Storytelling

A couple of days ago I was in London with my friend Dom. Whilst we had taken a brief respite from the long walks in St Martin in the field crypt cafe and enjoying possibly the greatest cappuccino I have ever had, our conversation turned to story telling.

At this point I should mention a few facts about Dom, He's 23, comes from New Mexico and has a beard and hairstyle that pays strong tribute to Captain Jack Sparrow and is the best storyteller I know. Whenever he starts to tell you about one of his adventures (and they are always adventures) he pulls you in and makes you feel like you were there. He's total engrossing, you can't help but want to know what happened next, what was it like, how does the story end!

What I noticed about Dom is that when he is telling stories he always includes how he was feeling at the time the story was going on. By telling stories I mean everything from stories he likes to tell and parables to his own experiences and even other peoples. In all of these examples he will tell you how the characters were feeling at the time.

I myself don't really do this...and when I say that I mean I never really do it! I might a bit when I'm writing about something, especially when emotions are the centre point of the piece of writing. However when I'm talking to people I always focus on the event, what happen, who did what, where did it happen, what did it look like etc. As such I rarely describe what I felt at the time, how did that change, how we're other people feeling.

I do wonder if it's partially because I don't think of talking about what I did yesterday as telling a story but it is really. Having read Donald Millers book (a million miles in a thousand years) he describes our whole lives as stories and that we should try to live the best one we can, so surely it makes sense to describe my life as a story as well.