Me & Stories
Me and stories go back a long way - but I'm not talking here about fiction (although there's masses of that, too. You can look at my website for my fiction writing, and the audio and photos on those pages, if you'd like to - but there's no prize if you do. Sorry about that!).
This page is about some of the stories I've shared about different parts of my life.
It started in October 1976 when I was on a Sunday teatime BBC1 TV programme, talking about my Dad's death from cancer that summer. I was 12 years old. The photos above are from the script for that show.
That's a pretty big story: actually, it's quite a lot of separate, big, stories. I've put something about it here simply because, if I ask you to share something from your life's stories, you might like to know I've also done this.
(By the way, just because we call it a 'story' doesn't mean it didn't happen. It's not something that's made up. It's something that has happened, or is happening now, that you've experienced. That's why sometimes people call it a 'life story' or 'life history'.)
There are all sorts of different ways you might share a story about your life. Sometimes people think they don't have a story to tell. I've never met anyone with no stories, but I have met people who don't know they've got stories. I've also met people who aren't very good at finding where a particular story about their life starts or finishes. I'm really good at helping people find and shape their stories - and explore how they might share this, if they'd like.
Sometimes people think they've got to tell you everything that's ever happened to them - but that would take a very long time. You could say, it would take a lifetime! Instead, you might pick one thing that happened and share that story.
Sometimes a story gets called something else - an experience, or an example, or a case study. That might be because an organisation would like you to share a story from your life that's relevant to the work they're doing.
Sometimes people think they have to tell a story about something very sad - like a death, or serious - like being diagnosed with cancer. Sometimes those stories can be funny or heart-warming, too. But you can also share a story about a much smaller incident or experience. Here's a very short story from my life, about a time I was wrong - and embarrassed!
Some years ago, on a busy Saturday afternoon, I was on my way to my local indoor shopping centre when I saw a woman bending over her bicycle. She had her back to me. I knew instantly who it was - someone I worked with, and with whom I had a nice, jokey, work-relationship. I knew she had friends living near me, so it wasn't a huge surprise to see her there. I walked up behind her and, as she was still bending over her bike and hadn't seen me, I called out:
"I recognise that bottom!" and she turned round.
And, as it turned out, I hadn't recognised that bottom. I didn't know who this woman was. It certainly wasn't the person I worked with.
"Oh, sorry!" I said. "Wrong bottom!" and I ran over the road as fast as I could, disappearing into the nearest shop.
Now, this isn't the finest story in the world. If I was going to tell it in public, I might want to do some more work on it. I might think about - what time of the year it was, was it warm? was I tired? what did the road look like? what was the woman wearing? why had I thought the woman at work would laugh at what I said? could I smell anything, did I tell the (real) woman at work what had happened, afterwards? - not necessarily to tell you all those details in turn, but to have them in mind as I'm saying it, or writing it, or drawing it for you, so that you get a bigger feel for the story and how it unfolds.
I've included it just to give you an idea of how you might get started, in case you think you really don't have any stories to tell. There are always stories to be found from something that happened to you at school, or work, or with a neighbour, or were on a bus or waiting for a train; or a time you were happy, or cross, or embarrassed, or sad, or you saw a cat do something that really made you laugh!
Here are some of the other ways I've told and shared stories from my life, below.
This page is about some of the stories I've shared about different parts of my life.
It started in October 1976 when I was on a Sunday teatime BBC1 TV programme, talking about my Dad's death from cancer that summer. I was 12 years old. The photos above are from the script for that show.
That's a pretty big story: actually, it's quite a lot of separate, big, stories. I've put something about it here simply because, if I ask you to share something from your life's stories, you might like to know I've also done this.
(By the way, just because we call it a 'story' doesn't mean it didn't happen. It's not something that's made up. It's something that has happened, or is happening now, that you've experienced. That's why sometimes people call it a 'life story' or 'life history'.)
There are all sorts of different ways you might share a story about your life. Sometimes people think they don't have a story to tell. I've never met anyone with no stories, but I have met people who don't know they've got stories. I've also met people who aren't very good at finding where a particular story about their life starts or finishes. I'm really good at helping people find and shape their stories - and explore how they might share this, if they'd like.
Sometimes people think they've got to tell you everything that's ever happened to them - but that would take a very long time. You could say, it would take a lifetime! Instead, you might pick one thing that happened and share that story.
Sometimes a story gets called something else - an experience, or an example, or a case study. That might be because an organisation would like you to share a story from your life that's relevant to the work they're doing.
Sometimes people think they have to tell a story about something very sad - like a death, or serious - like being diagnosed with cancer. Sometimes those stories can be funny or heart-warming, too. But you can also share a story about a much smaller incident or experience. Here's a very short story from my life, about a time I was wrong - and embarrassed!
Some years ago, on a busy Saturday afternoon, I was on my way to my local indoor shopping centre when I saw a woman bending over her bicycle. She had her back to me. I knew instantly who it was - someone I worked with, and with whom I had a nice, jokey, work-relationship. I knew she had friends living near me, so it wasn't a huge surprise to see her there. I walked up behind her and, as she was still bending over her bike and hadn't seen me, I called out:
"I recognise that bottom!" and she turned round.
And, as it turned out, I hadn't recognised that bottom. I didn't know who this woman was. It certainly wasn't the person I worked with.
"Oh, sorry!" I said. "Wrong bottom!" and I ran over the road as fast as I could, disappearing into the nearest shop.
Now, this isn't the finest story in the world. If I was going to tell it in public, I might want to do some more work on it. I might think about - what time of the year it was, was it warm? was I tired? what did the road look like? what was the woman wearing? why had I thought the woman at work would laugh at what I said? could I smell anything, did I tell the (real) woman at work what had happened, afterwards? - not necessarily to tell you all those details in turn, but to have them in mind as I'm saying it, or writing it, or drawing it for you, so that you get a bigger feel for the story and how it unfolds.
I've included it just to give you an idea of how you might get started, in case you think you really don't have any stories to tell. There are always stories to be found from something that happened to you at school, or work, or with a neighbour, or were on a bus or waiting for a train; or a time you were happy, or cross, or embarrassed, or sad, or you saw a cat do something that really made you laugh!
Here are some of the other ways I've told and shared stories from my life, below.
A case study
The way that stories from your life are shared depends on things like whether you're telling a story to an organisation.
Organisations often want to include people's stories because you use their service, or because your story helps explain something to other people. When your story is used this way it's often called 'a case study'. Something that happened while my mum was having cancer treatment was included in a report, as a case study. I wrote what had happened, using what my mum had told me at the time. (She couldn't write it herself because she had died by then.) Then the organisation edited it, so it fitted their report. The organisation was the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Above is a photo of the report's front cover, published in 2011. Not everyone enjoys being a 'case study'. You might not like the way someone else edits your story but don't get the final say. Or, the media might want to talk to you about what happened, but you don't want to talk to them. Sometimes that's because you don't like how a journalist decides to re-tell your story. |
Photos and audio
I've performed two of my own stories in public - at an evening run by the School for Storytelling in Forest Row, East Sussex; and at the Salisbury Literary Festival and the Salisbury Story Party.
I turned one of these stories into a very short photo film - a combination of recorded audio (my voice) and photos I've taken. It's called Daisies - and you can see it here. I've also made lots of photo films with and for other people and organisations. You can see some more of these if you click on the Button, below. You don't have to put photos and audio together to tell a story. You could just record your voice or share some photos. Someone might see one of your photos or hear something you say, and that may help them find something of their own story too. One of the really positive things about sharing a story from your life is the way it can resonate with someone else. It can help someone know they're not alone in feeling something, or having gone through an experience, or reacted a certain way. |
Drawing a story
One Christmas I drew a story about how regularly visiting the dog who lived over the road had really helped me during a time when I was very ill and grieving.
That year, I sent it to everyone to whom I sent Christmas cards (I used to send out an alternative, funny, news sheet about my year called The Probe but, after 15 years, had run out of steam). I'm not that great at drawing, and I don't draw very often, but I enjoy it when I do. And I love graphic novels, especially those based on real life like Ethel and Ernest, or Maus. The story I drew - The Secret Life of Dr Dog - is from something that happened to me. I'm including it because illustrating part of your story is another way to tell and share it. This might be one picture, or several. You might draw or paint or use something like collage to show what your story looks like. Hopefully The Secret Life of Doctor Dog shows that you don't need to be great at drawing or painting (or hand writing!) to share a story. It also shows a way of sharing a story about you, but from someone else's point of view. In this case, 'some dog' else's! |
