Internalizing
Over the past few weeks our Church Storytellers group (of which I am a part) has been talking about Internalizing the stories that we tell as part of the process of our learning the stories and being able to tell them well. Internalizing is the point of entry for this discussion so, feel free to comment on my reflection and dare to be brutally honest!
We focus primarily on stories and texts from the Bible and try to use them whenever we might have opportunites. We have tried to make opportunities for the Storytellers to "tell their stories" during our worship services and informal gatherings. To this point in time most of our "telling stories" has been learning and telling them as we feel comfortable being able to re-tell the story.
But, in studying the word Internalize I have found that I need to do more than just be able to re-tell a story. Here are my megar reflections on making a story my own - which is what I believe Storytelling is all about.
Definitions of Internalize:
1. To make internal, personal, or subjective
2. To take in and make an integral part of one's attitudes or beliefs
I don't consider myself that great a storyteller in general because I have somehow thought along the way that my stories are not worth telling to others. I am learning more and more that my stories are worth telling because they speak of God's working in my life and that is so much a part of what history is all about.
So, the question I have is this,
Q: if I am to make a particular story part of my attitude or belief what things in the story that I am about to internalize or about myself do I need to wrestle with in order for it to become my story?
Q: 3 basic thoughts I've come up with:
My next posting will be an attempt to look at one of the stories I am working in light of these questions and thoughts and wrestle a bit more on how it can be more my story. I look forward to your comments.
We focus primarily on stories and texts from the Bible and try to use them whenever we might have opportunites. We have tried to make opportunities for the Storytellers to "tell their stories" during our worship services and informal gatherings. To this point in time most of our "telling stories" has been learning and telling them as we feel comfortable being able to re-tell the story.
But, in studying the word Internalize I have found that I need to do more than just be able to re-tell a story. Here are my megar reflections on making a story my own - which is what I believe Storytelling is all about.
Definitions of Internalize:
1. To make internal, personal, or subjective
2. To take in and make an integral part of one's attitudes or beliefs
I don't consider myself that great a storyteller in general because I have somehow thought along the way that my stories are not worth telling to others. I am learning more and more that my stories are worth telling because they speak of God's working in my life and that is so much a part of what history is all about.
So, the question I have is this,
Q: if I am to make a particular story part of my attitude or belief what things in the story that I am about to internalize or about myself do I need to wrestle with in order for it to become my story?
Q: 3 basic thoughts I've come up with:
- What is the truth of the story that sticks out to me the most, and why?
- How would I tell the story in 3 different situations/settings?
- If I were to ask the most critical person I know to help me internalize this story, what would they say and why?
My next posting will be an attempt to look at one of the stories I am working in light of these questions and thoughts and wrestle a bit more on how it can be more my story. I look forward to your comments.
posted by Phil English at 2:00 PM
2 Comments:
Phil,
"How would I tell the story in 3 different situations/settings?"
DO you mean the setting of the listeners to the story (a group of friends in a bar) or the setting of the story itself (the Good Samaritan in the year 2006)?
Dear Anonymous (situations/settings),
I would tell the story for 3 different listener groups as well as try to tell the story itself in a different setting. I think this would be the real test of how well I have internalized the story.
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