What is a story anyway? Just because you’re talking doesn’t mean you’re telling a story, right?
Here is Dictionary.com’s definition:
Story: a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader
“To interest, amuse, or instruct.” Good reminder.
The first stories many of us heard were lullabies. If you were very lucky, as I was, your parents read you bedtime stories that were accompanied by beautiful illustrations. Those illustrations triggered the first phases of visual literacy for the little listeners. Many children soon took over “reading” those books aloud to our parents, turning the pages ourselves as we made enthusiastic, incomprehensible sounds.
Humans are born storytellers.
I had a head start (or perhaps a life sentence!) because both of my parents had been English majors in college, and they met at the Boston office of Macmillan Publishing Co. My older brother and I joked that the family motto seemed to be, “You can rape and you can pillage, but you will not use bad grammar.”
Classic fairy tales, including those by Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, and Walt Disney, permeate my earliest childhood memories. Two stories became and remain a part of my identity: The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor’s New Clothes.
When I first began writing this essay, I hadn’t seen a thread between those two tales, but now it feels obvious.
Both stories illustrate how it feels to be an outsider.
The baby swan in The Ugly Duckling did not know who she was until she saw other swans. The townsfolk in The Emperor’s New Clothes needed an outsider, a little kid, to speak the words they hadn’t had the courage to admit—the fact that their Emperor had been taken for a fool.
Your turn: What are YOUR signature bedtime stories?
What childhood fairy tale is closest to your heart? It might have a message that is custom fit for you, supporting and reinforcing your unique sense of self. If you relax, a tale will come to mind easily. No need to analyze it, just recall.
Seeds of Storytelling
A great way to become a skilled writer is to start life as a kid with secrets and a blank book.
Little girls of my era were encouraged to keep diaries. It seemed cute, but for some of us, it became a lifeline, planting the seed of a lasting habit. A diary becomes a convenient confessional, acting as a pressure-release valve for the emotional ups and downs of life. My diary has saved my life, saved many friendships, and saved more than one job. My diary can handle anything.
Journal-keeping seems to be a genetic predisposition for me. Women in my family have been talking to themselves for more than 150 years, beginning with my great grandmother’s diary in 1862. These four generations of women documented the inane but essential details of daily life. They recorded daily patterns, not glorious accomplishments, because on most days, life consisted of repeating the predictable tasks of cooking, gardening, laundry, errands, raising kids, and assisting their husbands. They had no title or career or 401K to show for a life spent in the service of one’s family and neighbors. Nevertheless, it was a life well lived, especially because they each created a diary to serve as a record, a mirror, of how all those hours were spent.
The draft of this “book” I lovingly call The Four Generations of Women will remain private forever because, honestly, it has more potential as a sedative than as a best seller.
The fact that they took the time to document their lives, and that those diaries were saved and passed along, is what really needs to be honored…and I daresay repeated, by present and future generations.
Writing, storytelling, is good for body and soul. I sense my blood pressure dropping a bit whenever I pick up a pen or pencil, even before I start scribbling out ideas. My words may reflect only a fleeting moment of clarity, so all the more reason to pause, ponder, and take notes on my soul’s whispers.
Your homework is to take some time to ponder what might be your “North Star Bedtime Story,” the one that comes to mind most easily or most often. It’s well worth a look.
Your reward is a story I wrote a few years ago.
The Greatness of Blue
It was the 24th day of the last month of the year, snow was everywhere, and all the summer birds had long since headed south for the winter. Or so the villagers thought. The townsfolk were busy trying to keep warm because the mayor had been called away back in September, and no one else knew how to rekindle the source of heat for the village.
Ten-year-old Maggie Wentworth bundled up in her warmest clothes and raced outside to play in the bright evening moonlight with her collie dog McDuff. Suddenly a dark shadow crept across the snow, and as Maggie looked up she saw a great blue heron glide overhead and start flapping his wings in reverse to slow down for a landing at the edge of the frozen mill pond. The bird walked that hypnotic heron-dance walk along the shoreline, peering at the ground as if searching for something. As he reached the marsh at the headwaters of the pond he found it: the Secret Sapphire. He clenched it in his beak and slowly strutted back toward the village in the moonlight….
If you would like to read the entire story, click here.
Additional resources:
Freedom Writers,with Hilary Swank is a true story and powerful film. Halfway into this 3-minute trailer, you’ll see how blank books and pens transformed lives.
The Power of Storytelling to Facilitate Human Connection and Learning- Boston University
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As always, thanks for spending some time with me “aloft.” Happy gazing and sketching!
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Aloft with Inspiration 