Hello!

This is my first post for the geeking out project.

Welcome to my first blog post in the geeking-out blogging challenge. This is is the first post in a mini-series here on my blog. I had to pick something to geek out about so I chose storytelling and fairytales. Today I am going to tell you a story about how I fell in love with storytelling.

When I was little I would listen to fairytales. I loved the ones with a love story even if the prince had to save the princess. Looking back at this, this defiantly wasn’t the best message, but I was more focused on the magic. Those stories made me think of a world where anything could happen and magic was real. 

As I grew older I started to branch out. I heard stories everywhere. My parents would read me stories and when I was old enough I would go to the library and pick out books of my own to read. I still gravitated toward the fairytales but in a different way. I loved (and still do love) a series called “The Land of Stories”. It brought all of my favourite characters back in a new light. In this way I continued to love the stories and characters I grew up with. From this series I found other fairytale-related stories to fall in love with and they inspired me to write my own stories. 

Which leads me to now. Reading all of those stories when I was a kid inspired me. Of course, I read and loved MANY other books but those stuck with me. Those characters and stories stuck with me so much that now I’m writing my version of their stories. I hope that fairytales can continue to inspire people to see the good in things, the magic.

Here’s a photo I took of my childhood books.

 

Before we go any further let’s take a look at

The History of Storytelling From Cave People to Now.

Storytelling has been a part of being human for almost all of our history. The cave people would draw stories out of paint on cave walls. Even back then there were tales of adventure and bravery.

 Then in Ancient Egypt, we see even richer storytelling, through their tales of gods. For example, the story of Isis and Osiris and how the first mummy was made. There were so many of these stories and we’re so lucky to be able to know about them. Something important to note is that this was their religion, but is now considered mythology.

Another place we see mythology stories is Ancient Greece. These stories are more well-known but some to note are narcissus, Heracles, the Iliad and how Olympians came to be. Something these cultures and their stories has in common is that their stories come from religion. These tales were real to them though they are utter fiction today.

Through the Middle Ages, there wasn’t much development to stories as far as we know. People were far too busy farming and paying taxes to listen to stories as we’re learning in humanities.

Fast forward to the 1700s and 1800s. Literature picks up with the works of writers like Jane Austen (pride and precedence, Emma), Lewis Carroll, and the brothers Grimm (fairytales again!). There were so many other notable writers from that time but the Grimm brothers embodied storytelling so I’m going to focus on them.

The brothers were some of the first to write down fairytales. This might surprise some people, but when original stories were much darker than the Disney versions. For example in the brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, the 2 step sisters cut off parts of their feet to make them fit in the shoe. 

Since then fairytales and storytelling have only continued to evolve. Disney redoing the fairytales to be family-friendly, books being available to more and more people, and including many more types of people. Stories have stood the test of time and I expect they will continue to.

Storytelling has been a part of being human for almost all of our history. The cave people would draw stories out of paint on cave walls. Even back then there were tales of adventure and bravery.

 Then in Ancient Egypt, we see even richer storytelling, through their tales of gods. For example, the story of Isis and Osiris and how the first mummy was made. There were so many of these stories and we’re so lucky to be able to know about them. Something important to note is that this was their religion, but is now considered mythology.

Another place we see mythology stories is Ancient Greece. These stories are more well-known but some to note are narcissus, Heracles, the Iliad and how Olympians came to be. Something these cultures and their stories has in common is that their stories come from religion. These tales were real to them though they are utter fiction today.

Through the Middle Ages, there wasn’t much development to stories as far as we know. People were far too busy farming and paying taxes to listen to stories as we’re learning in humanities.

Fast forward to the 1700s and 1800s. Literature picks up with the works of writers like Jane Austen (pride and prejudice, Emma), Lewis Carroll, and the brothers Grimm (fairytales again!). There were so many other notable writers from that time but the Grimm Brothers embodied storytelling so I will focus on them.

The brothers were some of the first to write down fairytales. This might surprise some people, but when original stories were much darker than the Disney versions. For example, in the brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, the 2 step sisters cut off parts of their feet to make them fit in the shoe. 

Since then, fairytales and storytelling have only continued to evolve. Disney redoing the fairytales to be family-friendly, books being available to more and more people, and including many more types of people. Stories have stood the test of time and I expect they will continue to.

Here’s a drawing I did of an old fairytale vs a more progressive one.

And finally, I wrote an extra post to get all of you started writing your own stories

How to get started with Storytelling

This is a bit of a tough one. The truth is, you probably already have told a story if you’ve ever told someone how your day was going. It might have been a boring story, yes, but a story nonetheless. You’ve also probably listened to someone tell you a story, especially when you were little if you had bedtime stories read to you.

But I’m going to give you advice on how to go beyond telling someone your day. Here are 3 tips on how to get better at storytelling

1 Read or listen to other people’s stories.

This is important. We can learn so much from others and their perspectives. You can learn from others about storytelling by taking writing workshops and reading books. Take it a step further and go to an author event. Even just ask someone about their day and note what makes it interesting.

2. Make sure it is interesting

If a story is dull it sucks. That’s just the truth. No one wants to hear about someone who keeps waking up early to go to a job that’s burning them out. Instead, maybe they could be going to work as a secret agent, or a monster could interrupt their day.

3. Practice.

This is the most important one. If you’ve never told a story before don’t expect to be good at it. storytelling takes a lot of practice, to learn to adapt to your audience and think up original ideas. Keep with it and you’ll be great in no time.

Here’s a visual

 Reflection

It is time….
To finish…
The Geeking out blogging challenge…
After 5 days of sweat and tears…
WE HAVE MADE IT!!!!!!

Ok, that was a tad dramatic but still. I’m proud of myself. Now I’m going to reflect on the past few days and this project!

I liked this project. At first, I felt like I didn’t know quite enough about anything to write multiple posts on it, but I’m really glad I picked it. I didn’t realize that I knew so much until I started to write it down.
This was different from my other post too because it was all about what I’m interested in. I felt like I could do more things with it. I was free to make it my own.
I learned a lot bout myself during this experience one example being that I know more than I know. I read a lot when I was younger (and still do!) and I learned more from that experience than I thought.
My favourite piece was the history of storytelling. I learned even more about this topic while writing about it and it’s really interesting to think about.
The easiest part was the info because I know myself well. I connected with the prompt and I had a lot to say.
I don’t know If ill continue to post here because I have lots of other assignments. If I ever get inspired I definitely will add to this though.