Full Circle Associates

(Live blogging disclaimers apply - at http://www.northernvoice.ca)

(I missed the first few moments of Julie Leung's talk)

30 years later three images remain in my mind from that time. I remember looking out of waiting room window and being frightened of size of cars. See my baby brother white and limp with bandages. And I remember stories

Tales whispered. Fear, Fun
Stories are essential
Helped me survive sadness and stress
Tradition as old as humanity
Gathering around fires, carving on rocks
Naming of constellations
Surrounded by stories
Nature reveals why stories are important – we study, stare, astonished
As babies we explain and explore new sensations
On a journey from birth, path, quest
Longing to make sense of what we see
“A Scientist in the Crib” – an explanatory drive like drive for food or sex
In our nature to explain nature, to seek stories
We are wired for stories in our anatomy
As parents tell children talks, they affect both sides of the brain
Integration between two halves of the brain and between parent and child
On a molecular level has shown we can remember stories better than facts
We are our stories
Cedar poles of the NW Natives tell stories
We make our own myths of how we are born, those we love and those who love us
Recipes, celebrations, knitted scarves and birthday cakes
Stories are our destination and destiny
Disnarrativa – unable to tell and understand stories, loose sense of self
Multiple layers, discovered over time
Indirect yet powerful
Stories are perfect for complexity
A way to say something that can’t be said any other way
They break through fences and fears
Turn a resistant audience into a receptive one
Persuasive
Story is like mental software so your listener can run it again (Annette Simmons)
They program us
Essential for education
Examining our place in time
Spiritual stories provide values, vision and direction
Reflect who we are and hold a mirror to humanity
Stories are hygienic, they heal us, help us stay healthy. Early Greek plays, Arabian manuscripts
Medicine recognizes the power of stories. Department of narrative medicine. Developing, expressing and believing helps in recovery
Stories heal us emotionally. See our hurt compared to the whole
Walk in others shoes. Make us merciful
We make sense out of chaos
They enchant us
Nourish us. In contrast to fast food culture, they are substantial
In time of stress, stories restore human connection. Narrative invites us out of isolation. The currency of human context.
Stories reach into us, move us to reach out to others
Are essential as the foundation for community and connection
Can build relationships around them. Build familiarity, form family
We come together around stories, create the culture we share, continue and change culture
They allow us to go to the beach on rainy days, encourage us to go beyond where we can see
Entertain us
Allow us to escape into another world, identity
Refresh us, fun, inspire us, to dive deeper, to fly
Allow us to dream, live our dreams with other
They are essential because they are essentially human
They call us back to the heart, the beginning of our lives and humanity
We all tell stories, we are all story tellers
Blogging allows us to continue and expand this
A few principles and ideas for posting stories.

1. What is a story. A wide perspective of story telling practices. Story structure. Simplest, a beginning, a middle and an end. We can put these together like a train and have a story. Often we have a conflict, a scapegoat or two, the main character takes a turn or transformation.
2. All effective pieces, button way is traffic signs. Rogerr McKee – Story. It is fine to tell a complex story, but following a methodology is not required. It may inhibt us. Drama doesn’t happen every day. Sometimes things are slow and subtle but worthy to be told. I believe in metamorphosis, in change. If you can see the first blossom of spring, put that ina post. That is a story.
3. Change the familiar.
4. Can use audio, video, pictures and texts of a story. Choose the best fit for you and your story.
5. Before blogging, ask questions. Is this the way I want topos? Time? Place? Perspective? Consequences? (As most blogging is public and permanent). Use a mask or an allegory. Change the perspective. Share a painful story with humor and hope, it can change you. I’m cautions of how I represent my children.
6. Listen and link to others. Let others start your story. Start where I can and let it flow. Later I might move pieces around, but the start can be a strong beginning.
7. It may take time and energy, internal energy before it emerges
8. Take notes. Getting ideas online and offline. Studies of creativity show fine ideas emerge at any time. Capture.
9. Include sensory details and descriptions.
10. Use the power of pause. Of blank space. Silence. Pacing of sentences, pictures. Listen to the rhythm. Empathy is the ultimate virtual reality. Pink. Walk into it and feel it is theirs.
11. Length – freedom in blogs. I tend to write longer pieces, but a story can be any shape or size, a line, a collection of links or an entire blog.
12. “Writing a story can be overwhelming…” Anne Lamott. It can overwhelm a blog post. What can be done is to put it into smaller pieces. Bird by bird, each piece can become a blog post. Particularly true for text. If I put more than one bird in a post, I separate them with pictures, subtitles or headings.
13. Hiding – make it suspenseful. I hide some of the story at the beginning. Suspenseful.
14. Keep it entertaining. “What will happen next?”
15. Experiment to what works for you. I tried many styles. Now starting to use video.
16. Fingerprints and footprints. Each unique style. Admire and mentors, but you don’t have to be like them. Developing a voice. Voice comes naturally, something inside you. Find it. Experiment.
17. Have fun, play, be creative. Be content with the imperfect. Post rather than polish. Kris Krug posts a lot without editing. I need to work on that. It’s the raw and imperfect that can speak to us.
18. Have a sense of humor. Try to look foolish once in a while.
19. Connect and commenting makes stories living. Blogging allows interactive, asynch tales. Others can add details, contrasts. Story is given life. This can become collaboration and conversation, created by teller and listener. Can become complex. Grow like a living creature. Steve Song – by blogging and linking we are transforming. Can become a community. I listen to those who link and comment, visit their blogs, send private email to build a relationship. Use tech, pubsub and others to continue.
20. Be generous and creative with links. Add dimension, detail, illustration history.

Examples of living through blogging
· Truggy is not living. He has a battery. A robot horse. A representation of conversation we’ve had with hackers and bloggers who want their children to be interested in technology. Guide in practical ways.
· Lee and Satchi LeFever, they say hi, out exploring how the world is not flat. Blogging their adventures and inviting others to share their travel adventures and share their adventure. http://www.theworldisnotflat.com
· Blogs.salon.com - birdy’s love letter to Star Trek sustained family through sickness and sorrow. Other fans contributed and Will Wheaton linked to her
· Mysonnicholas.blogspot.com a fathers stories to a son with Downs Syndrome. Everyone is invited to share my joy and pride with me.
· You can share someone elses story. Susan Kitchens http://www.2020hindsight.org – historical reconstruction
· Evelynrodriguez.typepad.com returning a year later to the Tsunami region. Telling others’ stories and helping them tell theirs.
· http://www.Ferrytale.blogstpot.com – combining real and fictional characters. Pictures, experiences of Katrina’s damage into the blog story. Solicited reader stories and final chapter.
· http://www.Postsecret.blogspot.com – stories without pictures.
· Unkemptwomen.blogspot.com
These bloggers illustrate what It means to start with fire. With heat, emotion, inner desire, passion, truth. Jeanne Sessum: go to the place where you know who you are and write from that place. Lamott – truth is always subversive. Blog is the place you have to share your story. It makes it’s own metamorphosis. Fire grows. In this time of “truthiness” I long for what is real. I think we all do. I put myself into my stories. Memories, emotions, time energy, journey. I put the truth I know. Something within me. A truth I need to say. A story. I start with fire.

Start with fire. With the heart.

As we gather around the heart, we realize we are not alone. We cannot make our myths in isolation. We find humility. I’m in awe of the power of fire and the others who are there. I know I am not alone. I see that I am me, but also we. As Nancy said, we need humility to go with our passion and ego, to listen, to be like children. Stories survive us and allow us to survive. Only when we listen can we allow stories to live inside us and become our own

Blogging allows stories to live and grow. A tool for transformation. Stories began before us. The truth of our tales will last to those who come after.

It is our time for stories. For heat, heart, humility our time to start with fire.

Categories: NorthernVoice, JulieLeung, storytelling