Fabulous little book that captures the wonder of stories. Loved it.

Les den og bli inspirert til å fortelle historier. Enkelt og godt fortalt slik en storyteller bør gjøre det.

En su defensa, quizás yo haya esperado demasiado de alguien que se llama Bobette.

This is a short book that focuses mostly on ways to better tell stories about yourself. It isn't really about career building and it also isn't about telling funny stories at casual social events, but the tips and principles could well be applied to either situation. It was thought-provoking and has some cool writing exercises at the end that I'm looking forward to trying.

NOTES:

One of the key findings from the study 'Do You Know?' was that the more a child knows his family's 'story'- in other words, the better informed he is about his wider family and obsatcles they have overcome in order to survive and thrive- the 'stronger a child's sense of control over his life, the higher his self-esteem'. p 12

"No story can succeed without a proper understanding of context." p 13

"All good stories possess structure. They have a beginning, middle and end." p 13

Some tips that stood out:
1. Tell your story as if telling it to a friend no matter who the audience is
2. 'Hand over the spark'- share the specific experience that originally captivated you and started you on this journey
3. Be vulnerable and willing to share the emotions you've felt at specific times
4. Choose a sense (sometimes stories have smells, sights, textures)
5. Gleaming detail- use a detail to embody the essence of the overall experience

"All great stories possess this moment of conscious choice and deliberation." p 53

It's important to find a "vulnerability about the central character that will compel us to engage with the story. It also has to be a universal truth- one we can relate to in our own lives." p 56

"Real adventure is defined best as a journey from which you may not come back alive, and certainly not as the same person." -Yvon Chouinard

"Be amusing, never tell unkind stories; above all, never tell long ones." -Benjamin Disraeli

Structured around some useful principles for helping ensure any story connects with the audience:

1) Tell your story as if you're telling it to a friend
2) Set the GPS (place, time, setting and context)
3) Action! (Use active verbs)
4) Juxtapose (take two ideas and let them collide)
5) Gleaming detail (an ordinary moment or thing that captures the essence of the story)
6) Hand over the spark (reflect on the idea that first captivated you and hand it to the audience)
7) Be vulnerable (share the emotion of your story)
8) Tune into your sense memory (there is always a primary sense that dominates every memory, evoke it to make a deeper connection)
9) Bring yourself (your story as much about you as anything else)
10) Let go (let it build naturally and end fast, leaving the audience wanting more)

If some storytelling books are heavy four course meals (looking at you, Robert McKee), this is a tiny Belgian chocolate. Its center is a short, but very useful list of tips for telling personal stories. This is coated in a lovely layer of ... stories. These serve as examples, but are also inspirational in their own right. The illustrations, quotes and overall production values of the book are wonderful as well.
This book is about telling your own, personal stories. Much is applicable to telling traditional tales as well, but you'll need to do some transferring of the ideas to that context.
The exercises in the book tend to verge towards therapy sessions, even though Buster denies that this is their purpose. It presupposes that human lives can be perceived as a series of defining moments, thresholds, transformational experiences. Slow developments don't make the best stories, but in my experience they do make up the major part of life. Their is no place for those slow transformations in this book, let alone for lives in which nothing much changes at all.
Even if you (like me) don't agree with that premise, this book is still a lovely little gem, well written, engaging, useful and fun to read.