(Note: the blue horizontal menu bar directly above lists the subsections of "Telling the Story." Be sure to read each of these subsections before moving on to the next primary section, "Keeping the Story Going.")

Telling the Story

Telling a story is an art that depends on certain qualities and techniques that separate good storytelling from the mediocre. While we may not be able to identify all of the devices and talents employed by a master storyteller, we know that a great story takes hold of our imaginations and seems able to transport us to another world. We cannot wait to see how it turns out. But we also dread coming to the story's ending, because the experience itself is so rare and so wonderful that we want it to go on and on.

We cannot explore all the fine points of the storyteller's art or the historian's craft here, but we do need to pay attention to several major features.

First, storytellers are people who know great stories, who love them, who live to tell them. Basic to all that they do is a certain engagement with the story itself. The story seems to possess them as much as they do the story.

If your history is bland or lifeless to others, it might very well be that the story you are telling does not interest you sufficiently. Perhaps you have not entered it deeply enough for it to have a hold on you. If it does not grasp your imagination, it will most likely fail to move others. In such cases, it might be best to let someone else tell the story. Or you must search further until you find the drama that brings to life you and the story you seek to tell.

Frederick Lutheran Church, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (1966)