What are the most common problems of beginning storytellers? Nearly every struggling beginner has urgent concerns like these:
- Practicing is hard. I put it off, then get more and more desperate as my performance date approaches.
- How do I remember the story? What if I forget in the middle? How can I memorize?
- What if they don’t listen to me? Aren’t there some tricks I can learn, to guarantee their attention?
- For me, the only word that follows “performance” is “anxiety.” My mouth is dry, my palms are sweaty, my voice is unsteady. Instead of telling this story, couldn’t I just die?
I believe that all these common storytelling preoccupations stem, at least in part, from the same causes! In fact, they can all be cured (and, even more easily, prevented) quite simply.