Storytelling: How To Be A Storyteller
For lessons on writing go to Mark Twain for How to tell a story. Is Mark Twain the best storyteller of all times? I think so. We can learn storytelling from storytellers like him.
Learning From a Storyteller
I love stories, story tellers and storytelling. Most of the time, I think of myself as a storyteller, but when I read Mark Twain, I remember I’m just an amateur. One of my favorite Twain stories is from the small little book, How to Tell a Story and Others.
Twain on Humorous Storytelling
There are several kinds of stories, but only one difficult kind—the humorous. I will talk mainly about that one. The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter.
The humorous story may be spun out to great length, and may wander around as much as it pleases, and arrive nowhere in particular; but the comic and witty stories must be brief and end with a point. The humorous story bubbles gently along, the others burst.
The humorous story is strictly a work of art—high and delicate art—and only an artist can tell it; but no art is necessary in telling the comic and the witty story; anybody can do it. The art of telling a humorous story—understand, I mean by word of mouth, not print—was created in America, and has remained at home.
Excerpt from How to Tell a Story
Certainly, the advice given above will help us as writers to give special attention to how to write certain kinds of stories. Even so, it’s also important to know how to create a fictional dream.
If you could write a story like The Wounded Soldier, The Golden Arm or The Invalid’s Story then you’re on to something. For a laugh, read My Story About Storytelling, it recounts how I got hooked on writing.
Try to duplicate what Mark Twain did in one of these short stories.
What do you think? How did it go?
