Hello!

Hi, I'm Paul Newman - I live in Sheffield and I am an amateur Storyteller.

I have been paid for it in the past, but I don't make my living from it yet.
I teach voice and entertain (sing covers and my own songs) too.

I'm here because I'd like to learn from professional storytellers about how to become better at storytelling.

Cheers!

Paul.

Hi, Paul - welcome to the forum!

When you say amateur storyteller, what do you mean? Where do you tell stories? How often? Who to? Do you get paid for it? What kind of stories do you tell?

When I say amateur storyteller, I mean I love telling stories, but don't call myself a storyterller. I don't know if I'm any good at it, but I did win a storytelling competition in 2004. I now host that competition for the Druid Network
(see http://www.lammasgames.org/pages/spearholders.html for details).

I tell stories around campfires and occaisionally in pubs. I did a gig last year (my first!) at a pub called the Steamboat near Nottingham with a couple of the fellows who do the Nottingham Ghost Walk. I also did a week's Storytelling for a group called Rainbow 2000 who put on various camps throughout the summer
(see http://www.forestspirit.org/sshome.htm).

I don't tell stories very often - mostly in the summer to drunk adults!

Do you get paid for it? No, but I have got a family ticket to festival camps for free for my storytelling.

The stories I like to tell are usually based on a traditional story, but I try to weave something relevant into the narrative. My favourite type of storytelling is when I can use the audience - either get one of them out to play a character or a tree or something or use different sections of the audience to be a group in the story - a bunch of Orcs or something. Last year, I had a bunch of teenagers as the Druids and introduced them as the wisest people among you all! They gave me the answer to the hero's question "What is the key to happiness". I then had to improvise an ending from their answer. I like the challenge of making something real and fresh up on the spot that is based on an older tale - you've got something to fall back on then.

Cheers!