When anyone tells a joke, it’s already a story, which will captivate their audience. During dinners with family or friends, when you talk and exchange between guests, it’s already a story. Telling a story is already the beginning of the imagination.
In the old days, the storyteller united a group around the hearth and gave it an identity. Politicians are storytellers, even if we find it hard to believe! Bernard Weber says the future belongs to storytellers.
Stories, like legends and mythologies are the basis of all cultures. It’s about bringing people together around a story, capturing their attention and taking them elsewhere.
The Function of the Storyteller
Remember the delight you felt when you were told a story as a child! You were always asking for more before you fell asleep. The children are in the purity of the character and perceive perfectly the psychological ugliness of certain protagonists of the tale.
Children want to have fun, to let their minds gallop to the rhythm of the story. They wander in the pure imagination.
As adults, we have forgotten our part of children, the wonder of the imagination on the way, even unbridled, and our part of dreams. More serious than that, we allow ourselves to constantly judge, especially ourselves.
Here is a very simple exercise: for 5 minutes, let your creation take you, let your mind gallop without a specific goal or clear instructions. You write 5 minutes without stopping on what you want, according to the inspiration and the imagination that you will have in you at that moment. It is an exercise in the suspension of judgment and the galloping of the mind.
Here is My Text:
I am in my garden, it is my house. I read in my garden, I meditate, I do cross stitch, I collect my vegetables and my fruits, I take my nap in my hammock in the shade of my birch. My garden is everything for me. It is in the countryside, at the foot of the fields and not far from the vines, which here are used to make cognac.
It is lined with grass, not sod. It is made up of many fruit trees, and benches arranged everywhere. It’s a good size, not imposing, but that’s enough for me. It gives me so much happiness, so many moments where I can recharge my batteries, in all seasons. My dog often joins me on the hammock, the cats on the swing. They like comfort too. They like to feel me close to them. My dog likes to run like a crazy little girl at full speed without losing breath; it’s his favorite game.
I could not do without this corner of greenery, simple, in my image. It makes me breathe and live!
The Path of The Tale
Writing a tale is very different from the short story. The tale is a path, a journey for the hero or the heroine. The character goes from misfortune to happiness or vice versa. The tale is a story that gives off meaning. From the start, how to create a Wikipedia page you have to know what you want to highlight.
The tale is a tale very rich in meaning and teaching; it is not just entertainment. It is above all necessary to interest children. The writer then has the power to use the marvelous… at will!
The tale must be at the service of a proposal. Also, remember that writing for children requires simple vocabulary. But, it is also true that they love to hear complicated words, which add to the surrounding mystery. Nevertheless, your story should have fluidity and simplicity of vocabulary.
The goal is to write a tale, to write a beautiful text of about 800 to 1000 words: it is already a beautiful literary challenge. Remember to determine the age of your future readers in advance. This detail is important and any tale should be tailored to the right age group.
According to Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, writing a tale is one of the most beautiful writings. He himself has written tales for adults. This is part of the initiatory journeys for both the author and the reader.
In his tales for adults, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt does not really use the element of the marvelous, but he practices wonder. He goes towards the love of humans and the complexity of beings, towards the love of nature and towards a certain form of wisdom.
He also advises, once the tale is written, to read its text aloud because it is first of all an oral writing. Wikipedia experts for him, you don’t need a lot of words to write it. He advises removing anything that is unnecessary. In a tale, you have to give the result of the thought, which is different from the novel where the author can push the thought further.
Writing tales is the oldest form of writing. In any case, this practice remains a great writing challenge for sure.
The Characters of The Tale
It is necessary to integrate marked characters, who each have only one function and who are clearly identified by a name or a nickname:
• the hero , good in the pure heart
• the villain or villain who turns out to be the opposite of the hero, will be floored to complete the story
• the false hero is the hero’s rival, an impostor
• the donor, who offers an object to the hero to thank him because he has helped him
• the helper who helps the hero – like the seven dwarfs in Snow White
• the disturbance that brings a wacky and humorous trait – the donkey in Shrek
• the princess and the king balance the story: the hero will get the princess at the end as a reward for his courage
• The proxy sends the hero on an adventure, submits the “quest” to him.
The Story Plan
It is also necessary to establish a plan in 2 parts. The part 1 is divided into 4 parts:
1. The exhibition: an event disrupts the world in which the tale takes place – kidnapping of the princess, theft of magical objects, disappearance of a magical seal, etc.
2. Call to Adventure: Mandatory asks the hero to complete a quest to restore the lost balance – Gandalf gives Frodo the mission to plunge the ring into the mountain of fate in The Lord of the Rings.
3. The Good Samaritan: on his way, the hero helps a person in difficulty (the donor). In exchange, the person helped will give him an object to help him in his quest – the hero gives his bread to a beggar who turns out to be a fairy who gives him a magic sword.
4. The duel: the hero ends up meeting the villain and confronts him. This episode turns the tale upside down in Part 2 – Harry Potter confronts Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest and manages to escape thanks to a centaur in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
