From: Dr Eric Miller, Chennai, April 2024.

Director, Chennai Storytelling Festival (February), and ,

"Storytelling by and for adults" series (first Monday of the month),

 

 

Hello!

 

Here are 4 suggestions regarding storytelling

(and videoconferencing) –

 

 

1) Videoconferencing is generally a very intimate

medium. Most participants' faces would be only

approximately 12 inches from the electronic

image of your face.

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I suggest: Of course one must project one's

voice, but ... you might seek to speak especially

gently to, and with, your listeners.

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Please resist any temptation to declare or

announce your story as you are telling it.

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Just take your time, get into the story, and

bring it to life. Let it "grow on you", and on us.

Do not "force" emotion into your telling.

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You might try slowing down, and even

pausing, at crucial moments in your telling,

to let things "sink in".

 

2) You might seek to mostly alternate between

looking into the camera – to give all viewers a

sense of having eye contact with you – and

looking at the image of a person just below the

camera. (Zoom allows one to move the rectangles

around – one can drag the rectangles to different

locations on one's screen. It is a good idea to

place the rectangle showing one of your favourite

listeners directly underneath your camera.)

 

3) Do not try to memorise the words. Just

memorise the "steps" in the story (please see

below), and improvise the words.  This is

especially the case when telling a story that

was written by someone else.

 

4) A good way to prepare to tell a story is to

make a list of the "steps" in the story – including

important things characters say to each other.

Next to the description of each "step", one can

make a note of the emotions and thoughts of

story characters at that moment.

 

 

 

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