Nobel Prize for Storytelling

As people around the world are trying to re-frame President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize especially around hope, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe, finally, someone is receiving this prestigious award for great storytelling!

Storytellers, bearers of wisdom, I need your help again

Here is the situation:

When I create stories I create them orally. I bother others with ideas and fragments, I talk about them, I dream them until I feel they are made to meet an audience. They continue evoloving, even if I tell them for years. The point is - I never write down my stories.

As you can guess, it does happen that people who have heard my stories tell them. Yes, without permission. No, I don’t care.

There is one story in particular that gets told rather often by others. Maybe because it sounds like an urban folktale. Maybe becuse it is very unique. Not many people know I’ve created it and I don’t mind. What does make me sorry is listening to flattened versions of it. But that is not the reason I’m asking for your help.

Well, two days ago, someone sent me a link to a website where a version of the story appears in writing, collected from a storytellr called such and such. The website is managed by the collector. I wrote him, asking to take down the story since I don’t want my stories to appear in writing.

He was happy to hear from me and asked if he could have my version so he could post it on the website side by side with the other version for people to see the difference. I made my point again - I do not want my stories to appear in writing.

Well, the guy was so entangled with my request that he phoned. He wanted to know where he could find out the original. I told him I never write my stories. “So how can you claim rights? and what about sharing?” Sharing I have never stopped said I. I’ve never stopped someone from telling that story but I don’t want it in writing. It is a told and orally created tale, that’s my art. Storytellers who check their sources can easily find out where it comes from. This is a very small country, the story is very defined, you cannot misthink it is another.

I don’t want to write the story down. The written version, even if I type it word for word speaking to the keybord, does not read the same. I’ve tried. Writing it down only to prove it is mine is not interesting for me. I see no point in that. Yet, he will not settle for my answer. He is willing to take it off only because he knows me and respects me but the answer does not stand strog enough for him and most probably for many others.

So, what do you think about this?

Nocturnal storyteller’s thoughts

Its 4:37 am. For some reason I cannot sleep. A question has been grazing my mind for the past few hours, for the past few years. “Limor, why do you always seem to find your way to early stories, to characters whose features have faded? Why don’t you live in the here and now?” This is not my question. Someone else suggested it many years ago.

I’m preparing for the second story on my new project “Ladies of the Lake”. It’s a ten moons voyage, preceded with a five years voyage to find craft and tell the story of Granuaile. She will find her way into this project too; I have just begun telling her story.

That question suggests I live out of context, I know what she meant. I don’t think I do, yet the question echoes again and again appearing stronger every now and then. You could say I live out of context if I’m writing a post at 4:37 but I don’t think she is right.

Walking into history is something we do all the time. We also walk into the future. Is there a difference? I think there is. Walking into the future is noisy and crowded. Walking into history is silent and specious. The tiny details have dropped out as time went by, leaving events to prove they are relevant to us, the ongoing story of humanity.

Somehow it seems I prefer digging out stories from deep under, drawing them out from the bottom of ancient seas and what seem as stagnated lakes. They are not stagnated at all but they are hiding. Many years ago, someone, some-many, have decided they were dangerous stories. But stories not told can be more dangerous than stories told and like all stories – they never give up. Like skeleton woman, they can wait, not even remembering who they are until one day, mistakably or not someone is drawn close enough to meet them, tell them.

Igrain – she is the first on my voyage. Maybe that is why I’m thinking these thoughts.

Wishes for a lovely New Year

My new storytelling challenge

And if I’m not mistaken, Donna is on her way to Israel right now.

What is that?

This reminded me of two stories, one of them a Tunisian story I’ve heard from Ofra Kipnis which you better hear from her and one of them told by my father. He told me that when I was really young we came back from the park one day and my mother, who saw I was sobbing asked my father in alarm “what did you do to her?!”

“I didn’t answer her 495th question,” was his reply… 
Enjoy!

Back after a long long time…

I’m looking at my previous post – mid April with a promise to be continued… so many things have happened since then I don’t think I’ll manage to close the gap updating so I’ll just go on and if I’ll find the time to complete that post I’ll do it.

What have I been up to?

Writing. Writing copy, writing books, writing brand stories, writing blogs in Hebrew and writing. I never thought I’ll write so much in my storytelling life.

Training storytellers. Together with one of my team members from The Story Telling Company Inc.  I’ve created a training module for beginners that lasts eight sequential weekly meetings, three hours each, where we instruct alternatly. The test course was amazing.

Teaching small business owners how to create a NetStage – a place on the internet where prospect clients can come to and look around. I teach them how to tell their story, how to brand their business story-wise and use this knowledge so every effort they make on the web is worth something, because their greatest fears are about loosing time and writing skills. Yes, we talked about technology and tools too, as we talked about social media and networking but all this is not worth much if you don’t have an interesting story to tell.

Buzzing – using the same methods for bigger clients. Many story tricks there… and a lot of trans-media storytelling too.

Teaching copywriters. Weird thing, but many of them don’t have a sense of story although lately the marketing world likes to tell itself a story about how great it is at storytelling.

Creating brand stories and marketing strategies.

Training storytellers – professionals, do deepen their skills and understanding of the art. In that framework, a new coaching exercise was born. Go and check it out on the storytelling coach II page.

You can be sure there is much more, but this is enough for one come-back post.

Regards, Limor.

WSD event in Israel – a long long story and this is the first part

This story will be long. The reason I’ve decided to tell it is because sharing the way this production evolved might shed light on several issues I think the storytelling community needs to look at. There are many lovely parts in this story, some of them might sound innocent to those who have produced many events before. That’s ok for me, I’ll be telling the story as it is.

Thank you Marc Young for encouraging me to write this at a time all the encouragement I could offer you from here seemed to me like dust.

Back story

The storytelling community in Israel is not very small if you compare it to the size of the population. If I’ll try and paint it’s characteristics I could say it is heavily influenced by two factors:
Most of the trainers come from theater and therapy.
The only storytelling festival that exists here for years and is constantly broadcasting on TV is really a series of panels of people telling something that has happened to them. Some interesting, some really boring or out of place, but it’s on TV, many of them are celebrities and that is the way storytelling is perceived by the mass. Very few storytellers participate in that event if at all.

Here comes “she who thinks she knows everything better”

That is me so to say. You bet I’m not the one who has tagged me with the above slogan. What does it really represent? hard work. Insisting on asking difficult questions. Finding some answers. Hard work. I’m still the busiest teller in this place. In addition I’ve invested in the storytelling community over here beyond your imagination. Why the tag? I’ll go on with the story and you tell me.

Why is she taking it personally?

Because I know no other way do be a storyteller or a person.

So I’ve been to that course too. After I finished it I was grateful for many experiences but not content about the outcome. I’ve written many times before – the general level of storytelling is not good enough. Not the way I perceive storytelling. How do I know? from the guts. When you are in the presence of great art you feel goosebumps. So maybe from the skin…

Somehow, many people were very pleased about themselves, with what they have achieved. I was not, because – it wasn’t storytelling, at least most of it.

And then I got to listen to Laura Simms and Liz Weir…

And for me that was storytelling. Since there is no orderly program to learn storytelling I started my voyage to find the answers. Reading old and new books, traveling to listen to other tellers, to conversations, getting involved in discussion groups like Storytell, sniffing around constantly, learning stories, hunting stories, voice training, practice, practice, practice. My winding path brought me many places. My main question is always “how does this work? what is it made of?”

Until the day it “clicked”

On that day I could say to myself – Limor, you’re a darn good storyteller. Why? because I could create simple magic. Be powerful and kind with people sitting and listening just in front of my nose, sharing the act with me and the story.

Back to here and now

So I proceeded. People got to know me. Then I started training others and even more people got to know me. I had stuff to say and insights to offer and people were willing to take them because they were helpful. But at the same time many didn’t use them, didn’t practice them fully and eventually discarded the advice as too difficult or not relevant to what you see others doing. The dark prophet of storytelling…woooooooooo….. but still they were puzzled – how does she do it? so they came up with the usual explanations like “she’s a natural” “she’s got it” and all the rest of the crap. The simple truth is:
Be curious
Love people, love humanity
Love language and that has noting to do with your level of education
Love the sense of story, be puzzled by it
Always learn, never stop
Create, create, create
Work hard

So, what’s new?
I didn’t say I’m going to say something new, I’m just telling a story to be continued.

WSD Israel event on Twitter and Facebook

Hi everybody,
In a couple of hours we are going to launch WSD Israel event. You’ll be able to track us as we go on Twitter (user – Storyteling) and on my page (Limor Shiponi) at Facebook. Have a great day!

WSD on the Jerusalem Post

I was happy to see our event mentioned on the Jerusalem Post.