West Virginia Writers Conference: Part 1

I realized this evening that I had not written yet about the writers conference. This is part one of what will probably be a three part series.

The weekend began Friday afternoon. I set up my items for sale in the book sale area and registered for the conference, immediately running into friends I had not seen in months, some not since the last conference. It brought to mind the first time I attended--I knew no one. Now four (or is it 5?) years later, there are many familiar faces.

I went home to rest a little, pick up my husband, and go back to do my first workshop. I felt off-balance, although it was a workshop I'd done many times. I think it was because I really wanted to be with my son, but I'd committed to do two workshops and had to honor that.

The title of the workshop was Storytelling 101, and the goal was to teach attendees to tell a story orally. I also wanted to explore the differences between the written and the told story and talk a little about folktales and how to develop a story for telling.

It became clear pretty quickly that I had started in the wrong place. I needed to start not with how to tell a story, but rather what oral storytelling is, what kinds of stories are told, who tells them and why, and where the stories can be found. I learned that from the first few questions that were asked, so we regrouped and started again. The discussion actually flowed from the questions of the participants and their observations. It was invigorating to revisit the foundations of storytelling, and from the evaluations I think the sessions went very well.

What I learned from it:
1) Writers would benefit from learning about the Stith Thompson index as a tool for story sources and ideas.

2) My level of knowledge surprised me. I've learned a lot over the past 11 years, but hadn't realized just how much until I began addressing the questions asked. I usually do this workshop for storytellers or people who attend storytellign conferences, so they start with a basic knowledge that was lacking with the writers in my session.

3) There's a strong interest in storytelling in our state, but people aren't sure how to go about becoming a storyteller, or where to learn how more about it.

4) While I think I had an excellent handout for the session I thought I would teach, I could have used one that gave information about how to find further instruction/mentoring for beginning tellers. Our guild needs to put that together.

5) There's a role for the guild in finding and developing tellers. We need to address it.

I left immediately after the session to visit with Derek for a little while, then returned home to sleep. We'd be starting early Saturday morning for another full day.