There are lots of ways of thinking about telling stories. We always tell people that the best stories are like children’s fairy stories. They have beginnings, middles, ends and morals. They have an element of jeopardy. They don’t include any information that you don’t need to know. They tell us as much as we’re capable of holding in our heads. When the storyteller begins you concentrate because you know that everything you are being told matters to the story, whether it’s tragic or funny or, as in most stories, somewhere inbetween.

But there’s something else as well. When you’re telling a story you’re performing. It’s your job to do more than just relate the bald facts. You’re trying to take the listeners back to what you’re describing. Again this is much as you would do if you were telling a fairytale to small children. You don’t do anything which might confuse them.

Claire MacDonald told a wonderful story at True Stories back in May of last year. Because she’s thought more than most people about what’s involved in telling a story I asked her to explain what she thinks is most important. As she explains in this three-minute clip, it’s all about timing.

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It’s interesting how well our ten-minute rule seems to work. Ten minutes is one of those intervals that people can hold in their head. Just as a pop song is four minutes long and a sitcom lasts twenty minutes, a ten minute story seems just right somehow. We’ve noticed from our timing that on the odd occasions people go over that time the attention of the listeners just drops slightly. It’s almost as if they know how long ten minutes is and were expecting the story to finish within that time.

If you’ve got friends who would like to come to True Stories but can’t get to London, you might like to tell them about some of the other events that are sprouting elsewhere. A TSTL event has been running in Cardiff for a while already and with their March 14th event will be moving to slightly bigger premises at Kemi’s Cafe. You can find further details here. True Stories Told Live Brighton has its second meeting tonight at the Ginger Dog in Kemptown. Full details here.

Plans are afoot to launch True Stories events in Edinburgh and Hebden Bridge this spring. We’ll let you have links as soon as we have them.

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Thanks to the fact that we’ve had a lot of publicity over the last month last night’s True Stories Told Live took place in front of a packed house of people who had never been before. Irma Kurtz, the journalist and author of Growing Old Disgracefully was the first turn we’ve had who was in a position to talk about one evening when she had personal encounters with both Helen Hayes and Mae West. She was followed by author Anthony McGowan who related a chilling tale involving a crossbow, a rainbow of urine and an abandoned dog. Our first half finished with actor/musician Mitch Feral and his account of the evening when he collided with someone worse off than himself and got the cab fare to go and see his girlfriend. Sarah Bennetto, who is involved in the Storytellers Club (further details here) had encouraging news for people who hang around outside Arcade Fire gigs hoping to gain entrance and Alex Preston, former City trader and author of “This Bleeding City”, closed the evening with a story that started with auditioning models in Paris and ending in a terrorist outrage in Kenya. Kerry Shale did MC duties as ever. Thanks to everyone who contributed, either by speaking or sitting and listening.

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