At Home with Stories

• 2018-08-09

  Works in progress

  This is not a here’s-something-to-think-about blog post; it’s a why-hasn’t-she-been-posting-anything blog post. Just so you know going in. Store-bought stories (yes, still) In between other things, I’ve been working towards finishing the book of essays I started writing almost ten years ago about how we don’t tell everyday stories as much as we used to. Read more

• 2017-05-19

  Presentations, podcasts, plans

  I’m cleaning my office again, so it’s time to catch you up on some presentations and podcasts I’ve been doing lately (outside of conferences). Last June I spoke at my very own local historical society on “Stories in your Family or Community.” In November I was interviewed by Bob Cudmore in his The Historians series Read more

• 2016-08-05

  The neverending story of personal storytelling (part three)

  This essay is in three parts, of which this blog post is the third. Click these links for parts one and two. What Mr. Coreander’s choices tell us about personal storytelling I said above that I was going to work my way through the significant choices made by each of six functional characters in The Read more

• 2016-08-05

  The neverending story of personal storytelling (part one)

  This essay is in three parts, of which this blog post is the first. Click these links for parts two and three. I’ve been waiting a long time to write this essay. I thought of it four or five years ago when I was writing a series of posts about natural storytelling. I never wrote Read more

• 2016-08-05

  The neverending story of personal storytelling (part two)

  This essay is in three parts, of which this blog post is the second. Click these links for parts one and three. What The Neverending Story tells us about personal storytelling Now that we’ve worked our way through all the elements of The Neverending Story, I think we are ready to explore what the book Read more

• 2012-10-01

  Changes passing by

  Here are a few curious things I have been playing with, things you might also find interesting. They are all in the category of change. A change in working and being worked for Seen at our local historical museum: an old-time ribbed-metal and wood washboard with an instruction that reads: Don’t rub too hard! Let Read more

• 2011-06-06

  Watch “Reclaiming the Power of Personal Narrative”

  I just came across this TEDx talk on Reclaiming the Power of Personal Narrative by Robert Tercek. I don’t usually recommend things, but if you have connected to any of what I have written here about the decline of natural storytelling (and what I’m trying to do about it), watch this talk. It made my Read more

• 2011-04-04

  Saving stories or saving storytelling?

  The other day I read an article in this week’s Christian Science Monitor called “Saving the stories.” I can’t stop thinking about it. The article is about people in Qatar collecting stories from old people and packaging them for young people to experience. As I keep rereading it I keep coming back to a few Read more

• 2011-03-02

  From garment to fiber in story work (part two)

  This is the second part in a two-part blog post reflecting on stories and story work through the lens of a journey through the world of textile crafts. You probably need to read the first part first to understand what follows. DIY story world What is the narrative equivalent of sewing your own clothes, weaving Read more

• 2011-03-02

  From garment to fiber in story work (part one)

  Here as usual is a perambulatory rumination on matters obliquely yet genuinely connected with organisational and community narrative. As always I beg your patience in seeing how it all fits together. An ever deeper journey I have been studying historical architecture for the past few months together with my seven-year-old son, and as part of Read more

• 2010-12-10

  The healing cleaver

  Yesterday I posted about the issue of context in story listening, and how I try to preserve context and worry that I fail. Today I listened to two doctors tell stories about how listening to their patients tell their stories helps them work together to find solutions to problems. (This was on a teleconference from Read more

• 2010-12-09

  Severed stories and those who sever them

  One of my favorite moments in my work is when I’m sitting with a body of stories and their accompanying interpretations. This is a position I have been in many times now and have come to love, over and above writing or programming or almost anything else I do. Sitting with the stories, abiding with Read more

• 2010-06-09

  The experience ratchet

  This is just a few fragments of thought left over from other writings, things I’ve been pondering lately about stories. It’s somewhat related to the “natural storytelling” idea, but not perfectly. Amazing devices The first thought is from Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, which, if you’ve read some of my previous posts, I finished re-reading Read more

• 2010-05-03

  Natural storytelling V – bits left over

  I found a bunch of scribbled notes that I had meant to incorporate in my last long post, but they got forgotten, so I thought why not make one more post-let and add them. (This is in reference to the long post that starts here so you may need to read that to make sense Read more

• 2010-04-30

  Natural storytelling I – The sweetness of disgrace

  This post is part one of a final (probably) wrap-up to the issue of natural versus purposeful storytelling in contemporary society. The essay turned out to be so long that it overtook Blogger’s capacity to keep up with my typing, so I’ve split it into four parts (even though I posted them all at the Read more

• 2010-04-30

  Natural storytelling IV – Solutions

  This is part four of a four part post on natural and purposeful storytelling. To read the four parts in order, see: I’ve been pondering a long list of possible solutions to the problem (of people not believing their stories are real stories) for months and years now. My online software Rakontu is an attempt Read more

• 2010-04-30

  Natural storytelling III – The authorities of story

  This is part three of a four part post on natural and purposeful storytelling. To read the four parts in order, see: The authorities in the story world, the keepers of the hierarchy, have always managed the official stories and decided what was a story and what was not. Several hundred years ago these were Read more

• 2010-04-30

  Natural storytelling II – Hierarchy and meshwork

  This is part two of a four part post on natural and purposeful storytelling. To read the four parts in order, see: The wicked attractions of hierarchy Okay, so now (if you haven’t read part one of this post, you’d better do so now) I’ve primed the pump with two stories about the seductive power Read more

• 2010-02-18

  It’s not a puzzle; it’s a piece of a puzzle

  Those who have been reading this blog will know that I have long been puzzling over the relationship between the naturally occurring little-s story and the packaged, purposeful big-S Story in contemporary society. In particular, I keep coming back to this essential question: Why do people almost universally assume that recounting their own personal experiences Read more

• 2010-01-22

  Fiction, reality and storytelling

  An interesting New Yorker article this week: Daniel Mendelssohn, in “But Enough About Me,” talks about the blurring between reality and fiction in memoir writing. What interested me was when he talked about personal stories. “Reality itself is a term that is rapidly being devalued. Take reality TV: on these shows, “real” people (that is, Read more