moment in the story to [her or his] overall goals for the storytelling event." He concludes by examining what he calls "the mystery of transformation -- the sometimes elusive result of perfect balance among all the components of the storytelling event."

It is important to keep in mind that, although Lipman briefly reviews the basics of storytelling, he goes "beyond" them (or at least explores each in much greater depth) than would, for example, an author of Storytelling for Dummies. A story will be told best by continuing to shape it while carefully observing those to whom it is told. Only then will the "storytelling triangle" have a "dynamic balance." To me, the single most important point which Lipman makes is that the storytelling event is the result but never the conclusion of a process. Revision of material and refinement of presentation are inevitable. The storyteller's journey never ends and sometimes no transformation occurs. What then? According to Lipman, "change the path, dance backwards, or leap into the unknown."

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Simmons' aforementioned book, The Story Factor, as well as Robert B. Miller and Gary A. Williams' The 5 Paths to Persuasion, Stephen Denning's The Leader's Guide to Storytelling, and Storytelling in Organizations co-authored by John Seely Brown, Denning, Katarina Groh, and Laurence Prusak.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bringing a Story to Life, September 6, 2003

By 

F. Hamilton "[e-mail]" (St. Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Improving Your Storytelling: Beyond the Basics for All Who Tell Stories in Work and Play (American Storytelling) (Paperback)

As the title suggests, this book is not aimed at storytelling novices. It has wonderful information, however, organized around the storytelling "triangle" (the story, the teller, and the listener) -- and all of the relationships between them. Lipman includes information on language, imagery, kinesthetics, voice, understanding the story, preparing the story, and much more.