Now is the time to buy a digital recorder (or fire up your smartphone) and visit Grandma, Auntie, or Second-great-uncle-in-law down the street, and record a few hours of their recollections. Believe me, you will thank yourself later. Or someone else in your family will thank you.
2. Dig down to your roots
Do some genealogy research (and revel in the fact that many archives are now digitized). Find out where some of your ancestors came from. See if you can dig up some stories about them, or the moments in history that directly affected them.
3. Relive traditions
Go visit the library and find some folktale collections from the cultures your family came from. Read them.
4. Cook something sweet
Buy a notebook and write down some family recipes. Ask around. Write the recipe on one page, and write personal notes on the other - who you learned it from, where it came from, who cooked it best, who made the biggest mess at first attempt, etc.
5. Diversify
Find stories from cultures you don't know about (but always wanted to ask). Seek out storytellers that visit from far away. Find lists of authors who have a different perspective. Enjoy, appreciate and promote diversity in all forms of story.
6. Attend a storytelling event
Look around for story circles, concerts, festivals, or other storytelling events in your area. Go visit them. Enjoy.
7. Make a new personal storytelling tradition
Make a little time in your day (or week) for stories. Bedtime is great, but sometimes it just doesn't work out - but don't fear! There are other options. Listen to a storytelling CD on your way to work. Share an anecdote with a friend over lunch. Write a blog post length story every weekend. Or every day.
8. Follow the path
Find and follow people of story on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other social media. Enjoy the tiny snippets of story news every day.
9. Time capsule
Record some of your own stories for posterity. They don't have to change the world. Imagine that you are making a time capsule and you have to include the five (ten) most significant events in your life. Write down the stories. Store them in a good place. When the time comes, share them.
10. Fund a storytelling project
Go on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, or another crowd funding website, and look around for stories. Spend a few bucks funding the ones you would love to hear (or read). Treat yourself to being a midwife to a new story.
+1. Don't forget to participate in the 2015 A to Z challenge! Share your stories!
Happy New Year, everyone!
Csenge (@TarkabarkaHolgy)
The Multicolored Diary - Adventures in Storytelling
MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians...
8 comments:
Hi Csenge - great ideas here ... there's lots going on if we seek out what's happening ... with so many ideas/events to record and remember for our characters, scene setting, et al - and yes the +1 I'm getting ready for ..
Happy New Year to everyone .. may we have peaceful and blessed ones .. cheers Hilary
Ooo lots to do for 2015!
Have a great new year, everyone!
Here's to more stories, and if you're from my region, safer flights!
This is #AWEsome, I will definitely add some of them to my 2015 list! Thanks!
I am glad you like it! Happy New Year!
Yes, please be safe Anna :) And Happy New Year!
Great tips! I like the time capsule idea most of all, I think. You're right-on about recording stories.
Makes me want to go write something!
I miss my dad and my uncles sitting around telling stories of growing up poor and in the mountains where their large family of 14 kids lived off the land. One of my uncles has put it all together for us. Great idea for the new year.
Storytelling is one of my favourite pasttimes! Whenever I need to get inspired I travel or talk to some of the children I work with (they're imaginations are out of this world!). http://nomoneywilltravel.com
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