Essay | The Power of Storytelling 

WINONA – When Terry Visger began with “Once upon a time . . . “, the conversation in the room stopped, all eyes and ears turned their attention to her, and we storytelling students were on the edges of our seats. 

Just the anticipation of being taken into the world of storytelling was enough to command the room at the Winter Storytelling Workshop recently held at St. Mary’s University in Winona, sponsored by southeast Minnesota’s Sandbar Storytelling Festival. 

Terry, who lives in rural Houston County near La Crescent, is a member of the National Storytelling Network, has been a driving force behind the annual La Crosse Storytelling Festival, is active with Winona’s annual Sandbar Storytelling Festival and a member of the Bluff Country Tale Spinners.

Angela Oseland tells her original story about a harrowing canoe trip. (Photo by Sandy Webb)

Of course, we all swap tales around the picnic table or hanging out on a blanket at the river. But the workshop, led by Terry, helped us see that our personal anecdotes can be turned into stories that engage our listeners because they can relate it to something in their own lives. 

The timeless tradition of sharing stories

Humans have been telling stories for thousands of years.

Whether sitting in a cave around a fire or seated in plush auditorium seats, we feel the resonance of the words and ideas calling us to our deepest sense of humanity.

Stories provoke our imagination; they activate the creative and logical sides of our brains simultaneously. This gives stories immense power. 

How do you get high school students interested in history? Tell a story. How do businesses better engage their clients? Tell a story. How do you encourage understanding of other cultures? Tell a story.

Stories can persuade, teach, scare, inspire change or simply entertain. 

“You could be the troll”, says Nancy Melin while she and Betty Cook searcha children’s books for story ideas. (Photo by Sandy Webb)

Learning the elements of story

During the workshop, we practiced how to think about one thing while doing another; how to pick up a part of a story that we had skipped and weave it into the telling and how to take a bare bones story and make it into our own by adding details and sensory information. 

Bonnie Hulsing animatedly tells the story of “The Elf and the Dormouse”. (Photo by Sandy Webb)

We practiced with partners. We told Little Red Riding Hood from the wolf’s point of view. We even explored a version of Cinderella as a Norwegian farm girl who says ‘no’ to the fairy godmother.

How does one learn a story?

First, choose a story you like that suits who you are. That makes your story real to you and your listeners.

Telling her own story, above, is storytelling workshop participant Sandy Webb (Root River Current story and photo contributor).

There are many ways to learn a story. Some people draw a storyboard with stick figures. Some use outlines.

Some use graphics that help them see how the action moves from the beginning to an event that changes the normal routine, then through the climax and resolution.

Then there’s movement, emotion and key information about the characters.

How do we use these elements to add to the meaning of the story without distracting?

Terry kept us engaged as much by modeling how to tell stories as by helping us find our own answers to these questions. 

And, as with anything else that humans do, good storytelling requires practice, practice, practice.