Archive for the ‘storytelling’ Category
Summer tour 2010
Posted by ghozm, in events, storytelling
June 8th, 2010
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My tour for the summer 2010 has started, I had a great time at Tønsberg Middelalderfestival (a mediaeval festival). Here is a little something from one of my storytelling sessions:
Photos by Liv Mette Poverud
Next weekend I’ll go all the way south-west of Norway, to Karmøy.
art of telling stories tip 4 – know your stories by heart
Posted by ghozm, in art of telling stories, storytelling
March 23rd, 2010
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I can not stress this point enough! To tell a story you must know all the aspects of it, you must know the story line, characters and conversations 100% by heart. Now, this does not mean that you have to memorise every word of the story and tell it exactly how it is written, because the main point here is that you must know it by heart, not only by mind. In my opinion, if you tell the story 100% according to the script, you could just as well be reading a book. And for me that is something entirely different from being a storyteller.
When I find a good story that I want to use I firstly read it through several times, then I make a short list of all the characters and important points in the story line and this list is what I will learn by heart, the rest is improvised while telling the story. But what I do next is to close my eyes and visualise my self telling the story for an audience. I’ll repeat the visualisation until I know the story by heart. And for every time i visualise this the story gets more detailed.
Using this technique means that a story will never be told the same way twice. There will always be slight changes to it and this is what makes your stories evolve from the script to something that is your own.
art of telling stories tip 3 – immersion
Posted by ghozm, in art of telling stories, storytelling
March 20th, 2010
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This is one of the techniques I have learned through RPGs and LARP. It is a subject that actors have spent years to study: Immersion. It goes without saying that I’ll barely scratch the surface with this tiny article.
Immerse your self in a story and its characters and you will see that your audience will do the same. When a character in your story is doing something or saying something show it with your whole body, become the character. There are many ways and styles to do this, but most important is that you have done some preparations. As a storyteller you will have to keep track of many characters.
Me immersed as a crybaby.. Photo by Elin K. Nilsen.
How to immerse your self? Study your tale and figure out the building blocks of each character. for each of them consider this: Who is she and what role does she play in the story? How does she walk and talk? Bad habits? What separates her from the other characters in the story? What feelings does she have? What feelings does she display? In short: How is her personality and how is her personality perceived? These are all important things to ponder and when you have pondered for a while try to put your self in her shoes. Act like her, speak like her, think like her, feel like her. Convince your self that you are that character!
My best tip to get inspiration on characters and archetypes is to study people out there. Go to a place where people are waiting, like a bus stop, train station or a place people gather, like a pub or café. Look for people that are a bit out of the ordinary, either because of how they look or how they behave, try to notice as much as possible about this person. How does she use her arms? How does she stand/sit/walk? Qualities of voice and language.. This technique has given me some very amazing characters and characteristics to use in my stories.
The tricky part with immersion as a storyteller is that you have to jump in and out of characters, rapidly and many times during a story. And it becomes even more tricky when your characters are having a conversation. There is only one tip I can give to help with that: Practice and experience.
blogs and podcasts on storytelling?
Posted by ghozm, in storytelling
March 18th, 2010
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I have been searching the internet for good blogs and podcasts that discuss the subjects of storytelling and stories. But the web is so webby and this makes it hard to find the real pearls. I have found a few sites, forums and blogs that are good resources, but still I would like to find more of them. I would like to read blogs with material, new stories and discussions on the art of storytelling. I want to share experiences and learn from the variety of styles. But that meant I need to find those sites with that particular information. Do you have any good links to share? Specially I am interested in podcasts where stories are told and ideas are discussed..
Here is a list of what I got so far..
Blogs and Podcasts
Ikke slik, men slik (Norwegian)
Other sites, forums, portals
The international Storytelling School
Tim Sheppard’s Storytelling Resoruces for Storytellers
new story posted at tales of..
Posted by ghozm, in storytelling, tales of.., updates
March 17th, 2010
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Illustration by Disha Iris Lundberg.
This is the first part of a longer story that I will publish as each part is written. I have no idea on what is going to happen next, though I do have a slight idea for the ending of the story.
Read more about the story concept..
“She was born under a lucky star on a lucky day, even the hour was a lucky one, at least that is what her village elders were chittering and chattering about every time she walked by. Well, if her destiny was to be an idiot-village-girl in an idiot-village, she was on the fast track to fulfil her destiny.”
art of telling stories tip 2 – dynamics
Posted by ghozm, in art of telling stories, storytelling
March 12th, 2010
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Have you ever had to listen to a storyteller that has no idea of how to use dynamics? Blabbering on with the same intensity from start to finish.. Well, my mind usually starts to drift after just a few minutes and when the story is over I feel relieved, but can’t remember a single thing from the story.
When you tell a story, the dynamics can really seduce your audience. This is closely connected to the first tip about energy, but still a subject of its own. Every story has its own dynamics. Some have many intensity peaks, while others starts low and slowly builds up to a climax. Any way the dynamics must follow the story line. Telling at full intensity while the story line is at a calm stage just gives your audience a false impression and what will you do when the story demands full intensity and you already are there? The key is to keep the flow as close to the story as possible, but you can also change the dynamics when you need it for other reasons. Some times, specially when telling stories for children, you might experience that you are loosing your audience to something else, any kind of distraction really, this is the time to increase the intensity a bit, or even lower it by almost whispering. Because if you change the flow of the story you’ll regain your audience’s attention.
Dynamics is not only linked to the energy and intensity you spend, but to the whole of your body. You can lower your voice, but still keep a high intensity, you can raise your voice but still be in low intensity. It all depends on what your body communicates and the story it self. There are hundreds of techniques and theories on how to tell stories dynamically, but my best tip would be: Experiment and gain experience! For only with real experience will you understand how it works.
art ot telling stories tip 1 – energy!
Posted by ghozm, in art of telling stories, storytelling
March 9th, 2010
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Tags: energy, storytelling
I can write page after page on how to tell a story, but I’ll try not to. Therefore I will rather post a few tips every now and then. If you are interested to learn more than covered by this and coming posts.. you’ll have to attend one of my courses or take private lessons.
Me telling a story with full intensity. Photo by Elin K. Nilsen.
Use all the energy you have, use your whole body not just your words. Every single watt you spend on telling the story counts when it comes to your audience interest in you and your story. With the right use of energy even a crappy and short story will be greatly appreciated. This being said it is also important to distribute your energy and intensity through the story and the whole storytelling session. Usually I start out with high intensity to get the audience’s initial attention, then lower the intensity slowly, only to increase it towards the end.
If you spend all the energy you got, you’ll probably feel like you just finished running a marathon at sprint speed afterwards, but it will be worth it because the joy of your listeners will quickly fill you up again.
Nothing is more uninspiring than someone telling a story with the lack of energy and intensity. If you haven’t got the energy, don’t tell the story. Of course some stories demand that they are told in low intensity, but that I’ll cover in another tip: Dynamics.
“Spend all the energy you got, don’t save a single watt!”
new story published at tales of…
Posted by ghozm, in tales of.., updates
March 8th, 2010
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the oldest man with the oldest secret
Once upon a time in a far distant land, there was a very old man, he was in fact so old that no one remembered anything else than this man being old. His name was known through out the realm and many came to visit him, all came to ask his secrets to his long life…
an interesting job
Posted by ghozm, in events, storytelling
March 7th, 2010
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From Cupido's event facebook page.
My next job brings some interesting new aspects to my storytelling. I have told stories for that are only for adult ears before but this time I am going to tell stories for an audience who is used to hearing, watching and taking part of such stories.. I am to tell stories at the 25 years anniversary for Cupido, a magazine on sex. The main attraction for the party will be a burlesque show by the fantasic Fleshoticas, there will be a huge Orgasm-cake where 25 candles will be lit, one for each orgasm given..(?). There will also be a kissing marathon, burlesque dancing competition and of course some challenging tales by me! The party will be in Oslo the 13th of March and you can buy your tickets at Cupido’s web shop.
scripting events for mmorpgs
Posted by ghozm, in mmorpg, planeshift, storytelling
March 4th, 2010
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I must be honest to say that I don’t have a lot of experience in making events for mmorpgs as I ave only been doing it for a bit more than half a year. But what I do have is many years of experience of ordinary table top RPG (mostly as a Game Master) and LARP experience (also mostly as an organiser). I’m not going to discuss the dynamics of an event or how to build a story, as there are so many theories and ways of doing this. And mark that I’ll only scratch the surface on the theories of how to script an event.
What makes an event enjoyable for players?
The player must feel that she is a part of the story and can change the course of the story..
The player must feel that the story affects her character..
The main characters must be complex enough to give depth to the story..
The main characters must be simple enough to quickly be defined..
Introduction
A small merchant's event in PlaneShift.
How you introduce the event is crucial to how the players follow, how many will follow and what kind of players you attract. Make sure the main character gives a clear picture of the event that is to come, and if the event is announced in forums or other media, make sure it is written well. If you promise something and does not give it your players will slaughter you and your event. Though you can some times surprise your players too, by saying it is an event about x and serving them y. Just make sure the y is exeptionally fun for the players (see “Surprise” below).
Characters and the story line
As I said in the introduction of this post, I won’t ramble on about dynamics and how to build your story, but I have to say this: Make sure the main characters match the story. They should be well though out and they should all have a very good reason for participating in the story. They should be a natural part of the story so to speak. If you need a character to drop a clue, make sure that character has a reason to do so. This means that you probably have to make more background material than what actually will be revealed.
Challenge
The players should be challenged and so should her character. An event plot should not be easy to solve, it should be challenging. A bad plot will give you two options, if you choose A you loose if you choose B you win. A good plot will give the players several choices, where A will lead to X, B lead to Y , C lead to Z and what ever choice the players take they should feel that they won. If you mix a moral dilemma in to the choice you will give the players a even harder challenge. They must then decide what kind of moral their character support and players will often end up in a discussion of right and wrong. This is good, because it gives the players the possibility to show the depth of their character or even give the players some more depth to their character.
Surprise
An event should have surprises, but be sure that the surprise is one that brings out more good roleplay and challenge. Have you ever seen a movie with an extremely surprising ending? When you talk to people about that movie you will quickly see that some just loved it, while others hated it. Those who love it do so because they enjoy change and surprises. They want to be surprised. Those who hate it, hate it because they feel tricked, as if someone stole the ending they expected. This is the reason why you should be careful of the surprises you put in to your plot.
For example: You are making an calm storytelling event, but your surprise is that the nice atmosphere will be broken by hoards of monsters, killing everyone. This will most likely enrage your players unless you make sure that they know that the place this event is held is a dangerous one (then again your surprise is spoiled). So the surprise must still be within the settings of your event. A nice surprise would be for example that the good guy is revealed in the end to be a bad guy. Remember also to give the players a chance to avert or at least reveal the surprise.
Balance
By balance I do not only mean balance when it comes to mechanics, but balance within the role play it self, balance between players choices and the script, the balance between the status of the characters and the story it self. This is is a very tricky part, specially if you don’t know who will turn up for the event. If you notice during the event that the balance is off, you’ll have to do something about it. It is hard to come up with any good tips on this, as it will always depend upon the situation. What I can say is that you have to pay attention to the balance of the plot at all times and do whatever in your power to keep it. If your players are peasants, be careful of introducing an all powerful king to the plot, though some times the king is needed to restore the balance. Your players should not feel too inferior (unless this is an important point to the story).
Be true to the settings
The settings is the world you play in, its history, its society, creatures and races, ideas and philosophies. If you want an event to be true to RP it has to be true to the settings. This means that you have to study the lore of the world before you even write down your basic ideas for an event. Some settings are so huge that is is nearly impossible to keep track of it all, but don’t let this be an excuse not to follow it and do your share of research. If you are not sure if your event follows the settings, ask those who would know.
Community support
Large events need support from the community. Get the players involved at some point in the planning, but do not let them control the planning. Don’t ask them what they want, but tell them what you want. For example if you wanted to make a big festival you would need a large amount of hosts. Some would take care of the food, making it and serving it. Some should take care of security and other would be responsible for the entertainment and community rituals. The more responsibility you give the players the more they will get involved. Avoid using them as “slaves”, rather give them a challenge. Some events demand that you are open about everything, like a festival, while others demand a certain degree of secrecy, like when you add a few surprises. If you keep secrets from the community, tell them that you do and why.
Pitfalls
There are many pitfalls when it comes to scripting events. First off is to make a too predictable story or just a rewrite of old used up stories. There have been so many stories written, not just for events, but in books, novels, movies, television series, comics and so on. Make sure the story you are scripting is not a copy of one, at least not a copy of one that has been used oh-so-many-times.
The second pitfall is scripting an event without many possible outcomes. Players does not always react as you would expect and if your script has only one possible outcome, you might end up being screwed by the players and the story falls dead to the ground. There is a fine balance between controlling the story and giving the players freedom to develop the story. The perfect script would give the players a good start with a nice dilemma/task. But once it is set to life the players may choose any path to the solution of the plot. This is hard to do, and most of the times you will end up with a script with a few select endings. What you should avoid at all costs is a fixed storyline, because that will make the players more like an audience than participants of a role play. Players actions should always affect the outcome of the story, even if you don’t like how it all turns out.
Controlling the crowd
A bit larger merchant's event in PlaneShift.
The main problem when it comes to hosting large events is lag and server crashes. This means that you will need a way to control the masses of players and stop them from gathering all at the same place. To do this you can spread the event over a large area, make things happen in several places at the same time. For example in a festival event you could have several “stations” spread out within a city, like it would naturally in a real life fair. Because of this problem GM events are best run in games with fewer players. But sometimes even small events get too crowded and then you will have to act quickly so the event isn’t ruined by lag or a crash. The best is absolutely to find an IC reason to disperse the crowd, but if that fails you’ll have to resort to OOC means, like telling the crowd to disperse or simply teleporting players out of the area (If you are a GM with such powers).
Words and expressions used
RP – Role play. To define role play is like defining the word God. But take a look at this article to get an idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roleplaying
IC – In Character. Everything that your character does within the settings. As opposed to Out of Character.
OOC – Out of Character. The real world is OOC. Anything that has no relation to the settings is OOC.
GM – Game Master, those who organize the event and play the “main” characters of the story.
GM char – Characters in the story played by Game Masters.
Mechanics – The rules of the game, the mechanics that makes the game it self. Including but not limited to Stats, skills, combat system, etc.
Inspiration and resources:
http://www.fantopro.com/blog/2009/11/go-farther-mmos-as-caracters.html#more
http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/3354/Another-Perspective-on-Live-Content.html
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