- Rehearse the Story
When you have a story outline, tell it to yourself, speak it out loud, and listen to how it sounds to
you before testing it on someone else. Begin to experiment with it, play with it, develop it. Adapt
the outline for different age levels, different genders, different cultural backgrounds, different types
of interests... and then rehearse it again. The principle is simple: The more familiar you are with
any material, the easier it is to be flexible, spontaneous, and adaptive in using that material in your
healing metaphors.
Stories are never-ending, constantly altering and changing as you tell them from one child to the
next. In fact, one of the difficulties for me in writing this book, as it was in writing 101 Healing Sto-
ries(Burns, 2001), is that the tales that make up Part Two are fixed in print, captured at one particu-
lar moment of their telling. In the oral tradition of storytelling, tales change and alter with their teller,
with their listener, and with the circumstances in which they are related—even though they may be
grounded in a core theme. By becoming familiar with your material, by knowing what the core idea
is that you want to communicate, you are free to be flexible and adaptable in the telling.
- Tell It to Someone Else
Once you have developed an outline, familiarized yourself with the material, and rehearsed it to your-
self, then try it out on an audience. Tell it to your partner over a meal, test it on your child as a bed-
side story if appropriate, or share it with a friend over a cup of coffee. There is no need to produce
any great, meaningful metaphor because right now we are simply looking at developing the skills of
storytelling. If the tale is for a child or children then they will be your best audience. You may like to
borrow a kid if you do not have one, or volunteer to do some story reading or storytelling at your lo-
cal school, preschool, or children’s hospital if your own workplace does not give you the opportu-
nity.
22 Effective Storytelling for Kids and Teens
EXERCISE 2.6
■ Plan a storytelling session with a child.
■ Make a note of the way you want the story to end.
■ Jot down the obstacles or hurdles the character needs to overcome in the process of
reaching the goal.
■ Note each of the steps the character has to take to get there.EXERCISE 2.7
■ Find a new children’s story that you enjoy, maybe one from this book.
■ Practice it in your mind, rehearse it out loud, and put it into your own words.
■ Tell it to a child without recourse to the written version.