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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

How the elephant god got his head … and Anne did some alfresco storytelling

30/10/2013

14 Comments

 
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Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin my story of how I helped bring an Indian elephant into the English countryside and learnt something about storytelling in the process.

Once upon a time Chamu told me about a guided walk she was planning in the Peak District. The aim was to use story to promote diversity within the national park and the walk would be integrated with the local celebrations for birthday of the Hindu god, Ganesh. Well, I thought, what could be better than walking and storytelling? I jumped at the chance to help out.

Although I knew a little about the elephant-headed god from my travels in India many moons ago, these weren’t exactly stories I’d heard my mother’s knee. What if others were more familiar with the story than I was? Would I be able to engage people? What if I forgot my lines? 

Of course, I needn’t have worried. Thanks to Chamu’s support and a lovely group of tolerant walkers, I had a fabulous time telling my two stories, as you’ll see from the pictures below, and from others on the Hindu Samaj website. 
The experience got me thinking about the differences between story writing and storytelling. Although I often read my fiction aloud to check for stumbling blocks, telling a story without a script to an audience is another matter altogether.

As a reader and as a writer, I treat adverbs with suspicion and every adjective has to earn its keep. Yet the oral form has a baroque feel to it, bustling with verbal curlicues, never using one word when half a dozen will do. Repetition, cliches, It came to pass and In due course – I welcomed them as joyfully as I attempt to edit out each just and quite from the written
form. It wasn’t the presence of two delightful children that made me spout such archaic and nursery-style phrases; they seemed appropriate for the story to flow.
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Relaxing into the role, I began to tell the story physically: modulating my voice;
exaggerating my facial expressions; making judicious use of pauses. I don’t have an extroverted bone in my body, but I couldn’t help falling into the rhythms and performing.

This will be no surprise to those familiar with reading bedtime stories, but to me it
was a revelation, and I’m looking forward to doing it again at the end of August next year, only better. (If you watch the video below, you'll see there's lots of room for improvement.) If you'd like to come, the details will be on the Ranger walks calendar.

If you've been paying attention, you might have noticed I've delivered all the posts I promised for October (gold stars all round). For next month I hope to bring you the fourth instalment in my series on fictional psychologists and psychotherapists; a look at internal obstacles to achieving one's personal and fictional goals inspired by my Q&A with Anthea Nicholson, as well as my recent post on character motivation; and why I'm raving about a small book of psychoanalytic case studies. I've also got posts in the pipeline on writers' routines; writing in the first person plural; old-age stereotypes; leaving home; another look at rhythm and my love affair with allotments. Hopefully there's something you'll want to come back for.

If you're still wondering how the elephant god got his head, you can read a précis of the story here:
how_ganesh_got_his_elephant_head.docx
File Size: 17 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

The video picks up the story halfway through, when Shiva has chopped off the head of Parvati's darling boy and is sending out his bodyguards to find a replacement.
Or go here for a musical version of the story.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
14 Comments
Linda link
31/10/2013 09:43:12 am

What a lovely idea, walking in beautiful countryside and listening to a story. Wish I lived nearer so I could join you!

Reply
Annecdotist
2/11/2013 05:36:52 am

Thanks, Linda. Yes, walking and stories is a great combination. Sorry, but living far away is no excuse not to join us – we had one man on the walk from New York, although I can't pretend he'd travelled across just to join us!

Reply
Chamu Kuppuswamy link
31/10/2013 12:28:07 pm

Anne, I so totally enjoyed reading this post. It brought it all back to me and got me thinking again about how we could do this next year. Thanks very much for helping out, and for being there even when the date changed! Looking forward to next year.

Reply
Annecdotist
2/11/2013 05:39:29 am

Thanks for taking a look, Chamu, and for your photos and support on the day. Look forward to next year.

Reply
Safia link
2/11/2013 09:08:03 am

I just love this idea! I'm quite sure the numbers attending will grow each year and wish you and Chamu success with it. The beauty of storytelling is that it can be done just about anywhere, but you certainly had a spectacular backdrop on this occasion.

Reply
Annecdotist
7/11/2013 08:49:06 am

Thanks, Safia, I have a sense it's going to be quite addictive!

Reply
Claire King link
4/11/2013 12:53:55 am

This is a lovely post. I love the idea of keeping the oral tradition of storytelling alive (or reviving it) for adults as well as children, and outdoors is even better.
I often think aspiring novelists ought to focus less on the idea of having a book published, and more on becoming engaging storytellers, because that is really what counts.

Reply
Annecdotist
7/11/2013 08:51:57 am

Thanks your comment, Claire, as well as for your generous retweet. I really was taken with the idea of stories that work for both adults and children. There's something quite special in that.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
28/4/2014 05:29:08 am

Hi Anne, Thanks for sending me back to this post. The comparison you make between the written word and spoken tradition is interesting, and I think I'm inclined to agree that we sometimes add embellishments to stories told orally. However that notion differs from a post I read on Positive Writer today: http://goo.gl/Ijxg3Z I guess that while there may be some basic trends, we add our own voices to all we do. I really enjoyed listening to you discuss the story with your audience. What fantastic concept are the storytelling walks! Good for the body and the mind!

Reply
Annecdotist
28/4/2014 05:47:27 am

Thanks for reading – and listening – Norah and thanks for the link to Shannon's post. I do agree, and it's similar to Clare's comments above, that we can learn a lot as writers from successful storytellers, but I also think we might want different things from written and spoken stories, the latter being more closely tied to the stories we were told as children (even if the themes and content are different for adults). But will ponder this some more, and bear it in mind for our repeat performance this summer – still got an awful lot to learn

Reply
Charli Mills
7/9/2014 01:15:48 pm

What a terrific program! Love your voice (and accent)!

Reply
Annecdotist
8/9/2014 05:23:36 am

Thanks for reading and listening, Charli. We've done this walk for three years now and it's great fun. But I always cringe to hear my own recorded voice.

Reply
Paula link
25/10/2014 10:01:03 am

Loved this, Anne, especially your reflections on the difference between oral and written storytelling. I think the key technical point I learned early on - especially with lengthy stories - is the value of repetition; the main difference between reading a story and hearing a story for the audience being that you can't go back and reread when you realize you've missed or don't understand something.

Reply
Annecdotist
25/10/2014 11:23:21 am

Thanks, Paula, so glad I chose this for archive day as I don't think I had access to your storytelling expertise last year. That's a really helpful point about repetition. Good tip.

Reply

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