Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Find Your Voice: Beginning Thoughts

Today was the first day of a new, free online eight week summer story telling workshop called "Find Your Voice," offered by rukristin.  It looks to be a really interesting and challenging class. Today's assignment was all about getting set up: thinking about how you will approach the class; articulating your goals for the class; and beginning to think about story telling. I'm taking the class because I have found story telling (accompanied by photography or art) to be one of the most rewarding parts of blogging. It's what I love about Sian's Storytelling Sunday, Alexa's Simply a Moment, and why I decided to start the "My Photographer's Eye" series. So, in this class, I hope to push myself to become a better writer and story teller. I plan to use a new journal (illustrated with drawing, stamping and water colors) and my blog to tell my stories. I also plan to use the class to finish an art journal called "In My Wildest Dreams," which I started for the Shimelle class "When I Grow Up." 
Kristin encouraged everyone to take five photos a day, and, of today's photos, I have selected these three as ones for which I have a story I want to tell sometime during the workshop. I'll be posting my photos on instagram at #findyourvoicemlo if you want to follow along.  There was also a worksheet today to record thoughts about story telling. One of the most interesting questions was about which story tellers you admire and and what you can adapt from their style to improve your own story telling.  In my blogosphere, I really admire Sian of From High in the Sky (here's a good example of her story telling, and here's another one) because her spare style requires readers to fill in the blanks and because of the feelings conveyed in her stories. I also love Stacey of Havoc and Mayhem because of her use of humor (see her post here with lots of  links to previous funny posts).  And then there's Ladykis, whose stories (like this one) are told with a humble simplicity, yet take me to a different time and place because of their richness of detail. 
Is anyone else participating in the workshop? If so, what are your initial plans? 
And, for everyone, let me know which bloggers you admire for their story telling talents. I'd love to go check them out.

14 comments:

Sian said...

Thank you very much. It's a privilege to be mentioned in the same post as some of my own favourite storytellers.

Stranger in a Strange Land said...

Best of luck in you class. :)

Mike

JO SOWERBY said...

Hi Maria and yep I'm doing the class. I'm going to print out the worksheet and start writing today, as yesterday was a bit of a washout, literally!
I love Sian's storytelling which like you is why I take part in Storytelling Sunday. I also love Julie Kirk's funny style and I love the way Shimelle tells her stories too. I am so proud to know so many wonderful tale tellers and look forward to someone admiring me one day,
Jo xx

Cheri said...

In addition to the great storytellers you mentioned, I truly admire Alexa - her "simple" moments are always so evocative and well told and I love her writing style. Also Amy has a way with words sometimes, particularly when describing the antics of a certain six-year-old. Among "celebs", Cathy Zielski gets me with her sense of humor when she blogs about everyday life stuff.

Unknown said...

As a child I dreamed of writing, it was always so much fun. But then I grew up and became sensible and it flew away. I have enjoyed STS as it is letting that dream soar once again. Not that I'll become a famous writer, but I think of stories all the time now, just like I used to. Never a dull moment when you can do that :)

I came across this article today ... thought you might find it interesting after reading your post.

http://flavorwire.com/391173/famous-authors-handwritten-outlines-for-great-works-of-literature

Unknown said...

I've not come across this before, but it looks very interesting. I am tempted to join in as I whilst I think story is vital and love to write fiction, I struggle with journalling and including story in my craft and blog. Time might be an issue, but looking at the first week I think it might be possible.

Holly said...

I, too, am participating in the class and am looking forward to it. I set up a blog at Wordpress, just for this class. I have the first post started, but not completed so there is nothing up there .... yet. It will be today tho!

and Carolyn Phillips...join in, we will have loads of fun!

Miriam said...

I have this ready to look at, hoping to get started later today/tomorrow.

Kat Sloma, Curry Silver, Alexa, Sian, Julie Kirk, Ladykiss and you.
I like the way you write your posts.

Jen said...

Hi Rinda - - yes I am participating - thanks to this very post - - so a huge thank you - - as for people whose stories I love to read - - I too love Sian's stories, Alexa's and Amy's from the STS writers - your own, and Ladykis and have discovered Julie Kirk in the last 3 months and am very fond of how Shimelle writes her stories. I love words - but am actually quite hopeless at adding them to my albums! Thank you again for the heads up on this class/workshop. J x

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

I'm also looking forward to the class & hope I can keep up with it. Summer is always a bit challenging for me.

chatti said...

I printed the worksheet last night and will be working on it today. I've struggled with how to do my title/cover page for project life and i'm going to make based on storytelling (i'm starting in June for PL). Thanks for your great post!

Nathalie said...

I read a bit about this class and decided that it was too much for me! I don't feel like I have great stories to tell as I don't remember much!!! I am very interested in seeing what you do with this class though!
I too admire Sian's talent! Off to check the others you mentioned!

Melissa said...

I've just downloaded the Week One materials - looks like a great class. I agree that Sian would be top of my list for storytelling, along with many of the bloggers who participate each month in Storytelling Sunday.

Anonymous said...

Good luck in your class.